Frontline Ministries - Does the Cougar Still Live Here?
Does the Cougar Still Live Here?
A REPORT ON THE HISTORY & CURRENT STATUS OF COUGAR POPULATIONS INDICATING NORTH AMERICANS' ABILITY TO CO-EXIST WITH WILDLIFE & ECOSYTEM HEALTH
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By D. Massimiliano Lorenzini
The cougar, also widely known as puma, mountain lion, and panther (less commonly known as catamount, screamer, painter, American lion, ghost cat, and léon), is a fascinating animal. Maurice Hornocker, dean of cougar researchers, calls the cougar the "prince of predators."1
In the past the cougar has been exterminated as vermin, but today, in the western states of America where it is found, its numbers seem to be rising. The cougar's story is an epic drama about humanity's ability to co-exist with wildlife, even the ecosystem itself.
A cougar, Felis concolor (literally: cat of one color), can weigh from 75 pounds from the smallest female to 220 pounds to the largest male and measure up to 6 feet long plus a tail half as long in length. Its color can range from yellowish to tawny to gray with a dark brown or black tip on its tail and white underneath. It's unspotted with a small head and ears and big round mesmerizing yellow eyes.
The cougar is a solitary, strongly territorial cat that requires isolated or undisturbed game-rich wilderness for habitat. It is a very able hunter and can quickly bring down an 800 pound elk. Its diet is mainly large mammals like deer and elk, but will also feed on other things like coyotes, mice, raccoons, birds, and even grasshoppers.2
Three centuries ago this was the most wide-ranging large predator in the New World. It was native from the Pacific to the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, from British Columbia to New Brunswick and south to Patagonia (the southern part of South America). It was heavily persecuted by European settlers in the east and the last known cougar from the state of New Hampshire was killed on Cartland Farm in Lee, during the autumn of 1853. Its mounted skin is on display at Woodman Institute of the town of Dover.3 The last undisputed cougar sighting in Virginia was in Washington County in 1882.4
Speaking of cougars at the beginning of this century, Theodore Roosevelt described them thus, "Lord of stealthy murder, facing his doom with a heart both craven and cruel." His attitude was prevalent among the Europeans who saw the cougar as a threat to their livestock and competitor for wild game. Bounties were paid for their skins and between 1820 and 1845 courthouse records from Centre County, Pennsylvania show that an estimated 600 cougars were killed in that county alone.5
Today, cougar killing is regulated in all states that have them except Texas. California now has a complete ban on hunting them. Its present range in North America is from British Columbia and southern Alberta south to Mexico and west of the Great Plains to California. About 30 to 50 adults of the Florida Panther, a subspecies (Felis concolor coryi), remain in southern Florida.6 Many sightings have been reported of the eastern cougar, but none have been confirmed.7 The cougar's habitat originally varied, but now it is generally mountainous areas.
Cougars are very shy animals that avoid humans if they can - and even avoid each other by maintaining strict territories, but confrontations with humans are increasing.8 Cougars have mauled some 50 North Americans and killed 11 in the past century, but most of the attacks have taken place in the last 20 years.
The reason for the increased confrontations is not certain. Some think a new, less reclusive, more assertive, strain of cougar is starting to emerge in some places. The more obvious factor is that more people are living and recreating in cougar habitat.9 Even with the increased confrontations the amount of deaths is very small when compared to the fact that 40 people a year die from bee stings and some 80 from lightning strikes in the United States.10
Though the numbers of cougars are increasing, their habitat is decreasing. Cougars are very territorial and need great expanses of natural habitat to survive. Natural habitat is becoming fragmented by human use and large populations of plants and animals are becoming fragmented into small, isolated populations which may be too small to survive. For the cougar, unless they are able to disperse, inbreeding will occur and eventually the population will die out. An average cougar needs 100 km2 and a viable population requires 2,200 km2 of habitat.11
To link these fragmented habitats, conservationists have recommended reconnecting the fragments into an effectively larger expanse by habitat corridors. This has been implemented in the Santa Ana Mountains near Los Angeles, California and have proven to be effective. Cougars are using them.12
The best example of an isolated population is the Florida panther. About 30-50 adults survive and this size of a population is not large enough to keep genes vigorous and adaptive. Biologists believe at least several hundred breeding animals are necessary. As it stands, the Florida panther is predicted to be extinct in 25 to 40 years if left on their own.13
Much public and government support has been given to the saving of the Florida panther. In 1982 it became the official state animal. Despite rising land costs, the federal government has expanded national parklands in southern Florida and established the new Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. The state of Florida is expecting to spend $300 million a year for 10 years for public land acquisition programs. Moreover, the Florida Department of Transportation has spent millions of dollars building wildlife crossings beneath Alligator Alley, the stretch of I-75 from Fort Lauderdale to Naples. Cutting through panther habitat, automobiles on the road have killed 5 panthers since it was built in the 1960's.14 A 10 foot high chain link fence has been erected on both sides of the highway that lead to underpasses where panthers, alligators, deer, and other wildlife may safely cross.
