Attempt to restore hound hunting of cougar in Oregon fails

Oregon legislature fails to resurrect hunting practice banned by Oregon voters in 1994-

Cougar hunting bill dies in Senate committee. Ashland Daily Tidings.

Cougar hunting interests say they will try again in 2012.

Lincoln Journal-Star: Nebraska mountain lions . . . wild, rare and beautiful

 A fine editorial as cougar increasingly reinhabit the Cornhusker state-

Wild, rare and beautiful. Editorial in the Lincoln (NB) Journal-Star

Idaho Fish and Game looking for culprit who shot lion north of Rexburg

Cougar wanders through ag country and is illegally shot-

Fish and Game looking for culprit who shot lion. Rexburg Standard Journal. By Joyce Edlefsen.

Call of the cougar long gone from the East

A followup article to the one about the Eastern cougar declared extinct-

Call of the cougar long gone from the East. Big cats extinct despite reports of sightings, federal officials say. By Brian Nearing. Times Union Staff Writer, OR not

The Eastern Cougar: Dead or Alive? By Felicity Barringer. New York Times.
Eastern catamount may be extinct, but they’re still very much with us. By Tim Johnson, Burlington Free Press Staff Writer

For those who want to track the restoration of the cougar The Cougar Network is a website with a sightings map right on the front page. The Cougar Network shows one confirmed sighting that is clearly in the East. (note, after checking this site more carefully, it looks like it is no longer current. . . RM). There is some useful information.

Eastern cougar is officially extinct, government says

However, turns out there never was such an animal distinct from the Western cougar-

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week said  the eastern cougar was extinct, and said it should be taken off the endangered species.

However, it turns out most think the Eastern cougar was a distinction that made no difference because there never was a kind of cougar or mountain lion in the East any different from the increasingly common cougar of the Western United States which is reclaiming its territory in the Midwest and the East at a pretty good rate.

The debate between “lumpers” and “splitters” has been common among biologists studying species and sub-species.  A lumper would say the so-called “eastern cougar never did differ significantly from other cougar in the United States.  A similar controversy has of course been part of the restoration of the gray wolf to the Western United States, the Great Lakes and the red wolf of the Carolinas. The latter is very similar to the wolves of eastern Canada in Quebec Province.

U.S. Declares Eastern Cougar Extinct, With an Asterisk. By Felicity Barringer. New York Times.

Rare photo shows 8 cougars on Washington state game trail

Unusual proximity of so many mountain lions probably possible because of familial relationships-

Several factors probably explain how 8 cougars, very territorial animals, came together to feed on a dead cow on a cliff near Soap Lake, Washington.  The first is that it is winter. Prey are concentrated into a small area and in this case most of the cougars were probably closlely related (both indicated in the article).  It isn’t know how often this happens, but it is probably uncommon.

We saw these photos about 2 weeks ago.  Wish we had permission to be the first to post them.

Rare photo shows 8 cougars on game trail. “Using a camera triggered by a motion-sensor device, a hunter captured a rare sight: eight cougars huddled together on an Eastern Washington trail as if attending some big-cat block party.” By Craig Welch. Seattle Times environment reporter

Well-known female cougar dies from plague. Carcass found in Grand Teton National Park.

This cougar was the fifth plague victim in recent years in the Greater Yellowstone-

Well-known female cougar dies from plague. Carcass found in Grand Teton National Park. By Cory Hatch. Jackson Hole News and Guide.

The plague is generally carried by rodents. I wonder how common it is among the rodents of the Greater Yellowstone.

Cougar shot after killing Utah family’s dog

This should so much not be news!

Park City, Utah (up in the mountains). Cougar shot after killing Utah family’s dog. AP.

This event is so common. People build in cougar habitat and stock their yards with tasty morsels.

There is a similar story in the Bitterroot Valley (actually foothills) of Montana. It seems a cougar killed a pooch on a porch in a Bear Creek dispersed subdivision that is (I looked on Google Earth) hard up against the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, which with the Frank Church Wilderness, is the largest (save one dirt road) Wilderness area in the lower 48 states. That story full of twists and turns and neighborly conflict.

Hunter kills cougar in Iowa!

This was the fifth killed in a decade-

Hunter kills cougar in Iowa. By Bob Eschliman. World-Herald News Service.

Two close encounters with cougars in Montana in a month

Florence, MT man rescues dad from mountain lion. By Brett French. Billings Gazette. 64 year old father probably saved when his 41 year old son shot the cougar.

Earlier this month the Montana Standard reported a cougar stalking an adolescent boy who was hunting with his father southwest of Butte. The 14-year old boy shot the cougar. Story from the Montana Standard.

Moscow, Idaho man reports fighting with mountain lion near Elk River, Idaho

Firewood gatherer said to be attacked. Stabbed cougar ran off-

Idaho Mountain Lion attack. AP

Should You Run or Freeze When You See a Mountain Lion?

New study disputes the conventional wisdom to stay put or risk triggering lion’s instinct to pursue-

The study was based on what 185 people did who were attacked by mountain lions. The data was from 1890 to 2000. It came from the U.S. and Canada. I can see from the abstract on which the article below is based that additional information is in the original which is not reported below.

Should You Run or Freeze When You See a Mountain Lion? By Sushma Subramanian. Scientific American.

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Why don’t they do this for wolves? Probably because predatory attacks are so few, analysis of figures would be meaningless.

New Mexican man killed and eaten some by a cougar

Man Killed by Cougar, Officials Confirm. By Rene Romo. Albuquerque Journal Southern Bureau.

This is near the country where they do all that worrying about Mexican wolves.

Washington State cougars pushed to the brink

Cougars in chaos. How a state hunting policy pushed Washington’s big cats to the brink. April 14, 2008. By Liza Gross. High Country News.

Earlier I posted. Special Washington cougar hunt backfires

Other states like Idaho and Oregon are headed down the same path.

Cougar attacks a Montana hunter

Lion pounces on hunter. By Jim Mann. Daily Inter Lake. Backpack saves man from more serious injuries.

This is said to be the first mountain lion attack in many years in Montana.