Cougars could save lives by lowering vehicle collisions with deer

Date: July 14, 2016

Source: University of Washington

You would never guess it from their soft eyes and timid demeanor, but the swift-footed deer is North America's most dangerous mammal to humans.

Each year deer cause 1.2 million vehicle collisions in the U.S., triggering more than 200 deaths, some 29,000 injuries and $1.66 billion in costs associated with vehicle damage, medical bills and road cleanup.

These staggering figures are in part because deer's natural predators -- large carnivores such as wolves and cougars -- have declined in population, leaving large ungulates like deer to reproduce mostly unchecked.

A team including University of Washington's Laura Prugh has for the first time begun to quantify the economic and social impact of bringing back large carnivores. Using cougars and their value in reducing deer-vehicle collisions as a case study, the researchers found that within 30 years of cougars recolonizing the Eastern U.S., large cats could thin deer populations and reduce vehicle collisions by 22 percent -- each year preventing five human fatalities, 680 injuries and avoiding costs of $50 million.

Continued ...

Long-Lost Species Returns Home After A Century In Exile

For the last 100 years, cougars have been absent from the forests of Wisconsin, a state where they once roamed. The Department of Natural Resources confirmed two cougar sightings on trail cameras this week — bringing the total number of sightings in 2014 to three. These, coupled with a handful of others in the past few years, have led experts to say that the cougar is likely back in Wisconsin for the first time since 1910.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, it's possible that the two sightings could’ve been of the same animal — they were spotted about 90 miles away from one another about three weeks apart. 

Continued ...

Habitat Fragmentation Causes Inbreeding in California Cougars

By Laura Poppick, Staff Writer | January 10, 2014 04:13pm ET

P-32, shown here, is one of three mountain lion kittens born

 recently in the Santa Monica Mountains that are the result 

of first-order inbreeding.

Credit: National Park Service

Three mountain-lion cubs born recently in Southern California have been identified as inbred, adding to a growing list of inbreeding cases amongst these animals as a result of habitat fragmentation in this region, according to a statement from the National Park Service.

The three cubs — two females and one male — were born last month in the Santa Monica Mountains outside Los Angeles. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, conducted preliminary DNA tests on all three of the cubs and their parents to identify their genetic makeup, and found that the cubs' father was also the father of their mother. 

Read more

Cougars move back into original territory, one male at a time - via D R Shoop

MPR News: "You may remember a couple of years ago, a lot of us were following reports of a cougar making its way around the northern Twin Cities suburbs. 


That adventurous cat eventually made it all the way to Connecticut, where it was killed by a car. 


Now, a report from the University of Minnesota published in The Journal of Wildlife Management says that cougars, or mountain lions, like that one are slowly expanding their range eastward returning to areas where they were killed off a century ago."


Cougars once lived across most of the country, but have long since been pushed into mountainous hideouts. Now, they're making a comeback. Many of them roam from the Black Hills of South Dakota, where at least 220 of the animals live.

U of M doctoral student Michelle LaRue has been compiling confirmed sightings and physical evidence collected by wildlife agencies and a non-profit group called the Cougar Network.

LaRue found 178 cougar confirmations in the Midwest, with numbers steadily increasing over the last 20 years. That may not sound like a lot of sightings, but LaRue says the team was very particular about the evidence it accepted.

"It had to be either a carcass, photo, video, track, or scat of an actual animal," she said.

Researchers also accepted sightings by trained wildlife biologists. Apparently, many animals are easily mistaken for a cougar.

Last year, the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association asked members to send in reports and photographs from trail cameras of cougars. 

The vast majority of the photos were decidedly something else, said Mark Johnson, the group's executive director.

"Some were very definitely a house cat or a fox, or a bobcat. There was one that was walking behind a tree but you could tell it was a yellow lab," Johnson said.

But last fall, Tony Rondeau of Fergus Falls captured a cougar on his trail camera.

"Checked the camera and there was a cougar sighting on it, it was like seven o'clock in the evening — about the time a person would be getting out of their deer stand — and it walked within, I would guess, 18 yards of my archery deer stand," Rondeau said.

Continued:  tp://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2012/06/14/environment/cougars-bounce-back/

Man claims attack by lion, saved by a bear

A Paradise man says he is lucky to be alive after an attack by a mountain lion Monday morning.

Robert Biggs, 69, often hikes in the Bean Soup Flat area, which is about a mile and a half above Whisky Flats. He came across a mother bear, a yearling and a newborn, which were about 40 feet from where he was standing.

After watching the bear family for a few minutes he decided to leave them be and turned to walk back up the trail. As he turned, a mountain lion pounced on him grabbing hold of his backpack with all four paws.

"They usually grab hold of your head with all four paws, but my backpack was up above my head and (the mountain lion) grabbed it instead," Biggs said. "It must have been stalking the little bear, but it was on me in seconds."

He wrestled with the cat, striking it in the head with a rock pick. The cat screamed when it was hit with the pick, but didn't let go, Biggs said. Before he knew it, the mother bear came from behind and pounced on the cat, tearing its grip from the backpack.

