Hunters can now kill cougars in a provincial park in Alberta. The move to allow a cougar hunt in Cypress Hills Provincial Park, along the border with Saskatchewan, is part of a trend in Alberta to open more land and more species to hunting, under the direction of Alberta Parks and Forestry Minister Todd Loewen — who is a hunter and whose family owns a hunting business.

“This is a change that encourages hunting of a species that is isolated, has declined, and is maybe just starting to recover, but there’s no evidence that we need a hunt or that this will in any way manage the population,” Ruiping Luo, a conservation specialist with the Alberta Wilderness Association, said in an interview.