CANMORE – Two cougar kittens orphaned when their mother was killed by hunters near Canmore earlier this year have arrived at their permanent home at Parc Safari, Quebec.
The cougars, now about 11 months old, arrived at Parc Safari zoo in Hemmingford about two weeks ago after spending a quarantine split between the Calgary Zoo and the Great Vancouver Zoo since they were captured by Alberta Fish and Wildlife officers in February.
Renowned Canmore-based wildlife photographer John Marriott, who found the young cougars after their mother was shot and killed, said the two siblings – a male and a female – are now starting to spend a little bit of time where visitors to the zoo can see them.
“There’s no doubt it’d be a lot better if they were in the wild, that would be the best situation by a country mile, but it’s not a reality anymore,” Marriott said.
“After the tragic events in February, this is probably about the best case scenario and I think there’s a sense of relief that they’re finally in a set place.”
Marriott found the cougar kittens after their mother had been killed by hunters with hound dogs near Gap Lake east of Canmore on Feb. 10, 2025.
Fish and Wildlife officers later captured the young wildcats, which were estimated to be about four or five months old at the time. They were taken to Calgary Zoo where they were cared for out of view of the public eye.
Marriott had been tracking the adult female cougar around the Canmore area for at least four years and believed the two kittens would likely starve to death left on their own without their mother.
“We’re not allowed to rehab cougars in Alberta and release them back into the wild,” said Marriott, who is co-founder of Exposed Wildlife Conservancy.
“The only other option was to kill them and I was really advocating against that and lobbying for them to go to a zoo.”
While cougars can be hunted in Alberta, the law is clear that it is illegal to hunt a young cougar with spotted fur, or a female cougar accompanied by a young cougar with spots.
In a Feb. 21 statement, Alberta Fish and Wildlife Enforcement Services (FWES) confirmed the cougar kittens did indeed have spots, but that FWES believed the young cougars were not with their mother at the time she was hunted.
“This factor was crucial in our assessment, as the absence of the young cougars during the hunting incident indicates that this was not a situation involving a dependent family unit,” according to the statement.
The statement indicated FWES was aware of photographs showing faint spots on the kittens, but said the spots would likely not have been discernible in the forest environment by hunters.
“The lighting and distance in such settings often make such markings difficult or impossible to detect in real-time,” according to the statement.
“At this time, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that an unlawful hunt occurred,” according to FWES.
Yet, on March 5, the Outlook’s request for all records related to the investigation into the female cougar’s hunting death under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP) was denied, based on the fact the investigation was ongoing.
“This matter is currently under active prosecutorial investigation, and as such, records cannot be disclosed …” stated the FOIP advisor for Alberta Public Safety and Emergency services which oversees Fish and Wildlife.
Last year, the province quietly changed several wildlife hunting rules, which included more than doubling female cougar quotas, expanded cougar hunting areas, including now allowing hunting at Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park.
The green light was also given for use of off-leash dogs to hunt cougars in Alberta provincial parks.
Marriott said he hopes this cougar story could eventually lead to some real reform with how courts are managed in Alberta and beyond.
“At the moment, they’re definitely managed poorly,” he said, adding these young orphaned kittens are going to become ambassadors for rescue animals.
A spokesperson for Parc Safari was not immediately available for comment.
