Tracking the cougar that lurked around Discovery Park

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By Molly Shen

Summary

The big cat captivated local residents' attention when it tried to make Discovery Park its home. Since then, wildlife agents have been tracking the animal.

Story Published: Dec 15, 2009 at 6:05 PM PDT

Story Updated: Dec 15, 2009 at 7:00 PM PDT

Tracking the cougar that lurked around Discovery Park
SEATTLE -- The cougar that shut down the city's biggest city park last fall has settled in a new home territory.

The big cat captivated local residents' attention when it tried to make Discovery Park its home. Since then, wildlife agents have been tracking the animal.

The 2½-year-old male cougar was only the second in history to make its way into Discovery Park, which is why officials wanted to keep a close eye the animal they appropriately named "Discovery."

But from the moment the cougar ran into the Cascade Foothills above Monroe, watching him became a desk job. State Wildlife Biologist Rich Beausoleil gets updates on Discovery in his e-mail inbox.

Discovery is the first cougar in the state outfitted with a collar that sends daily cell phone signals plotting his location.

"Took the south fork of the Tolt, and you see all these clear cuts over here. He avoided all of those clear cuts, all of the towns of Duvall and Carnation, and ultimately North Bend. Decided to stay quite a ways from there," said Beausoleil of the signals received.

Discovery went 67 miles in two weeks, crossing Snoqualmie Pass and finally settling in cougar country in Eastern Washington.

"He's doing exactly what a cougar should do," Beausoleil said. "And it goes to show even though he came close to people, you can't paint cougars with a brush and call them a problem cat. He just wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time."

The tracking collar will rot away and fall off in about two years. When that happens, Beausoleil will stop getting daily e-mails from Discovery. And that will mean success.

The wildlife department closely watched a similar situation in Bismarck, North Dakota.

When a cougar went into a populated area there, agents shot and killed it, sparking outrage among many residents who wanted it relocated.

Here in Washington, most people praised the department for making an urban cougar wild again.