EDEN VALLEY — A cougar that attacked and killed three sheep and a llama has been treed and killed by Department of Fish and Wildlife agents.
The cougar was feeding in an open field in broad daylight as it fed on one of the animals it had killed Monday morning.
It ignored the sheep’s owner as she drove up in her car.
“He probably didn’t feel threatened,” said wildlife Officer Win Miller.
The big cat had dragged the 180-pound ram into a small wooded grove on the property five miles west of Port Angeles by the time Fish and Wildlife agents arrived.
When Miller and a tracker with dogs approached the grove, the cougar broke from cover and ran near a home before heading into cover.
Tracking dogs treed the cougar within five minutes, and the animal was killed with a single shot.
The cougar was a healthy 150-pound adult male and might be the same one that had killed two llamas in Joyce a week earlier, Miller said.
Cougars tend to prefer deer, elk and other wild game but are opportunists who will take a sheep or other “easy” domesticated animals, he said.
The cougar population and the number of domestic animals living on the North Olympic Peninsula are both quite high, and there is a relatively low incidence of predation on domestic animals, he said.
Cougars travel long distances regularly, and males have a range of up to 75 miles.
The eight miles between the two llama kills in a few days is nothing to a cougar, Miller said.
The llama killed Monday morning was one of several used as guard animals for a flock of sheep on 22 acres of pasture.
At the time of the killing, the sheep were being kept in a pen near the house.
Llamas are protective of sheep and other small herd animals and will chase away or kill coyotes or dogs that threaten the herd, according to www.llama.org.
However, cougars are more than a typical llama can handle and often fall prey to the big cats.
The Department of Fish & Wildlife offered tips for those living in cougar country:
■ Keep pets indoors or in secure kennels at night and never leave pet food or food scraps outside.
■ When practical, bring farm animals into enclosed sheds or barns at night.
■ Closely supervise children playing outdoors and make sure they are indoors by dusk when cougars are more active.
■ Illuminate walkways and remove heavy vegetation or landscaping near the house.
■ Store garbage in secure containers so odors do not attract small animals or other wildlife. Predators follow prey.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at arwyn.rice@peninsuladailynews.com.