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Ministry of Natural Resources waits for DNA test on cougar

DNA tests will be conducted on the remains of the cougar found in the Thunder Bay area last Saturday
Cougar
The Northwestern Ontario Sportsmen's Alliance posted this photo on their Facebook page of a dead cougar found by Mandi Weist on the Boreal Road.

THUNDER BAY -- The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry hopes lab tests on tissue samples from the cougar found dead west of Thunder Bay will help determine where the animal came from.

The carcass was discovered last weekend in the Boreal Road area in Adrian Township.

MNRF spokesperson Jolanta Kowalski says DNA samples from the cougar's remains will be analyzed in a lab "to give us a better sense of where that animal was from and how it came to be found dead by the side of the road."

She said most previous reports of cougar sightings in Ontario have proven to be false. "Ninety-nine per cent of the time they are misidentifications, but in this case there's an actual body."

Kowalski said the MNRF has 24 records of evidence of cougars obtained over a period of many years, including scat, tracks and even DNA. "We have always said there are some on the landscape but we don't know where (the cougars) came from, whether they were released from zoos, or they were somebody's pet, whether they were native or they emigrated from other locations like western Canada," she said.

It's not known how long it will take to complete the lab tests.

According to the ministry, the last credible sighting of a cougar in the Thunder Bay area occurred in 1991.

The Northwestern Ontario Sportsmen's Alliance has suggested the growing deer population may be attracting the predator here.

 


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