Cougar in Connecticut --140 pounds

S

Steve Tall

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"...Wildlife officials, who at first assumed the cat was a captive animal that had escaped its owners, examined its DNA and concluded that it was a wild cougar from the Black Hills of South Dakota. It had wandered at least 1,500 miles before meeting its end at the front of an S.U.V. in Connecticut...

"... in 2008, another cougar from the Black Hills found its way to Chicago, where it was shot and killed by the police.

"...you can be sure others will follow. The resilient, elusive cats that haunt the Western landscape will increasingly haunt the East. Some will find this a frightening prospect. Others will celebrate it. Eastern forests are overrun with deer, so the presence of cougars — which eat deer — could improve ecosystems. It could also, paradoxically, make people safer, since deer kill far more humans than cougars do, if you consider the sizable death toll caused by automobile-deer collisions.

"...The cats are masters at hiding and generally leave people alone, which means the biggest adjustment to living with cougars is psychological. It is knowing that a creature far more powerful than you could be crouched behind the trash can, around the next tree, under the porch.

"...America has grown a bit less tame."

quotes from
"The Cougar Behind Your Trash Can"
By DAVID BARON
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/opinion/the-cougar-behind-your-trash-can.html

cougar_244x183.jpg

Photo of the same cougar in Wisconsin earlier this year
(from cbsnews.com)
 
COOL!!!! Shame tho that the cat met it's end under a Surburban. We've had sightings of cougars for years but no admission from VGIF that they're here.

Uplander
 
Anybody day hikers here back East who don't already bring a sidearm or a big trail knife should really rethink that decision. Its humbling going out and knowing you are not at the top of the food chain. Big Gators you can avoid but these kitty's can actively hunt you:eek:
 
Indeed! Down here I'm less concerned with gators than those damn wild boars! All OVER down here... I can imagine the looks I'd get on my morning run if I had a nice shotgun on my back!! Now big arsed kitties too???
 
I typed "cougar attack" in Google, and this was in the first result:

"...In California, from 1986 through 1998, exactly two people died from mountain lion attacks, whereas in one year alone, over 4,000 people died in traffic accidents, including 800 pedestrians."

"...Over 300 people have been killed by domestic dogs in the U.S. between 1979 and the late 1990s."

"...So we should be much more worried about meeting a car or the dogs we see every day rather than a mountain lion. Unfortunately, we aren't, because we are much more familiar with being in a car or being around a domestic dog than we are with being around an uncaged mountain lion. Rationally, if one avoids hiking because of fear of mountain lions, one should also avoid driving in a car, crossing a street as a pedestrian, or getting close to our own or anyone else's dog."

"...If you want to virtually eliminate any mountain lion danger to yourself, don't hike alone. All hiking fatalities in California have occurred to single hikers. However, recognizing that the danger is low, I continue to hike alone. Being human, and therefore suffering from the same fear of rare events as everyone else, for a while I carried a big stick... I typically hike every fourth day, usually alone, and have no worries about mountain lions at all. However, when I see bear scat or claw marks on trees above my head, I definitely worry about bears for a while! After all, you have some hope of fighting off a 100-150 pound cougar, but no chance at all against a 400 pound bear."

quoted from
http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/lion_attacks.html

He also said something about having a dog with you while hiking is more of an attractant than a deterrent to cougars.

I think that two-legged predators are much more dangerous.

I've done lot of wilderness travel in "cougar country" and have never seen one. Ironically, my wife saw one on her way to the trailhead to pick me up after an extended trip. She saw two eyes glowing green from the bushes (reflecting the headlights), and as she drove closer, it ran off. As it turned to run, its long thick tail swung out into the roadway before vanishing.
 
Good advice. The bad thing about a big cat is you probably won't know the puma is after you until you're on the ground with it on top of you. I'm personally more afraid of a bear than a puma. But I live in Western North Carolina, and they say that they are all gone here. Until the other day they had to close a school playground because somebody saw a Very Big Cat! Too big to be a bobcat, so maybe they are here after all. Our brindle pit goes hiking with us always. That and my new HI BAS.
 
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