Cougars in Chicago!

[Barklessdog]

Cougars are making a comeback in Chicago and not the AAA minor league baseball team or the MILF kind.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=172934

[TBird1958]

Wow....do s'pose it was hunting children?  "baby, the other, other white meat"
Seriously tho, I had coyotes in my front yard a couple of times, kinda surprising. 

[Max Soren]

I am amazed at some of the comments at the end of the article criticizing the cops for shooting the cougar.  What were they supposed to do?  Sing it a lullaby hoping it would fall asleep?

[Barklessdog]

They could have darted it, like they do with bears that wonder into towns. It was not going on a rampage.
Still they are deadly with the highly publicized attacks in California. They do attack people unlike coyotes.

There was a coyote that ducked into a busy downtown sandwich shop. They captured and relocated him.

CHICAGO -- The coyote who surprised people in the loop when he casually strolled into a Quizno's sub shop Tuesday is back in the wild.

The 18-month-old male coyote could be the most photographed coyote in the world, his Quiznos visit making news all over the globe.
"This one definitely I will definitely remember forever. A coyote in downtown Chicago," Quizno's employee Rick Torres said.
The city captures 10 to 15 coyotes every year, especially in the spring when they are most active, said Anne Kent, director of Chicago Animal Care and Control.

The real problem is we are destroying their habitat and protection has brought populations up, so where are they supposed to live?

In California they were showing the building that encroaches into wildlife areas then the people complain about wild animals???

I know a person who lived near a patch of woods that was leveled for a shopping center. She said when they leveled the woods she watched the animals trying to escape accross the busy road only to get flattened by cars.

We really needed that new strip shopping center.

[Dave W]

Plenty of coyotes around here displaced by all the new construction. A number of people who let their cats roam find that they don't come back. They go after field mice and if they roam too far they become tasty snacks for coyotes.

[Lightyear]

Some mo' probably had it for a "pet" and either got tired of it or it got away


And, I'm sorry, I just had to post the link:  

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cougar

[jmcgliss]

Well...the cougar sightings go back two weeks or so without any reports of lost pets or children and our coyotes have coexisted.  Our neighbor's blue chicken (really) is still safe in his driveway.  Seems a bit over the top for CPDto let loose a fusillade of two dozen shots on a densely populated block.  Supposedly they tracked the cat for six hours but had no time to bring in a tranquilizer gun?  Meanwhile I just heard on the news about the 24th CPS student who was shot today. WTF.

[Lightyear]

Several months back a homeowner here in Houston shot a pit bull (once, I believe) that was attacking his family and the police tossed his keister under the jail.  Took the Grand Jury 5 minutes to no bill him.

[eb2]

I saw lots of coyotes running around when I was in Phoenix.  I would hate to run into one at night, but if I had to chose, I would take one over a cougar any day. 

There really is a problem with the pre-Columbian food chain though.  Our lakes here are getting all out of whack with the duck and geese dumping unholy amounts of their turds in them.  The natural predators are long gone. 

[uwe]

It would have been nicer if they had sedated it - it was probably scared and disoriented, but then so were most likely the cops who came face to face with it! I forgive them for drawing their guns though it was probably not necessary.

There is a lot of hypocracy with predators. Everyone in Germany bemoans that we've lost bear, wolf and lynx centuries ago, but whenever a wolf is seen somewhere (they are moving back into national parks) it's on the national news. Likewise, a bear which moved from Northern Italy to Germany two years ago lost popularity once it started feeding on sheep, it turned into the "problem bear" and was eventually shot and stuffed (the Italians protested on diplomatic levels both against the shooting and the stuffing and subsequent display in a German museum of their, errrm, "countrybear"). But the pack of wolves that is resident in Saxony seems to be doing fine (and even the sheepowners association has endorsed it - well they get paid by the state for every sheep lost to a wolf!) and there was even room for romance when a three-legged wolf (that had probably lost its leg in a trap in Eastern Europe) in 2000 courted a female German Shepherd dog name of "Xena" for days (a case of animal magnetism as she was suspected to have wolf blood in her) In the end, the "grey Romeo" was caught and is now in a large wolf park, hopefully with visiting rights for Xena!



