cougars, wild cats
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Wolves may be pushing mountain lions into more marginal habitat NE of Jackson Hole.
Posted by on 09 Mar 2007 | Tagged as: cougars, wild cats, Wolves, Idaho wolves, Wyoming wolves
This article is in the Jackson Hole News and Guide today. Although it isn’t firmly established, changes in cougar territory in the area near the Teton Wilderness may be due to pressure from wolves.
Jim and Holly Akenson have already found this to be the case in central Idaho (in Big Creek, deep in the Frank Church Wilderness). They found that wolves occupied the best habitat and cougars moved to the more rocky country. Read “Winter Predation and Interactions of Wolves and Cougars in the Central Idaho Wilderness” One caveat, the Idaho Fish and Game Commission, was compounding the difficulty cougar were having by encouraging a very high human “harvest” of cougar.
Anti-wolf folks don’t take into account the competition between carnivores and assume that all more wolves means is more elk or deer killed as prey in almost direct proportion. This is just plain wrong, especially when other predators are present.
USFWS begins a review of the status of the mountain lion in the Eastern U.S.
Posted by admin on 03 Mar 2007 | Tagged as: cougars, wild cats
This kind of review is required by the endangered species act t0 see if the the Eastern Cougar is truly extinct.
Some of the many sightings have no doubt been of escaped captive cougars. Cougars from the West are also claiming the territory.
I would not be surprised if the the Service concludes that any cougars found are domestic releases or escapes and deserve no protection.
People who keep buy wolves, cougars and other such animals on the underground market are not the species or the animal any favors. A good example is the uproar over the sheep-killing, domestic wolf that was released and lived in NE Montana for several years.