If you’ve ever seen a cougar, count yourself lucky. For most of us, it will never happen.

But a 30-second, trail-camera video this week of a cougar hunting black-tailed deer in the forests of the Cowichan Valley is the next best thing.

I placed the trail cam (with infrared and sound capability) in a patch of forest frequented by deer, but seldom visited by people.

It took weeks of trying, but patience finally paid off.

The video provides a brief glimpse of a wild predator going about its business in the cloak of darkness without human intrusion.

It’s also an opportunity to reflect on the natural world in our backyard.

While cougar populations are healthy on Vancouver Island, the Coastal Douglas-fir Conservation Partnership — a coalition of more than 40 conservation groups and levels of government, but not North Cowichan — reports that the coastal Douglas-fir forest “contains more species at risk than any other ecological zone in BC (25 globally imperilled species and >225 species that are provincially imperilled or threatened).”

Logging and development are leading threats to wildlife species in this forest type.

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— Larry Pynn, May 17, 2025