The final session of the 2016 Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series is a presentation by Jeff Zimmer, Fish and Wildlife Officer for the Drumheller district with Alberta  Justice and Solicitor General on Thursday, April 28.

The recent sighting of a cougar near the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology this spring resulted in a lot of conversation in Drumheller about these misunderstood creatures. 

Often lumped in with their misbehaving cousins, bears, cougars have a bad reputation. In this presentation, Zimmer hopes to give people a better understanding of cougar behaviour and hopefully be less fearful of them. The cougar is Canada’s largest cat species. 

Merely seeing a cougar does not mean you are in imminent danger. Cougars are generally shy and wary of humans, but are efficient hunters. They most often hunt at dusk, night, and dawn. 

Zimmer will present information on basic identification of a cougar’s habits and habitats, and will then discuss how to prevent conflict and respond to an encounter. 

The Royal Tyrrell Museum’s Speaker Series talks are free and open to the public. The series will conclude with this presentation on Thursday, April 28, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. in the museum auditorium. 

Past presentations are also available on the Museum’s YouTube channel: youtube.com/user/RoyalTyrrellMuseum. For more information, visit tyrrellmuseum.com.

Fred Makowecki, chair of the Drumheller Police Committee has taken on a bigger role being appointed Chair of the Alberta Association of Police Governance (AAPG).

Makowecki attended the annual AAPG conference in Taber last week. He has served vice chair three times and this year is excited to be appointed chair.

“’We are working to bring more police governance bodies together to share information on best practices for police governance and oversight,” he said.

On the local level Makowecki has been involved for a number of years. He worked on a Crime Stoppers Initiative, and then with the first Citizens Advisory Council and then helped to start up the local police advisory committee.

“John Sparling and Karen Bertamini came up to me and said 'you don’t need to be on council, to make a difference in your community,’ and that rally stuck with me,” he said.

About seven years ago, he attended his first AAPG conference and it was an eye opener.

“We learned how we could utilize the knowledge of other areas to make policing better in our community,” Makowecki.

He then came involved at the board level shortly thereafter and began to understand the importance of working on policy lobbying and governance. 

“Canada is strong with its over sight, and Alberta has an exceptionally strong model for oversight, especially when policing is provided mostly by the RCMP,” he said.

“I still think that on a local level, or on a provincial level that public input is important,” he said.

He would like to work towards governance organizations in the province to be all working on the same page.

“Moving towards a standardization for oversight and working with the RCMP would be one of my goals while I am chair,” said Makowecki.