Comments on: Book Report: The Beast in the Garden, Part Two

By: farnorth-New Milford

farnorth-New Milford — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 16:45:33 +0000

I live in Northwest Connecticut, and the stories of cougar sightings are now commonplace. If anyone brings up the subject in a group of people, at least one person will open up with their story of when they saw a cougar. The DEP does insist that cougars don’t exist here, but there are just too many reports of sightings by farmers, hunters, landscapers, all people who spend much time outdoors and have seen much wildlife. I read Baron’s book, The Beast in The Garden, a year ago after hearing about the cougar sightings in my area, and unfortunately this state is headed for the same situation that happened in Colorado, and now Chicago. I saw a cougar myself, about a week ago, at night, in my headlights as it crossed the road. I had a clear look at it, and saw the long tail. These animals do not look like bobcats when viewed from the side. I have seen bobcats, as well, from 15 feet away on my property, and the animal I saw was not a bobcat. It was a cougar. I wish the DEP would start educating the public about these animals instead of ignoring it.

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:00:59 +0000

Interesting you mention this Jay – there is a big debate about opening a wolf hunting season for northern Wisconsin. They have made a great comeback (I can’t remember if they were introduced or walked there from Minnesota) and there are about 750 of them now, so the DNR says. I am all for it. I think it is great to have them around, but with the plentiful deer here we need to keep that wolf herd manageable or the same thing will happen with them as happened with the cougars in Colorado.

By: Jay Manifold

Jay Manifold — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:23:17 +0000

Something Dan left out of the review — I’ve just finished the book — is that one of the wildlife experts interviewed by the author now believes that wolves are next in line for habituation and attacks on humans. They will, if anything, be even more dangerous than mountain lions. Also the trend is pretty much exponentiating, with as many lion attacks in the 1990s as in the entire previous century.

By: mrsizer

mrsizer — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 04:02:25 +0000

This sounds like a good thing. I’ve been in Denver for the past 10 years, but my family in Wisconsin has had great deer hunting without me. I remember the days when you had to have a doe permit, not a buck permit.

While I’m saddened by the cost (no one like dead kids), if that’s what it takes to get environmentalist wackos to realize that civilization is a good thing, so be it.

Perhaps the next great wave of progress is upon us. Now where are those nuclear power plants to save us from global warming without skyrocketing electricity bills…

We (as a society) are horribly spoiled and, of course, the most spoiled are those who are the loudest and have no clue how lucky they are.

By: ElamBend

ElamBend — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:31:52 +0000

I’ve heard lots of people explain the rise in larger wild animals as being a result of urbanization and humans encroachment upon ‘their’ [the animals] habitat. However, the trend in North America has not been encroachment, but just the opposite. As our cities have grown larger, more and more people are leaving the countryside, leaving it to the animals and removing the one limiting factor on large animals. My home county in NW Missouri is a good example (this area of the state was the last to be settled). At it’s population height, in the 1920′s before the depression, the county had 15,000 to 20,000 people, although interestingly enough, the towns in the county weren’t much larger than they are now. The majority of the people lived on small holdings in the country side. These are people that would have both seen and killed large predators when they were seen. Now, my county has barely 6,500 people. This has happened all over North America and many cities have suburbs made up of people didn’t move out from the inner city, but moved in from the suburbs. In effect, we’ve been abandoning the countryside to the animals, thus bringing their boundries closer to the metro areas. The result is that larger and larger areas will be required to be treated as true wilderness, hiker beware, beyond places such as the Appalachians. We will also have to re-learn some of the norms that our country living ancestors lived by when dealing with wildlife.

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:08:48 +0000

Chuck – interesting stuff. I have seen confirmed cougar reports about to a Lake Michigan line going south, but nothing east of there. I had never heard of feral dogs. We have a lot of feral cats around Southern Wisconsin. It does seem inevitable that the cougars will spread over the entire continent within ten or twenty years.

By: Chuck D.

Chuck D. — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:18:19 +0000

Re your observations about the travels of the eastern puma, There have been sightings of puma or cougar or mountain lion, throughout the Northeast. My daughter, a trained ecologist, spotted one in lower Dutchess County, NY over 12 years ago. There have been anecdotal tales of spottings from Maine south to Virginia, this from an animal that is supposedly extinct in the Northeast. The various state DEPs don’t want to openly acknowledge the problem because they don’t have the money or staff to do anything about the puma. They can’t even agree on what to do about packs of feral dogs. Not coyote, or coy-dog crosses, but feral dog packs, created when city-dwellers abandon dogs in the country because the dogs are too much work, or too big or whatever. Such a dog has three options, die of starvation, die by the pack or become part of the pack.
Now, in the area of eastern NY, western CT and MA, we have black bear, puma, coyotes and feral dogs as large predators and none of them are particularly impressed by humans, ergo danger to people and their kids & dogs & cats.
The problem will only get worse until some little kid is killed by one of the above but until then the dominant meme is “They’re so cute, they won’t hurt us”, the fools.

