In 2004, in support of a Masters student at the University of Moncton Ms. Anne Sophie Bertrand, MREAC staff installed two cougar scent posts. The elusive "Eastern Cougar" was annually seen by Miramichi residents, in some locations more than others. Based on their testimonial evidence, cougar stations (see photo below) were constructed up the Chapel Island Road and on the Catamaran watershed. For three years these stations were visited monthly for maintenance and "refreshing" but MREAC staff did not collect any cougar hairs from these traps to indicate visits of passing cougars. From hair analysis and stealth motion sensor cameras, the stations were visited by white tailed deer and bears.

Within the last year of the project it was determined that there is not an Eastern Cougar sub-species and that any animals in our region are members of the North American Cougar (Puma concolor).

Two areas, as noted, were selected within the Miramichi area and two scent posts were constructed. The scent posts were spiked with imported cougar urine. The traps were designed to collect hair samples left on the barbed wire fence on the rubbing post in the center of the fence in station. Any hairs were then processed by DNA analysis to determine what animal species they were from. As mentioned, no cougar hairs were found during the course of this project.  

Ms. Anne Sophie Bertrand has since graduated and was last heard of pursuing cougars in the Amazon rain forest in Brazil.

Daryl Sullivan standing next to one of the cougar stations