The Conflict of Humans and Wildlife

[Mike]

Hours after the killing of a cougar in the City of Chicago, another was spotted in Chicago's suburbs.

 

What's the answer? Frankly, I don't see the presence of a wild cougar on the streets of a major city as a good thing, but it does strike me that we should rein in our desire to eliminate the danger from all wild animals.

[DavidEBSmith]

I don't quite know what you're suggesting by "rein[ing] in our desire to eliminate the danger from all wild animals".

 

The Tribune, in one of the stupidest editorials I've ever read, says that the City should have some sort of protocol in place to save the next cougar that wanders into a crowded urban neighborhood. Ignore the fact that this is only the third cougar spotted in Illinois in modern times. (Perhaps we also need a protocol for kangaroos, as they're reported in the Chicago area from time to time.) Ignore the fact that the wildlife experts seem to agree that trying to tranquilize the cougar would likely have been futile (measuring the dose is inexact and placement of the shot is critical) and probably dangerous (because the cougar would have become more agitated before the drugs kicked in). Ignore the fact that the City doesn't have enough funding for Animal Care & Control to pick up stray dogs and cats, much less rare and exotic and dangerous wildlife.

 

It's too bad the cougar had to die. But it did. It made an unfortunate decision to follow the river south and ended up in the middle of the city where it put a bunch of people at risk. I can't justify prioritizing a cougar over a bunch of people.

[Dave McReynolds]

A cougar needs a certain number of square miles of territory to hunt in. When a new cougar comes along, it must find a new territory or perhaps move into the territory of a cougar who dies.

 

Some time ago, in California, a constitutional amendment was passed in a referendum banning mountain lion hunting. Unfortunately, it didn't ban mountain lions from reproducing, and without being culled, they have to move into new territories, which sometimes are already inhabited by humans. So the result is that professional hunters are hired by the state of Calfornia to kill the mountain lions that have moved into inhabited areas. I believe that about the same number of mountain lions are killed by the professional hunters as were killed by sport hunters before, since there were never that many permits issued anyway, only now we're paying them to do it rather than them paying us.

 

I frankly can't get that worked up about the cougar being killed, in that it was already in an untenable position, had nowhere else to go, and would clearly upset people by subsisting on a diet of cats and the occasional poodle, anymore than I can about the thousands of whitetail deer that are killed by traffic.

 

If they are going to make a regular thing of this, however, they might consider ways of killing cougars in the future that would avoid shooting up people's cars and houses. Like letting a pack of hound dogs loose on the scent and treeing the poor thing, which could then be dispatched with one arrow.

[Marty Hill]

Perhaps not enough people are being killed. Or too many are being born. Keep on paving.

[Mike]

I don't quite know what you're suggesting by "rein[ing] in our desire to eliminate the danger from all wild animals".

 

I wasn't referring to the Chi-town Cougar. that seemed like a pretty clear danger. However, historically humans have hunted predators to near-extinction, as was the case with the gray wolf. Out in the burbs, where I live, people get pretty riled up about coyotes, which pose very little risk to humans, but a significant risk to Chihuahuas.

 

It seems to me that the desire to eliminate any danger from predators has led to some bad decisions in the past. However, I'm not sure where the line should be drawn. Cougars prowling the Loop or Wall Street would not be a good thing. However, are we willing to accept the risks of having them present in outlying or rural areas?

[Dave McReynolds]

Perhaps not enough people are being killed. Or too many are being born. Keep on paving.

 

Looks like some progress is being made on your first suggestion with yesterday's Supreme Court decision. +1 on your second. As to your third, well, as long as they're well-banked and twisty....

[doc47]

Cougars prowling...Wall Street....

 

You mean they're not already?

[SeanC]

Perhaps not enough people are being killed. Or too many are being born. Keep on paving.

US birth rates have been declining steadily for a long time, from around 25 births/1000 in 1920 to 14 births/1000 today. Death rates have also declined steadily in the same period, from 15 per 1000 in 1920 to about 8 today.

 

Bottom line: Not enough young people, too many old people.

 

I say we need more cougars. Perhaps we could release them strategically around golf courses (on weekdays), Denny's parking lots, drug stores, the states of Florida and Arizona and other places where elderlies congregate.

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

I say we need more cougars.

 

Too marginal. I propose a more lopsided fight, with something on the order of tigers and/or lions.

 

Perhaps we could release them strategically around golf courses (on weekdays), Denny's parking lots, drug stores, the states of Florida and Arizona and other places where elderlies congregate.

 

...hiding in the woods at Deals Gap, waiting to knock sportriders off their mounts...

[Paul Mihalka]

"...hiding in the woods at Deals Gap, waiting to knock sportriders off their mounts... "

 

Don't have to knock them over... just wait until they fall off the road into the woods...

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

"...hiding in the woods at Deals Gap, waiting to knock sportriders off their mounts... "

 

Don't have to knock them over... just wait until they fall off the road into the woods...

 

 

Might reduce the accident rate around there, if squids knew they'd get chomped on after a even a minor dismount.

 

OTOH, it also might encourage some of the slowpoke cruisers to pick up the pace...

[MNCruiser]

What's wrong with a good looking cougar every now and then?

[Knifemaker]

Perhaps we could release them strategically around golf courses (on weekdays), Denny's parking lots, drug stores, the states of Florida

 

 

We have them in Florida already

[TyTass]

What's wrong with a good looking cougar every now and then?

I was wondering when someone was going to throw that one in!

[Couchrocket]

Keep on paving.

 

"Call something paradise, kiss it good-bye!"

[Matts_12GS]

What's wrong with a good looking cougar every now and then?

I was wondering when someone was going to throw that one in!

 

Me too.

[Huzband]

What's wrong with a good looking cougar every now and then?

 

 

Nothing.

 

 

Nothing at all.

[Quinn]

There is just something not fun about being ten miles from the nearest road, sleeping in a cloth burrito, when you realize that you are no longer at the top of the food chain. The area where I enjoy backpacking has black bears, but they also have a hunting season on them. Makes them shy enough that it isn't very scary to see one. Cougars, on the other hand, will stalk people and some of people behavior mimics prey. Things like jogging, riding a bicycle, being a child.

 

Around here, it might be nice to get some deer preditors to cut down their population, but I don't think it would stop with just the allowable prey. Nope, they have to go; too big a threat to people and "nice" animals, like pets and bambies.

[DavidEBSmith]

What's wrong with a good looking cougar every now and then?

 

Already had that one on Chicagoist:

 

[SweetP]

Nope, they have to go; too big a threat to people and "nice" animals, like pets and bambies.

 

What a coincidence. I was just reading on a cougar blog that the consensus there is that people are a huge threat to cougars and ought to go. Sort of a 'first in, last out' concept. Come to think of it, people are a mighty big threat to other people. Oh, this is really getting confusing.

[MNCruiser]

 

Already had that one

 

 

Way to go David...you da man!