Humans kill most cougars in five-year Alberta tracking study of 80 big cats

A five-year radio collar monitoring study in Alberta, Canada, has found that cougars in the province experience high mortality rates, with humans responsible for the majority of deaths among the tracked animals. The research followed 80 of the big cats and is published in PLOS One on 28 October 2026.

The study, titled “Biological and environmental correlates of cougar (Puma concolor) survival in west central Alberta,” examined what factors influence how long cougars survive in the region. Researchers fitted the animals with GPS collars to monitor their movements and survival over the monitoring period.

Fieldwork for the study involved treeding cougars with hounds before immobilizing them and fitting them with GPS collars, according to an image credit accompanying the release. The collars allowed researchers to track both the animals’ movements and whether they remained alive throughout the study window.

The central finding reported in the release is stark: Canadian cougars have high mortality rates, and humans were responsible for the majority of those deaths. The release does not break down the specific causes of human-related mortality, such as hunting, vehicle collisions, or conflict removal, so the precise contribution of each source cannot be stated from the available information.

The work was conducted in west central Alberta, a region where cougars share the landscape with human activity. The research team was based in Canada, and the project received funding and support from Alberta Environment and Protected Areas, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Royal Alberta Museum, the Alberta Conservation Association, the Environmental Monitoring and Science Division, and the Safari Club International Drayton Valley Chapter.

According to the funding statement, Alberta Environment and Protected Areas also assisted with data collection, while the funders had no role in study design, data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The study was published as a peer-reviewed article in PLOS One under DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0357879.

Survival studies of this kind rely on tracking individual animals over multiple years, which allows researchers to record when and how collared animals die. Because the monitoring covered a five-year period and a substantial sample of 80 cougars, the findings offer a picture of mortality patterns in the tracked population during that window in west central Alberta.

The release did not report survival estimates, hazard ratios, or detailed statistical comparisons between biological and environmental correlates, so the magnitude of the mortality rate and the strength of specific risk factors cannot be quantified from the available information. Readers should treat the reported finding as a summary of the study’s headline result rather than a full account of its analyses.

The full article is available through PLOS One, and the news release was distributed via EurekAlert, which notes that it is not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted by contributing institutions.

Subject of Research: Cougars in Alberta

Article Title: Canadian cougars have high mortality rates, with humans responsible for the majority of deaths, in 5-year radio collar monitoring study tracking 80 of the big cats in Alberta

Article References: Canadian cougars have high mortality rates, with humans responsible for the majority of deaths, in 5-year radio collar monitoring study tracking 80 of the big cats in Alberta. Original publication (Bibliographic details unavailable.)

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: cougars, Puma concolor, Alberta, mortality, GPS collars, survival study, PLOS One, wildlife monitoring, Canada, human-caused mortality, Canadian, high