Female cougar shot, killed near site of fatal attack

Wildlife officials hunting for a cougar that apparently attacked and killed a woman hiking in the Mt. Hood National Forest shot and killed an adult female cougar Friday afternoon in the Hunchback Mtn.Trail area, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

The agency said the shooting occurred around 3:15 p.m. and the carcass was being transported by Oregon State Police to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory in Ashland.

The laboratory will analyze evidence from the cougar killed Friday and compare it with evidence gathered earlier this week at the scene where Diana Bober of Gresham was killed. The goal is to determine whether or not the cougar killed today is the cougar that killed Diana, the agency said.

The female cougar shot and killed Friday was not lactating, officials said, meaning she was not currently caring for kittens.

After finding no sign of the cougar in the area of the Hunchback Mountain Trail on Thursday, USDA Wildlife Services personnel started Friday’s search area to the west of the trail, officials said.

Around 9:20 a.m., a cougar walked in front of a remote camera that crews had deployed earlier this week just a few feet from where Diana Bober’s backpack was picked up on the Hunchback Mountain Trail.

“Setting up our communications logistics system earlier this week really paid off today,” said Brian Wolfer, the ODFW watershed manager leading the capture effort. “Thanks to a tremendous effort by the ODFW team and our partners, we were able to quickly get this information to the team on the ground and get them back to the Hunchback Mountain Trail.”

USDA Wildlife Services personnel, along with their dogs and mules hiked back to where they could be picked up and transported back to the trail. They were back at the site where Bober’s backpack was found about three hours after the cougar’s visit to the site. The hounds were able to pick up the scent and trail the cougar until it went up into a tree around 3 p.m., where it was then shot with a rifle.

“We don’t know if this is the cougar responsible, but we do know that this cougar was at the attack site today,” Wolfer said. “We are doing all we can to confirm as quickly as possible whether this is the animal responsible.”

ODFW said it expects it will take at least three days before any results are available.

Until ODFW receives confirmation that the cougar killed is the right one, staff from ODFW and other involved agencies will remain in the Zigzag area and continue to search for cougars. If another cougar is encountered, it may be killed and also tested for evidence. The continued effort is intended to increase the probability that the offending cougar has been caught, the agency said.