Vancouver Island man comes across fatal battle between wolf and cougar

WARNING: Some of the images in the video may be disturbing to viewers

Having explored the backcountry around Cowichan Lake for years, Rod Mizak has seen plenty of skirmishes between different animals.

But that didn’t prepare him for stumbling across a fight between a cougar and a wolf.

“We were in such disbelief of what we were seeing,” said Mizak, who was driving with friends to the San Juan river at three in the morning when they came across the fight.

“At the very beginning, we were unsure of what it was, but it became clear it was a cougar on the bottom, a wolf on top.”

Mizak said “it was tough to pick my chin off my lap,” but he began filming. While the wolf had the upper hand at the beginning of the fight, it disengaged at a certain point, and began moving towards the ditch.

“It almost looked like the wolf had won,” said Mizak.

It was then that the cougar pounced.

“I could hear the crunch of the bones,” he said.

After putting the photos of the cougar biting the limp wolf on Facebook, they quickly spread far and wide.

“I’m overwhelmed by the number of phone calls, the number of friend requests,” he said.

“My biggest reaction is that it’s amazing that someone was there at that time and place to witness an event like that,” he said.

B.C. Conservation Officer Chris Doyle says he’s never seen such a fight.

“It’s very unique that someone was able to capture and witness this event,” he said.

“We don’t know what goes on everywhere in the wild, so this type of event may repeat itself…but would likely go unwitnessed.”