OPAS to spotlight cougars in online presentation

Kim Sager-Fradkin, the wildlife program manager for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, is the featured speaker at the next Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society meeting, set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, on Zoom.

Register for the virtual meeting on the OPAS website (www.Olympic PeninsulaAudubon.org) under “Events.”

After a brief OPAS meeting with announcements, Sager-Fradkin’s presentation — “The Olympic Cougar Project: A Collaborative Study” — will detail goals, preliminary successes and many images taken from remote cameras of the study conducted by Olympic Peninsula tribes and Panthera, a worldwide large cat research and conservation organization.

Sager-Fradkin’s work has two primary tracts: the first to explore wildlife responses to removal of the Elwha dams, and to contribute to tribal subsistence harvest activities by monitoring elk and deer populations and the predators that rely upon them. Her current research focuses on mountain lion genetics, dispersal patterns and diet across the north Olympic Peninsula.