COYLE — A huge killer cougar that stalked the Toandos Peninsula is dead.
State Fish and Wildlife Sgt. Phil Henry said Coyle resident Bill Thomas staked out an area of the isolated peninsula which extends into the Hood Canal n Monday night, and shot and killed a 120-pound, female cougar Tuesday morning.
Thomas wouldn’t say what led him to ambush the cougar.
“No comment,” he said Wednesday night.
Henry said Thomas told him that he shot the cat as it approached a goat pen. The cougar fell to the ground, and then stalked off into the woods.
“When we got there on Tuesday with the hound hunter, the dogs picked up the scent immediately,” Henry said. “We got into the woods about 75 yards and found it dead amongst some ferns.”
Henry said that the cougar Thomas shot was responsible for killing three goats on Sea Home Road on Monday night and three miniature horses in the area, which is south of Port Ludlow and Quilcene, in August.
He can’t be certain that this is the same animal that killed three alpacas and a milk goat owned by Mark and Aly Stratton, also in August, but added that the likelihood of a second cat is slim.
“It’s pretty rare when a cat does this,” Henry said. “I can be certain this is the cat that got the horses and the goats, though.”
“She buried those animals after she ate them. It was kind of her calling card,” Henry said.
Henry has been chasing a cougar on the Toandos Peninsula — traveling 40 miles from Port Townsend and using a hound from Shelton — since late August.
No people were threatened by the cougar.
Before Monday’s attacks, the last confirmed kill by a cougar was Aug. 28, when a billy goat weighing between 120 and 130 pounds was killed by a cougar about 4 miles north of the Strattons’ home at 214 Gien Drive.
Henry had said that he thought a large cougar was killing farm animals indiscriminately, without eating its kills.
“This guy just likes killing and leaving them,” he said.
While other reports of kills thought to be by a cougar have come in recent weeks, Henry said he could not confirm they are cougar kills.
Henry blamed warm, dry conditions, for difficulty in tracking the animal in previous weeks, because the scent of an animal dissipates quickly in such weather. When cooler, wetter weather came to the area last week, Henry said he was fairly confident he would find the cougar.
Henry said he is asking people to immediately report any additional sightings or attacks.
All cougar or other wildlife-related attacks on domestic animals should be immediately reported to the State Patrol by phoning 360-478-4646 or 9-1-1, he said.
________
Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com