The sedated lover:



The object of his passion, Xena, who promptly fell pregnant (no idea what happened to the "shepwolf" pups):



I saw a TV documentation on wolves in Romania some time ago. They roam the large cities at night and in the weewee hours of the morning, feeding on rabbits, cats and garbage and transporting their prey for many miles to their cubs in a nearby national park. No attacks on humans have been reported and they are a common sight, heading back to their forests alongside the streets as the sun rises and commuter traffic starts. People are relaxed about them because the wolf is a positive figure in Romanian mythology and folklore and seen as a bringer of good luck.   

PS: Flash thought: Is the offspring of wolf and dog fertile? It must be. Doesn't that make them one species? I remember that the accepted definition of a species was (it might have changed) that you could mate two specimen and they'd have (1) fertile offspring (2) without genetic defects (which is why horse and donkey are two different species - mules are not fertile - and lions and tigers too, because "ligers" pass on too many genetic defects to the next generation). 

[Barklessdog]

Some mo' probably had it for a "pet" and either got tired of it or it got away


And, I'm sorry, I just had to post the link:  

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cougar

Actually another one was spotted and they had helicopters out looking for it. Maybe it's mate?

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/899432,CST-NWS-cougar17.article

They have also been spotted in Wisconsin.

[Barklessdog]

Actually Urban Cougars are being spotted everywhere-

http://www.urbancougar.com/ucmonth.php

Ah, the Cougar Den, that wonderful habitat of the sexy older woman. The hotel bar. The after-hours dive... Cougar Dens are popping up all over the world, and at a record pace. This page represents a collection of some of the best dens we and our readers have found over the years.

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

I had 3 encounters with cougars in Lake County....twice while walkin' around the block & once in my driveway!!! 

Just spent 2 weeks there workin' on the ol' cabin I used to live in. I planned to go just for a weekend but had to deal with many unforeseen problems that arose. Things like a leaky oil heater & this & that not being up to new codes.
When the guy who put laminate flooring in & all new kitchen & bathrooms & drywall throughout told me last year that I was gonna like it so much I'd wanna move back there, I laffed so hard I nearly split a gut. ....but now that I've fine tuned the place & it's up to the "turnkey" standard & I have neighbors watering & cleaning up the yards & a cleaning lady keeping it presentable for prospective buyers, it's really pretty decent & I actually AM considering moving back there!

It's got a bright red door & blooming red roses to match so I'm hopin' some young couple will fall in love with it & buy it for the very reasonable price of $175k.
Have a look at www.realtor.com & type in 95060 zip & the price.
It's been fixed up a lot since the last photos were taken. Decks fully restored with several coats of grey ($30 a gallon) & aforementioned detailing done.
New pics will be up soon....

Yes, it's WILD to have lions roaming the neighborhood, but you've got a good view of Clear Lake ( California's largest lake) & the cleanest air in the state. Winters & summers are brutal compared to SoCal & Hawaii but still...not a bad place to live.
I spent 5 years there so far.....may return midsummer if the place hasn't sold.
I'd hate to sell my million dollar pad here in the Southland....but I'm about to notify a realtor that it may be available....

"I'm goin' back to CATmandu" ~Bob Seger

Ha hahaaa

[Rhythm N. Bliss]

Oh ~ btw, there's no STARBUCKS in the whole county. Talk about roughing it!
If you're cool with that, you might wanna buy my cabin.
I'm quite proud of it now that it's fully renovated.

Hope it sells STRAIGHTAWAY....I've got my eye on a lefty Zemaitis!
A very, very rare & beautiful bird!!!!!!!
I knowm I'm crazy....but I'd sell my million dollar pad & move back to Bumfokk for that fugger!!!

[Barklessdog]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/925956,CST-NWS-cougar01.article

They think he was just looking for some tail.

he 124-pound cougar that ended up in Roscoe Village last month may have started its life nearly 1,000 miles away in South Dakota. And the big cat -- the first cougar found in Cook County since at least 1855 -- definitely passed through southern Wisconsin as it wandered toward Chicago.

DNA testing shows the young male cougar shot by police April 14 is the same animal that was chased out of an abandoned barn near Milton, Wis., in January, Cook County officials said Wednesday.

he reason? The young cat likely was forced out of the region where he was born by older, dominant males -- and took to the road to search for a mate.

"He kept moving because there were no females," said Bruce Patterson, curator of mammals at the Field Museum. "They have to keep moving until they find lady cougars."