Up until 2021, there were 46 documented cougar sightings in the province, and the vast majority of those sightings took place in an arc in western Manitoba.
On the other hand, grizzlies aren't returning to the south to reclaim their historic range. They are surfacing in the north, mostly within a kilometer of the Hudson Bay coastline, in Wapusk National Park, where the open tundra meets the boreal forest.
Scientists can now establish that black, polar, and grizzly bears coexist only in the Wapusk region. Over three quarters of the more than 130 confirmed sightings in the north over the past forty years have occurred since roughly 2010.
It's unclear why grizzlies are migrating to the north just yet.
For me, this is kind of where the mystery begins, said Clark. "I have a feeling it's not a straightforward tale,"
Figuring out the enigma of how grizzlies and cougars are returning to Manitoba
There are frequently more negative outcomes when animals are pushed to the limit.
This is why the current situation with cougars and grizzlies in Manitoba is encouraging, if perplexing.
Both carnivores appear to be slowly making a comeback after being driven out of the province more than a century ago by settlers.
Bill Watkins, a conservation zoologist who has spent the past 20 years largely researching the sluggish cougar re-emergence in southwestern and western Manitoba, claims that "they were persecuted by humans."
According to Watkins, the persecution is a result of the big cats' perceived threat to livestock. A sheep or calf may occasionally be taken by cougars, who are enormous, frightening animals.
Douglas Clark has concentrated on grizzly bears in northern Manitoba. He predicts that young grizzlies will soon be seen in northeastern Manitoba.
Given how far into the province and how dispersed over a very, very large geographic area these observations are, says Clark, who studies human-wildlife interactions at the University of Saskatchewan, "I'd be stunned if they're not breeding in Manitoba by now."
Grizzlies may have existed in southern Manitoba for thousands of years prior to the arrival of the Europeans, according to archeological evidence.
Kevin Brownlee, former archeology curator at the Manitoba Museum, writes about the evidence for this in Stories of the Old Ones: Hunter and Fisher from Sheltered Water.
He claims that in southeast Manitoba, grizzly claws have been discovered beside 4,000-year-old human remains.
In the southern part of Manitoba, grizzlies and cougars were also noted by early explorers.
Alexander Henry The Elder, a fur trader and explorer, reported seeing "a small number of panthers'" skins in Manitoba in 1776; however, experts now believe that he most likely saw Houston Cougar skins.
Throughout the 19th century, as the number of settlers increased, cougar populations decreased or vanished from a large portion of their native North American territories.
Champion Houston Cougars Football Team Game Day and grizzlies were almost nonexistent in Canada's Prairies by the turn of the 20th century. Confirmed sightings in Manitoba were regarded as uncommon anomalies over the ensuing decades.
New actions
Though still uncommon, sightings are becoming more common.
According to Watkins, Manitoba experienced one confirmed cougar sighting per few years in the early 2000s. By 2010, there were confirmed reports every year, occasionally with the help of photographs, videos, or other kinds of tangible proof like dung, hair, or an unintentional catch by a fur trapper.
And with nine confirmed University Of Houston Cougars sightings in 2020 and six in 2021, it was a banner year for cougar sightings.
The terrain appears to be changing, according to Watkins, a former employee of Manitoba's wildlife and fisheries section.
Climate change might play a role in that tale. According to Clark, warming temperatures have caused blueberries, one of many grizzly bear main foods, to grow more abundantly. However, it also appears that the animals are migrating south from established Nunavut populations into the province.
"Is there a fingerprint of climate change? Maybe, "said him. "As conditions change, you typically imagine creatures in the northern hemisphere migrating north when you think of a direct influence. However, this is not the situation."
In order to better understand what's happening, Clark and others are collaborating with nearby Indigenous groups on a local traditional knowledge research.
They were usually in northern Manitoba, he continued, but only very, very infrequently. "What we're witnessing now is brand-new."
Indigenous researcher Myrle Ballard asserted that in order to more thoroughly investigate what's going on with the apex predators, a joint study paradigm that combines western science and Indigenous oral histories is required.
Ballard, who was recently named Director of Environment and Climate Change Canada's new Indigenous Science Division (ISD), said, "With those that cannot speak for themselves, the way I was taught is they're smarter than us, they have instincts."
"There are many things occurring that we are unaware of. They are aware, but we are not yet."
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