The digest is a roundup of news concerning fish and wildlife management in Washington and beyond.

Weekend Cougar Attack

On Saturday, February 17, a cougar attacked a woman in a group of five cyclists on a Tokul Creek trail near Snoqualmie. The 60-year-old woman sustained injuries around her face and neck and was admitted to the hospital but was discharged the next day. The other cyclists fought the cougar and pinned it down with a bike until an officer arrived and killed it. Witnesses reported seeing a second cougar at the scene, although a hound handler who arrived later was unable to locate it.

Several advocates worked throughout the weekend to correct inaccurate reports and misleading information released by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), which initially reported that the cougar was a subadult—a cougar that is at least a year old and independent from its mother (although some classifications do not label a cougar a subadult until 18 months). The distinction is important because it may explain the cause of the attack. If the cougar was a kitten, it is likely that it had been orphaned—perhaps when its mother was killed by hunters or through a lethal removal action—and that it attacked because it was unable to hunt on its own. WDFW has failed to release this sort of information in the past, such as when it refused to tell the public that the cougar who attacked a girl in Fruitland in 2022 was a kitten—a fact that we did not confirm until we received public disclosure documents about the incident nearly a year later.

• WDFW labeled the cougar a “subadult” in its press updates on Saturday and Sunday. WDFW updated the press release on Monday to remove the reference to the cougar as a “subadult” and release its weight for the first time, calling it a “young male 75-pound cougar.” According to an age chart prepared by WDFW, a male cougar of that size would be an 8-10-month-old kitten still dependent on his mother, but WDFW is still refusing to classify the cat as a kitten.
• Melissa Grant of Living Snoqualmie was at the forefront of reporting on the incident and was the first one to report that the cougar was a kitten.
• KING 5 news initially reported that the cougar was a subadult, but corrected its story later on Saturday to say it was a kitten, after interviewing Josh Rosenau of the Mountain Lion Foundation.
• Andy Walgamott of Northwest Sportsman initially cited Grant’s article identifying the cougar as a kitten, but posted an update on Sunday indicating the agency was calling it a “subadult,” meaning a cougar under 24 months old.
• KOMO News was among the first to report that the woman had been discharge from the hospital on Sunday, although it persisted in calling the cougar a subadult.
• Sydney Brownstone of The Seattle Times paraphrased a WDFW spokesperson, who explained that the cougar “appeared to be a sub-adult, or teenage in unofficial human terms.”.
• The story began to hit the national news on Sunday and spread to more sources on Monday, with stories by news agencies such as CNN, which quoted a garbled statement from a WDFW spokesperson calling the cougar a “subadult,” but going on to say that it was “presumed to be older than six months.” Meanwhile, NPR published a story indicating that “at least one cougar” attacked an entire group of cyclists.
• There is a GoFundMe for the victim.

Top Washington News

Cougars & Bears

WDFW Commission Talks Cougar Rulemaking. Andy Walgamott, Northwest Sportsman. February 16, 2024 (describes Commission’s February 16 meeting deferring a decision on the wildlife committee’s recommendations on how to proceed with developing the rule requested in the petition brought by eight organizations).

Crossfire: Washington Wildlife Commission’s Controversial Rulemaking on Cougar and Bear Hunting (opinion). Waqas Arain, BNN Breaking. February 8, 2024.

Wolves

Merging integrated population models and individual-based models to project population dynamics of recolonizing species. L.S. Petracca et al. Biological Conservation. 2024 (first available online in December 2023) (final publication version of study that forms the basis for WDFW’s proposal to downlist wolves from state endangered to sensitive).

Gray wolf conservation classification open for public comment. Pam Lewison, Washington Policy Center. February 9, 2024 (endorses WDFW’s proposal to downlist wolves from endangered to sensitive).

How to best manage wolves in Washington state. Dave Ettl, NewsTalk KIT. February 12, 2024.

WDFW proposes to take wolves off state endangered list. Don Jenkins, Capital Press. February 8, 2024.

