Great link. Chilling.
In the 1990's two incidents occured in the San Bernardino National Forest in Calif. A boyscout disapeared from a scouting expedition while hiking the summit of San Gorgonio, and in another disapearence, a man cutting wood above Palm Springs had his small toddler disapear. This was at first thought to be a classic familiy homicide but the more investigators examined the situation the more they doubted this. The father was never charged. In the missing scout, Negrete, he made national headlines. An all out search by forest, BLM, Sherrifs office, and marine helicopters with night vision failed to locate the boy. He was never seen alive again, nor was his body ever recovered.
In a Tucson scandal in the 90's, a well known and extremely experienced back country Sierra club hiker was never found while on a solo trip in the ( I think) Ricons. She weighed somewhere between 90 and 110 pounds. Experts later felt that after becoming tired, the small hiker would naturally 'slump' under weight of the pack, and this would make her seem more 'digestable' (my word) to any cougar watching.
It stands reasonable to conclude that at least some percentage of missing persons, particularly women and children, may be attributed to animal predation, notably cougars. I am reminded though of the over 30 deaths in India from Wolf attack and suspect many families will soon have second thoughts on wolf reintroduction in the lower US.
I've never trusted Cougars. Nothing I've read in 20 years on this issue gives me any confidence in their character. I have even less confidence in the animal rights groups and their willing syncophants in the media and forestry.
Three things got me interested in being armed when I was 31; meth labs, cougars, and riot.
munk
