LONGVIEW — A Toledo hunter and wildlife watcher last week captured a rare sight on video — four cougars milling around the banks of the Cowlitz River downstream from the Blue Creek boat launch in eastern Lewis County.
It had a profound effect on him.
Ed Torkelson shot the video last Wednesday afternoon. Then he and his wife, Gladys, posted it to their website, cowlitzriverlive.com, and a story about their experience just appeared in the online version of Northwest Sportsman magazine.
The five-minute video shows three cougars approaching the river just downstream of the boat ramp to either drink or smell something on a gravel bar, while the fourth is content to stay at the treeline.
Torkelson said he’d been watching a beaver acting oddly, sniffing the air and swimming in circles before slapping its tail.
“It did not look normal. It looked like something was bothering him,” Torkelson, 73, told The Daily News by phone on Wednesday.
While focusing on the beaver, he saw paws on the rocks and raised the camera to see a single cougar strolling up the bank.
The cat walked around a bit and entered nearby trees, but two minutes later a pair emerge out and walk over to the river. A third joins them while the fourth watches from cover. The Torkelsons said they’ve lived in the area for about a decade and have seen a lot of wildlife there, but never a cougar.
Torkelson said he’s seen three cougars on separate occasions during his many years of hunting. But never more than one at a time.
“I was surprised to see a cougar, let alone four of them. You never see them bunched together like that.”
They were on the north side of the Cowlitz, about 500 feet from the Torkelsons’ south bank property. He filmed for 10 to 12 minutes before the group finally walked off (he edited the video down to five minutes to cut dead time waiting to see if the cats would return).
State wildlife cougar researcher Brian Kertson told Northwest Sportsman that he’s “pretty certain” the Torkelsons’ video shows a family group.
“That would be my first guess. Litter sizes are typically two to three,” he says.
The Torkelsons agreed, saying that the three smaller cats who came to the river were likely two females and a male and that they likely were born in spring 2018. The mother, who stayed on the edge of the treeline, likely will send them off on their own soon, he said.
The magnificence of the experience had a profound effect on him, he said Wednesday.
“I’ve been a hunter all my life and I never had an adrenaline rush like I did seeing those cougar from a distance. To see four of them together …. I had a cougar tag in my pocket. I didn’t even think about using it. But I doubt I will ever shoot a cougar. I won’t even buy (a hunting tag). This was so surreal to see.”
He suspected cougars were in the area because of reports from neighbors filtering in all summer. There was an unconfirmed report this week that a dog had treed a cougar in the Collins Road area near Toledo, not far from where the Torkelsons spotted the quartet of cats. And another neighbor reported that 30 deer were clustered on a hill on his property, perhaps chased there by cougars, Torkelson said.
Torkelson said he not afraid of them because there is plenty of normal prey around: “Their normal food is deer and rabbit and beaver, and we have an abundance of them here,” he said.
A nearby resident, Angela Rash, said by phone Wednesday that she also is unafraid.
“They’re cats. I love cats. And they stay aloof as much as as possible,” Rash said. She had heard about the sighting on Facebook but thought it had taken place closer to town. Blue Creek is about 5 miles upstream and northeast of the town of Toledo.
Cougars are often solitary animals that typically prefer to hunt at night in dense forests and rocky outcroppings away from humans. Adult males average 140 pounds and seven or eight feet long, while females rarely weigh more than 110 pounds. The only time adults are together is during mating season.
Adult male cougars roam territories spanning 50 to 150 square miles, depending on their age, the time of year, type of terrain and availability of prey, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Female home ranges are about half as large, and they tend to establish territories close to each other; almost all males establish territories farther away from their parents.
State wildlife officials estimate there are roughly 2,000 adult cougars in Washington state and at least 6,000 more in Oregon. Cougars are game animals in both states and it is legal to hunt them, with some restrictions. Hound hunting of Cougars is not allowed in either state.
Cougar sightings have received more media coverage than usual in recent years.
The Portland Oregonian reported in June that cougars have been seen recently in Sandy, Cascade Locks, Hood River and near Post Canyon. The paper quoted Jeremy Thompson, a biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, who said he’s seen an extremely high number of cases.
“I have dealt with more confirmed cougar issues this year than I’ve probably had in the last five combined,” Thompson told the paper.