WDFW proposing to reclassify gray wolves from ‘state endangered’ to ‘sensitive.’ Randy Bracht, The Center Square. February 9, 2024.

Cattle numbers drop in Washington wolf territory. Don Jenkins, Capital Press. February 19, 2024.

Fish & Marine Mammals

NOAA takes ‘hard look’ at growing salmon to feed orcas. Rob Hotakainen, E&E News. February 9, 2024 (quotes Emma Helverson of Wild Fish Conservancy regarding NOAA’s draft Environmental Impact Statement on a program providing funding for hatcheries to increase production to feed Southern Resident killer whales; comments are due March 11 on the process ordered as a result of a suit by the Wild Fish Conservancy).

Oregon officials add southern resident orcas to state’s endangered species list. Alex Baumhardt, Oregon Capital Chronicle. February 16, 2024 (reports on approval of petition filed by Defenders of Wildlife and Whale and Dolphin Conservation).

Other Washington Fish & Wildlife News

Bears & Cougars

Bear attempts to break into Washington state house through doggie door. Gabe Katzman, ABC 15 News. February 9, 2024.

Fish & Marine Mammals

A mystery as thousands of fish float dead in Spokane River near dam. Michael Wright, The Spokesman-Review (via The Seattle Times). February 13, 2024.

‘FishWars’ warriors celebrate 50 years after historic court ruling gave Washington tribes fishing rights. Drew Mikkelsen, Erica Zucco, KING 5. February 12, 2024.

The Changing Face of Boldt On Decision’s 50th Anniversary. Andy Walgamott, Northwest Sportsman. February 12, 2024.

Director Susewind statement on 50th anniversary of U.S. v. Washington, the Boldt Decision (press release). Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. February 12, 2024.

Why are these killer whales increasingly showing up in the Salish Sea? Dyer Oxley, John O’Brien, KUOW. February 6, 2024.

Other Wildlife

Bothersome or beneficial? Property owners can learn to coexist with beavers (opinion.) Cheasanee Hetherington, The Reflector. February 12, 2024.

Fox trapping closed for Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Kasey Safford, NCW Life, February 19, 2024.

Stop Trapping Red Foxes In WA Cascades NFs: Unusual WDFW E-reg. Andy Walgamott, Northwest Sportsman. February 16, 2024.

Other National & International Fish & Wildlife News

Top Stories

Landmark UN report: The world’s migratory species of animals are in decline, and the global extinction risk is increasing (press release). UN Environmental Programme. February 12, 2024.

3 Wolves Killed In Southern Oregon. Andy Walgamott, Northwest Sportsman. February 9, 2024.

$50k reward offered for information on death of 3 endangered gray wolves in Oregon. FOX 13 News Staff, FOX 13. February 9, 2024.

$50,000 Reward Offered for Information Regarding Three Gray Wolves Found Dead in Klamath County, Oregon (press release). U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. February 9, 2024.

Zombie Deer Disease Is Here. It’s as Bad as It Sounds. Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee. February 6, 2024.

General Wildlife Management

There’s Now a Jurassic Park for Vanishing Wildlife. It’s Called Texas. Dac Collins, Outdoor Life. February 17, 2024 (describing game farms stocking exotic species for hunts as a conservation measure).

You may be thinking about animals all wrong (even if you’re an animal lover). Sigal Samuel, Vox.com. January 25, 2024.

How air pollution prevents pollinators from finding their flowers. Dino Grandoni, The Washington Post. February 8, 2024.

Wolves

Do wolves actually fix habitats and change rivers? Here’s what new research from Colorado says. Elise Schmelzer, The Denver Post. February 8, 2024.

Does restoring apex predators to food webs restore ecosystems? Large carnivores in Yellowstone as a model system, N. Thompson Hobbs, et. al, Ecological Monographs, Jan. 30, 2024 (the study referred to in the above article).

On the Lighter Side

A Bird’s-Eye View of a Technicolor World. Emily Anthes, The New York Times. January 23, 2024.