We seem to be doing a lot to co-exist with this magnificent creature even though sport hunting accounted for 62.5% of known mortality for all adults and 100% for subadult males.15 In many areas cougars are still shot on sight. But hunting and killing is not the major problem. The major problem we produce for the cougar is that we keep taking more land.
Should we care? How important is the cougar anyway? Cougars are an important part of biodiversity. While sport hunters will kill the biggest, healthiest, and prime animals, cougars strengthen wildlife populations by culling out the sick or injured animals. Cougars are also at the apex of the food chain, and thus they reflect the general health of the ecosystem. Because it lives at low densities (one adult per 100 km2) and gives birth at long intervals (2 years), it is an excellent indicator species: where cougars survive, so can more abundant species. An indicator species is defined as: Species that serve as early warnings that a community or an ecosystem is being degraded.16
In speaking of biodiversity, the authors of one wildlife conservation book said:
In our trying to increase the efficiency of raising crops outdoors, it is easy to forget that the whole pattern of nature works against biasing an environment for production of one species. In our trying to protect and favor domesticated animals and plants, man pulls at a complex web of interrelated wildlife, often with unexpected consequences.17
Removing species that fill specific niches weakens the ecosystem. The damage done is usually irreversible and we are not even certain how much tampering the ecosystem can endure without collapsing.
The warnings we are getting from the Florida panther and other populations, such as the one in the Santa Ana Mountains in California, should tell us that civilization cannot exist with wildlife. While some animals may do well near developments, the cougar, which is at the top of the food chain, tells us it won't work in the long term. If we leave wilderness wild, cougars and the surviving ecosystem may continue to exist. If we continue in our typical ways of fragmenting and developing land and becoming more dependent on a handful of species of plants and animals we serve to play Russian roulette with survival.
The cougar does still live here. Its range is much smaller than it originally was, however, but the question now is, will we make room for them, and inevitably ourselves?
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1 Monaghan, P. (1991, March 20). "Prince of Predators": After 28 Years Tracking Pumas, Idaho Professor Becomes the Authority on Them. Scholarship: The Chronicle of Higher Education, A6.
2 MacMahon, J.A. (1985). The Audobon Society Nature Guides: Deserts, 571. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
3 Milne, L.J., & Milne, M. (1971). The Cougar Doesn't Live Here Anymore, 50. U.S.A.: Prentice-Hall.
4 Sieveking, P. (1992, January 24). Forteana. New Statesman & Society, 47.
5 Hornocker, M.G. (1992, July). Learning to Live With Mountain Lions. National Geographic, 52-65.
6 Bolgiano, C. (1991, May/June). Of Panthers & Prejudice. Buzzworm: The Environmental Journal, 46-51.
7 Sieveking, 47.
8 Linn, A. (1993 July/August). Wild Cats Wild. Audobon, 22-25.
9 Turbak, G. (1991, January). The Cougar Makes a Comeback. Field & Stream, 33-34,73-74.
10 Hornocker, 60.
11 Diamond, J. (1993, September 2). Cougars and Corridors. Nature, 16-17.
12 Diamond, 17.
13 Bogliano, 48.
14 Hornocker, 61, 64.
15 Ross, I.P. & Jalkotzy, M.G. (1992, July). Characteristics of a Hunted Population of Cougars in Southwestern Alberta. Journal of Wildlife Management, 56(3): 417-426.
16 Tyler, G.T. (1992). Living in the Environment, 7th Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co.
17 Milne, 49.
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