Comments on: Where the lion sleeps tonight https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/ Fri, 29 Jul 2011 20:36:58 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.8 By: rob https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505910 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 20:36:58 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505910 never seen a cougar in MN. have seen one wolf. and plenty of bears. one came tooling up within about 10 feet of me before i noticed. we both looked startled. i tell you, bears *do* shit in the woods.

]]> By: aeon https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505909 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:18:19 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505909 I’d give a lot to see a cougar in the wild. These elegant cats are one of the reasons I’d like to visit the Americas one day. There are not many other reasons which would stand to scrutinity… 😉

]]> By: Helen https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505908 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 07:01:18 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505908 A lot of people here in Western Mass (right above CT and below VT) claim to have seen them.

]]> By: Doug Alder https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505907 Fri, 29 Jul 2011 01:55:52 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505907 Out my way (South Central BC) there are lots of cougars and bears, both black and grizzly. We find bear scat in our yard or our neighbours yards every year.

]]> By: M https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505906 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:16:40 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505906 Growing up right next to a protected wilderness in Oregon, I had some run ins with cougars. Not much to report. They really are in some senses huge cats. The one I remember most was sitting in the middle of the trail when we came over a small rise. I stood straight up, tried to make myself look very big, just like I had been taught. It sat there for a few minutes sniffing, then it got up and walked away. It never stalked us, it never attacked.
For the most part, the cougar that was “stalking” hikers was probably curious, as most cats are.

What is happening in Oregon now is that urbanites from other areas in the country are moving to more rural communities in and along the smaller rivers. They put there yards right up to the allowable distance from the wilderness boundary. Then they put their little toy whatsit dog in the back yard and they are shocked when a cougar kills and eats fluffy. Mostly because I have never met a toy anything that had the smarts to not try and take on any other animal three times its size.

By the way the worst experience I had was getting dangerously close to a bear (on accident). Not attacked, but scared out of my mind.

The moral of the story is that wild animals exist and as we spread out they will adapt to the new surroundings quicker than we will adapt to their existence.

]]> By: richardrob https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505905 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:56:03 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505905 Shall I take as the moral of the story that we all live closer to large cats than most people would be comfortable knowing?

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505904 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:22:55 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505904 They were subroutines.

]]> By: Hank Fox https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505903 Thu, 28 Jul 2011 17:13:30 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/07/28/where-the-lion-sleeps-tonight/#comment-505903 That Vermont cougar with subs, I’d love to see that one. Is that the aquatic subspecies?

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