It could have been the last photo Donald Lauder ever took.
Standing in the frame of the photo was his friend Samantha Lean, serendipitously holding a six-foot stick with a smile on her face, unaware of the danger that lurked nearby.
Minutes before taking the photo, the two Australians had been joking about coming face to face with an animal as they walked along the edge of Fiddle River, near the park’s east gate.
“As a joke Sam picked up this big stick,” recalled Lauder.
The two friends had been out for a bike ride on Aug. 26, heading towards Hinton on Highway 16, when they decided to pull over and visit Fiddle River.
After following the river for a few hundred metres, they decided to turn around and head back to their bikes.
As they turned, Lean mentioned she had heard rustling in some nearby bushes. As a precaution, Lauder tossed a rock in that direction, assuming it was nothing to worry about.
“When we were walking back I actually took a photo of [Lean] as a joke because she still had the stick,” recalled Lauder.
Seconds after sliding his phone back in his pocket, a cougar jumped out from behind them.
“It stopped maybe a metre and a half or two from Sam,” said Lauder. “It was just staring at us and hissing.”
First to react was Lean.
“She instantly started hitting it with the stick,” said Lauder, who began pelting it with rocks.
Despite hitting the cat several times it seemed unfazed.
“Sam was still hitting it with a stick and we were screaming at it, trying to make as much noise as possible, but it was still just standing there.”
Twenty seconds turned to 30 seconds, but it didn’t budge.
“There was nothing else we could do,” said Lauder. “It only had eyes for Sam.
“I was just picking up the first rocks I could find.”
Eventually Lauder managed to throw a rock that grazed the cougar’s head, briefly distracting it before it scurried off into the bush.
With the cougar out of sight, they slowly began to back up, keeping the creek at their back until they returned to their bikes.
Steve Malcolm, a wildlife specialist with Parks Canada, said the area was checked for a carcass later that evening, but nothing was found.
“Cougars tend to only vocalize when in a defensive situation, protecting kill sites or possibly young. Given there was no evidence of kill sites in the area, we will then assume it was a female protecting young in the area,” he said in an email obtained by the Fitzhugh.
Malcolm said the pair did everything right with the exception of not having bear spray.
“Given the circumstances of this situation, the random location and the fact that there are active cat families in this area, we are not moving towards implementing a warning or closure. We feel that this was just a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Lauder said he almost always travels with bear spray.
“This was probably the first time we’ve been into the bush without it,” he said.
Malcolm advised the public that if they encounter a cougar to stay together, keep an eye on the animal, back away slowly, be aggressive, keep kids and pets close and to use bear spray if required.
Anyone who encounters a cougar is urged to contact dispatch immediately at 780-852-6155.
Paul Clarke
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