Wildlife inventories COUGAR For many years, the eastern cougar (Puma concolor cougar) was believed to be extinct, since the last capture of a specimen was in Maine in 1938. However, the growing number of observation reports in New England, New Brunswick, Ontario and Québec suggested that a small population might still survive in the northeastern part of the continent. In Québec alone, over 200 observation reports were compiled between 1955 and 2000, and a cougar was even killed in Abitibi in 1992. Appropriate inventory techniques for the cougar are limited by the fact that it is a furtive and highly mobile animal. Working with the Société zoologique de Granby, Envirotel 3000 has developed an original approach aimed at attracting cougar rather than blindly following them. Initial work yielded a specific olfactory lure, based on the principle of sex pheromones, which effectively attracts cougar. Using this lure, we developed a detection station that gathers a few hairs from cougar that come and rub against it to mark their territory. Species confirmation is achieved by having the DNA from these hairs analyzed at the Laboratoire d'écologie moléculaire et d'évolution de l'Université de Montréal (LEMEE). The approach was tested in the field in joint projects, starting with the installation of about ten stations in Gaspésie and followed by a number of others in various Québec regions and the Maritime provinces. The technique quickly proved successful, confirming the presence of a first cougar in Gaspésie in September 2001; others were detected in the Estrie and Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean regions in 2002, and in New Brunswick in 2003 and 2004. The inventory technique can also be used for other species, including lynx and wolverine COMPANY  -  PRODUCTS ET SERVICES  -  CLIENTS  -  CONTACT