By: the wolf

the wolf — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:52:29 +0000

Interestingly, the initial story in the Tribune contained none of criticism of the CPD for shooting the cougar. In fact, the residents of that neighborhood–and I must echo Jim C by saying this is very much IN the city–roundly applauded the police. It wasn’t until the follow-up story that we saw criticism. Methinks that the media, in it’s usual fashion, went out of its way to find controversy where there really was none.

By: Jay Manifold

Jay Manifold — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:16:49 +0000

David G – I appreciate your sentiment, but please don’t feed the troll.

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:23:32 +0000

Jim C. you are correct re Roscoe Village, my mistake.

By: David Gillies

David Gillies — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:13:32 +0000

Quoth Oclarki: “I take great comfort knowing that there are places where the top predator hasn’t been displaced by humans.”

Are you insane? You WANT human beings to be prey animals? I am an apex predator. Anything that is looking to eat me must be extirpated. Mountain lions in inhabited areas should be shot on sight, without exception and without mercy.

By: Jim Ellison

Jim Ellison — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 04:58:49 +0000

Too many people learned all they know about nature by watching “Bambi”

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 02:10:19 +0000

Rummel is going to be busy.

By: Jim C.

Jim C. — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:48:19 +0000

“Roscoe Village, just outside of Chicago”

One minor point. Roscoe Village is a neighborhood in the middle of Chicago. It’s part of the city of Chicago, not a separate city or village.

The earlier cougar sightings were outside of the city, to the north: Wilmette, a suburb, and Waukegan, a small city.

By: Western transplant

Western transplant — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 01:35:11 +0000

I lived for some years in the mountains southwest of Denver, not far from Idaho Springs where the runner was killed. I was in a subdivision where the homes were built on 1-2 acre tracts in an open Ponderosa forest. There was lots of natural prey for the big cats-deer and elk were plentiful. Longtime residents knew about the cats that lived in the area. We would hear them occasionally but rarely see them.

A newer group of homes was built above us, farther back in the mountains. Many families moved in that were either indifferent to life with wildlife or completely oblivious. Dogs would be tied out in the yards or put in runs that weren’t covered. One dog at the end of my road was badly mauled by a big cat very close to its owners’ home(it survived). Yet even after this, people weren’t really modifying their behavior. You’d still see dogs tied out and young children left to play unattended. Scary.

Don’t even get me started on bears and coyotes. . .

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:23:01 +0000

Phil – yes, it mentions several times what to do and not to do if you are attacked.

By: Phil Fraering

Phil Fraering — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:53:59 +0000

Just checking, but the book did have a section on what to do if you’re attacked, right?

By: Dan from Madison

Dan from Madison — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:47:24 +0000

Mike – sounds like a replay of some of the incidents in the book is only a matter of time in your neighborhood. Thanks again for the book recommendation.

By: Oclarki

Oclarki — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:33:30 +0000

Compare the number of children killed in school shootings or by dogs to those killed by mountain lions. I take great comfort knowing that there are places where the top predator hasn’t been displaced by humans.

By: Mike Doughty

Mike Doughty — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 14:15:41 +0000

I live in a mountain development just outside Colorado Springs, where lions are “common”, and I’ve been researching this subject for several years (I’m the person who recommended the book to Dan and who supplied the earlier photos to him). I became interested when a neighbor and her 2 year old were stalked by a lion in broad daylight about a quarter mile down the road from my house. Luckily, they were walking near their home and the lion was run off by the woman’s St. Bernard, but she was badly shaken. Since then, we have had a number of incidents here of dogs (including a 125 pound Malamute) being attacked by lions, deer killed in daylight right near homes and a busy road, lions hanging around houses, etc. I’ve made presentations to our HOA, many residents, talked to wildlife people, etc., but I’ve basically been unable to generate much interest in even starting a local database of sightings and incidents so as to at least have an awareness of what the situation is. People are supposed to report sightings to the Dept. of Wildlife, but they rarely do. There is a lot of apathy when it comes to lions. People don’t truly believe that they pose a threat to humans, plus they think it’s “cool” to be able to say that there are lions where they live. Those whom I’ve persuaded to read the book have in most instances at least been willing to concede that we MIGHT have a problem. As for me, I don’t go for a hike without bear spray (which works well on lions, I understand) and a revolver.