Wednesday's mock cougar attack behind the Whitehorse General Hospital was just that: a mock cougar attack.

It was, however, treated with utmost seriousness by wildlife officers from across North America who were in Whitehorse this week for an international conference to provide training in the field of dealing with dangerous animals.

The scene behind the hospital was one of eight scenarios played out Wednesday at different sites around the city.

There was a bloodied victim being interviewed by an RCMP officer and real emergency medical personnel were attending to the young woman when the team of wildlife officers arrived – armed to the teeth.

Local journalists were asked to play the role of obnoxious reporters pushing the boundaries and getting in the faces of officials attempting to manage and secure the site.

As the team of wildlife officers moved up the hill along a favourite walking trail behind the hospital, they formed what is known as the diamond tactical formation. The formation requires the officers to move in unison, shoulder to shoulder, each facing a different a direction, with their shotguns and rifles – fake weapons – pointed and ready should a gnarly

animal emerge from the woods.

The exercise was overseen by conservation officer Jesse Jones of Kamloops, B.C. who also serves as one of six instructors for the province's Predator Attack Team.

The team responded to 19 incidents of human-wildlife conflicts last year, though not all the animals involved had to be killed.

This week's conference on Wildlife Human Attack Response Training was hosted by Environment Yukon with 140 wildlife officials attending from as far away as Russia and Norway, from across Canada and the United States.

Jones said the conference provides an opportunity to share information and experiences.

"Different jurisdictions deal with different predators more regularly than we might,” he says.

"If we are dealing with cougars more than black bears, the people who deal with black bears more are able to come here and share that expertise.”

While direct conflicts between wildlife and humans do not occur often in the Yukon, they do happen.

A few years ago, a Haines Junction resident out walking his dog was chased up a tree by a grizzly nipping at his heels.

A cyclist pedalling down a stretch of the Alaska Highway last year was chased by what was thought to be a wolf.

Several years ago, a man staking mineral claims near Ross River was attacked and killed by a grizzly bear. There was a fatal mauling at the Liard Hot Springs in 1997.

A year earlier, a woman hiking with her husband in Kluane National Park was killed in a grizzly attack.

There are no cougar attacks on record, but cougar sightings in the Yukon are not uncommon. When a couple of horses were torn up a little at a ranch outside Carmacks, wildlife officials surmised it was a cougar.

Just a couple of years ago, a cougar was seen hanging around Destruction Bay, to the point that the community was exercising extra caution for the children walking to and from school.

The Kamloops officer emphasizes not all incidents of conflict end in the animal being killed.

He recalled a non-fatal incident involving a fellow and a sow grizzly with two cubs. The bear was not destroyed, as it was only doing what comes naturally – protecting her cubs.

There are cases, however, when authorities decide an animal needs to be located and killed in the interest of public safety, Jones explained.

Wednesday's eight attack simulations involved three grizzly bear maulings, one black bear attack, one wolf incident, a polar bear attack and two cougar maulings.

The cougar incident behind the hospital involved a young woman out walking her two dogs when she was attacked from behind.

As the wildlife officials take control of the scene, a loud audio tape of a dog yelling for its life is playing in the bush.

"Somebody please help my dogs!” the victim calls out as paramedics attend to her wounds.

The girl's boyfriend runs to get his gun so he can handle the situation himself, though the RCMP officer intervenes.

The five wildlife officers form the diamond tactical formation and begin moving slowly up the trail, having no knowledge of what lays ahead. As they move, they mark the drops of fake blood and cougar tracks that were set with a real cougar paw.

The north-facing officer is leading the formation. He checks verbally with the officers facing east, south and west, without taking his eyes off his direction.

"We're good.”

Several minutes later, the officer leading the diamond says he sees something under a large spruce tree 10 or 15 metres into the brush.

"It looks like a lion, guys,” he says, staring at a dead but real problem cougar brought in frozen from B.C. for the training exercise. "I can see a big long tail.

"I have first shot. I am going to take it. Bang!” he calls out.

The officers remain in formation, not knowing if the adult female was alone.

The diamond moves to the cat. For another hour and more, they investigate the scene to check for signs of other predators. Evidence that might help piece together the attack is marked.

The officers come across a dead dog on the trail – fake. The woman's smart phone and ear phones are lying in the middle of the trail.

Measurements of the cougar's bite are taken and relayed by radio to see how they fit with the puncture wounds on the woman's back.

Cougar specialist Steven Torres of the California Wildlife Investigation Lab in Sacramento is among several observers on site to witness the exercise.

Torres says it's important to piece together as much evidence as possible at the scene of wildlife-human conflicts.

They are rare, he says.

The senior biologist says one might think with 38 million residents in the Golden State and all those people out walking and hiking and enjoying the outdoors, there would be more encounters will cougars, he says.

But they're rare.

So when they do happen, says Torres, gathering as much information as possible helps achieve a greater understanding.

He says even though cougar attacks are rare, people must stay vigilant.

If there are deer in the area, there's a good chance there are cougars around, because deer provide an essential source for the big cats, particularly females and younger cougars, he says.

Torres says in the case of California, all fatalities resulting from cougar attacks have involved single individuals out alone.

Attacks where there are more than one person still result in serious injuries but are not fatal because there is someone else to help fight off the cougar, he says.

Torres says there's no such thing as playing dead in a cougar attack. The only deterrent is to fight using whatever's available – sticks, rocks, and the like.

He remembers a case of a father and son out hiking when the boy was jumped by a cougar. The only thing the father had was a camera, which became the weapon, says Torres.

He says there wasn't much left of the camera, but his son lived.

The frozen cougar used in the simulation behind the hospital was shot because it was attacking alpacas – small, llama-like animals – on a B.C. ranch and becoming a risk to public safety, the Kamloops CO explains.

Jones says the animal was brought up frozen because using real animals provide greater learning opportunities.

"As far as evidence collection, it is more real when they can use real animals,” he says.