By Kyle Spurr/The Bend Bulletin

A farmer 2.5 miles east of Bend shot and killed a cougar earlier this week after it killed two Shetland sheep and a turkey on his 20-acre property off Bear Creek Road.

It was the third central Oregon cougar encounter in the past week.

Mark Davidson found the dead sheep Monday evening hidden under sticks and pine needles in the corner of a pasture closest to his house. He later spotted the dead turkey in the area near his barn.

Davidson and his wife, Candy, initially thought it was a coyote stalking their farm.

Later Monday night, Candy Davidson let their black lab, Tup, outside and checked on the sheep herd. Her flashlight caught glowing eyes in the distance, and she ran back inside her house to tell her husband.

Mark Davidson grabbed a .22-caliber rifle and the couple walked along their property line for about an hour looking for the creature they thought was a coyote.

In the distance, their flashlight revealed two glowing eyes again. And this time it was clear what was hiding near their fence line.

"We saw the eyes," Candy Davidson said. "We instantly knew it was a big cat."

The cougar started coming toward them, and Mark Davidson shot at it. The shot knocked the cougar down, but it got back up. It took a few more shots to keep the cougar down.

The couple left the cougar overnight because it was too dark and unsafe to check on it. When they returned in the morning, the cougar was still alive. Mark Davidson shot again to kill the cougar.

The couple immediately contacted the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which is required by law.

Randy Lewis, an assistant district wildlife biologist in Bend, responded and determined the cougar was a healthy 3-year-old male.

A landowner in Oregon is allowed to kill a cougar if it is causing damage to his or her property, according to state law.

Mark Davidson and his wife had every right to kill the cougar and handled the situation correctly, Lewis said.

"He called us right away," Lewis said. "It was obvious what he said took place. I did the investigation and everything checked out."

Cougars are solitary and territorial animals that maintain home ranges of up to 100 square miles. About 6,400 cougars live in Oregon. They are legal to hunt year-round with a hunting license and a general-season cougar tag.

Candy Davidson said she and her husband never encountered a cougar before on their farm, which they have operated for about three years. Their farm features more than 30 Shetland sheep, five mini donkeys and three alpacas. The couple sells the fiber from the sheep and alpacas.

The startling experience has led the Davidsons to take more precautions. They are setting up trail cameras to monitor approaching predators such as cougars and coyotes, and Candy Davidson said she is starting to take gun-safety lessons.

The couple said they never wanted to have to kill the cougar, but they also didn't want to lose their two sheep and turkey.

"It's unfortunate and sad," Candy Davidson said. "There are no winners."

The cougar encounter was the third in the area in the past week and the second time a cougar had to be killed.

On Tuesday, state wildlife officials responded to a cougar sighting in the Three Rivers neighborhood near Lake Billy Chinook. Officials caught the cougar and determined it had to be euthanized.

On Aug. 8, a young cougar was seen shortly after midnight in Bend's Awbrey Butte neighborhood. A homeowner on NW Hale Street saw the cougar on the homeowner's property attacking a deer. The homeowner was able to scare off the cougar as the deer ran away.

The state fish and wildlife department received a few more reports about the Awbrey Butte cougar, but it has not been found.