After a relatively quiet year for cougar sightings in the Bend area in 2021, the number of reported big cats has increased again this year.

So far in 2022, there have been 20 reports of cougars in Deschutes County, according to data compiled by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. That’s a slight increase over 2021, when just 14 reports were lodged.

ODFW breaks the reports up into two categories: complaints and sightings. A report is designated as a “sighting” if the caller wasn’t worried about the cougar that was seen. A report is registered as a “complaint” when the caller expressed concern about a cougar in the area or wanted ODFW to take action after seeing a cougar. This year, of the 20 encounters, 14 were complaints and six were sightings. Last year there were 13 complaints and one sighting.

Most of the reports came from residents in southwest Bend and Deschutes River Woods. Several cougar encounters that resulted in the animal being shot have come in just the past three months.

On Aug. 20, a cougar was killed on a property in southwest Bend and the following day two cougars were killed in Sisters after they ran up a tree. Another cougar was killed in Deschutes River Woods in mid-June.

While numbers last year were lower than normal, the 20 reports this year follows a similar trend of around 20 or more sightings per year in Deschutes County, dating back to 2015. A decade ago, ODFW received far fewer reports of cougar activity in the area.

Corey Heath, Deschutes Watershed manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the rising numbers indicate a growing cougar population along with more humans encroaching into cougar country.

“Based on those two things we are bound to have more human/cougar interactions,” said Heath.

Heath, who has experience freeing cougars from traps around Bend, said it’s not clear why there were so few reports of cougars last year. It could be just random chance, he said.

Another possibility is a connection to cougar reproductive cycles in the area. Cougars may have given birth a year and a half ago, and those young cougars are a little older now and venturing out of their natural habitat and into urban areas.

“So-called teenage cats may be dispersing from the female and trying to find their safe way in the world and avoid adult males,” said Heath.

Environmental conditions that change feeding conditions may also be causing cougars to move into closer proximity with humans, said Heath. Urban areas sometimes offer the cats easier meals, including livestock, poultry, pets and small mammals, he said.

Greater awareness

Derek Broman, a carnivore-furbearer coordinator for the ODFW, said a sudden pop in the number of cougar reports does not necessarily mean there are more cougars around. It can sometimes just indicate a greater awareness of cougars, as well as a greater concern.

Broman said this might explain why 2019 saw a record 62 reports and complaints filed with ODFW about cougars near Bend. In late 2018 a cougar killed a woman who was hiking in the Mount Hood area, the first ever documented human fatality by a cougar in Oregon.

“Somebody dying generated quite a few more phone calls around the state than we normally would have,” said Broman.

Broman adds that calls sometimes come in large waves when a cougar appears in a neighborhood that usually does not receive predators. But when a cougar shows up in a part of town where they are common, it will generate fewer calls because the residents are used to seeing the animals.

“In communities where there is an influx of residents from outside, people don’t know what to do or they are concerned something bad is going to happen,” said Broman. “In other parts of the state where they are more common, it may not generate any calls at all.

“Communities that have an influx of people from outside, that is where the concern and conflict sometimes arise,” he said. “So if one shows up on a trail camera (close to an urban area) people will just lose their mind.”