The bear and the cat battled for about 15 seconds, Biggs said, until the cat finally ran away. The bear went on its way as well. Biggs ended up with bite marks, scratches and bruises to his arm, but was otherwise uninjured.

Biggs, a naturist, has hiked that same trail several times and has seen the mother bear and its cub last spring and fall. He said the encounters with the bears were friendly.

"(The cub) stood up on its hind legs and put its paws up and Igot to play patty-cake with it," he said.

Read on:  http://www.paradisepost.com/news/ci_20269991/man-claims-attack-by-lion-saved-by-bear

Increased cougar sightings in Allen Co. (via Chad Arment)

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - There's growing concern that a cougar could be lurking around southwest Allen County. The DNR has gotten at least four reports of sightings in four different locations in that area.
Bob Girod is an eye witness to one of the sitings; he said he saw one in his own backyard after he heard his dog barking.

"All three of us went to the window and we looked out the kitchen window and right outside the window beneath the security light we saw a large cat. I'm estimating about 50 lbs. He had a long swooping tail and very characteristic ears and face."

Girod, who's a Fort Wayne police officer, reacted quickly. "I said 'gun.' My son grabbed a gun and racked a round into it and as he worked the action, the cat heard it and moved its head up toward the window and looked up at us."

Girod said the cougar then ran into the woods. He called the Department of Natural Resources, but officers there aren't as convinced that it was actually a mountain lion.

"In order for DNR to make a confirmation presence, we need to have some hard evidence: photos, tracks, scat, something like that, that our folks can look at," explained DNR Communications Director Phil Bloom.

Officials said there have been more than 200 reported sightings across Indiana in the past year. There's proof in fewer than 20 of the cases and only one has been confirmed in Greene County. The cougar there was captured by a trail camera.

Girod has put up his own camera in hopes of capturing an image of what he's already seen. There are no pictures yet, but he said he has all the proof he needs In the x-rays from when his dog McHale was attacked.

"He (the veterinarian) said he was not hit by a car, it was not a gunshot. He said they were puncture bites that looked like bite marks. Forensically speaking, it was his opinion it was a cat bite not a dog bite. The only cat he thought could possibly break a leg on a dog that size would be a cougar," recalled Girod.

DNR officials are still looking at the x-rays and encourage people to call if they see anything unusual.

"We're not saying that those reports are false or inaccurate," Bloom said. "We just need to have some hard evidence for one of our biologists to say, 'Yes, that is indeed a mountain lion."

The DNR said there have been reports in nearby states like Illinois, so it's not unreasonable to think the animals could migrate to Indiana. "Anything's possible. Particularly the young males will move out. There has been increased evidence of some movement out of the Dakotas into the surrounding states," said Bloom.

What should you do if you actually come across a cougar? Bloom had these tips:

• don't approach it
• don't run from it
• make eye contact

Mountain lion killed in Conn. traced to S. Dakota

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A mountain lion killed on a Connecticut highway last month had apparently walked halfway across the country from South Dakota, according to Connecticut environmental officials who said Tuesday that the journey of roughly 2,000 miles was one of the longest ever recorded for a land mammal.


The animal originated in the Black Hills region of South Dakota and was tracked by DNA from its hair and droppings as it passed through Minnesota and Wisconsin in 2009 and 2010, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Daniel Esty said at a news conference.
Biologists estimate the size of the mountain lion population at about 100,000 in North America, mostly living in western regions and seldom traveling more than 100 miles. It was the first confirmed wild mountain lion in Connecticut in more than 100 years.


"It is a testament to the adaptability of the species that it can travel so far from its original home in South Dakota to Connecticut," Esty said.

The lean, 140-pound male was killed June 11 when it was hit by a sport utility vehicle at night on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in the New Haven suburb of Milford.

Authorities initially believed it was a captive animal that escaped, but tests showed that it was not neutered or declawed and it had no implanted microchips, which are commonly used in domestic animals.

Tests also determined it was likely the same one that had been seen earlier in Greenwich, Conn., a New York City suburb 30 miles away. The death was followed by a flurry of big cat sightings in the suburbs of Connecticut, but experts dismissed most of them as unreliable. Government experts say no native mountain lions are believed to live in Connecticut.

Although it was an anomaly, Esty said the presence of the wild mountain lion is a good sign of the ability of Connecticut's conserved land to sustain wildlife.


He said the discovery is "a strong symbol of what we had all hoped for who work in the conservation area, that wilderness areas and biological diversity can be preserved and protected."

Genetic testing showed the cat had the same genetic structure of the mountain lion population in South Dakota's Black Hills region. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service Wildlife Genetics Laboratory in Missoula, Mont., matched the DNA with samples collected from a cat that was spotted in eastern Minnesota near Minneapolis and in northern Wisconsin from late 2009 through early 2010.

It was unclear what route the animal took to Connecticut. Biologists said it could have traveled south near urban areas or north through Canada.

STEPHEN DOCKERY

From Associated Press
http://my.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20110726/92bd9334-ef54-410a-9dd2-58b0a74d8d92