Mon, February 26, 2007
UPDATED: 2007-02-26 01:27:01 MST

By CP
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2007/02/26/3667744-sun.html

A conservation group in Alberta hopes it has the expertise to raise an orphaned cougar cub for release into the wild, despite a previous attempt which failed.

The three-month old cub, whose sibling was found dead and whose mother was believed to have been shot, was discovered recently near the community of Millarville south of Calgary.

The cougar was barely alive when it was found, but has tripled its weight the past three weeks.

Another group’s attempt seven years ago to release three orphaned cougar cubs from Banff back into the park resulted in one of the cubs dying and the other two being transferred to zoos.

“You need to be able to prove to a concerned public that this is doable and that it’s safe, and that it’s just as easy to rehabilitate a cougar as it is to rehabilitate a hawk, which we’ve done thousands of times,” said Diane Wittner, with the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation.

Wittner says the group is following protocols developed in the U.S., where cougars have been successfully released into the wild after being raised in captivity.

Members of the group say they will also keep the cub in captivity for at least a year-and-a-half, which is how long a cub in the wild would normally spend with its mother learning to hunt.

To ensure the cub doesn’t become too familiar with humans, Wittner says they’re building a special pen which will limit the cub’s human contact.