To catch a cougar, University of California, Santa Cruz field biologist Paul Houghtaling recommends roadkill. Deer, to be precise, preferably aged for less than a week. Post a motion-activated camera nearby and be patient: Once cougars find the prize, they usually return to feed several nights in a row.
On a cool California night in early April, Houghtaling set up his remote camera in the mountains above Santa Cruz at Laurel Curve, a popular spot for cougars and their prey. A few hours later, the camera captured a young cougar chewing on the deer carcass. The next day, Houghtaling and a team of biologists hauled a box trap the size of a small phone booth into the brush and dragged the deer inside.
At 7 p.m., just as the sunlight was fading from the sky, a transponder on the trap signaled that the young male from the night before was back for seconds. “We didn’t have to wait very long at all,” Houghtaling says.
After tranquilizing the cougar using a long pole, they lay the 100-pound animal on a tarp, drew blood for DNA analysis, tagged the cat’s ear and strapped a high-tech collar equipped with a GPS device and motion sensor around its neck.
