Connecticut Mountain Lion "Crossed US" before death

[iscooterliberally]

Source: BBC

DNA tests showed the cat was native to the Black Hills of South Dakota, 1,800 miles (2,896km) away, scientists said.

And its DNA matched that of an animal collected by chance in 2009 and 2010 in the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14303496

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Xithras]

2. Probably looking for a mate.

Mountain lions usually have home ranges with widths ranging from a few dozen miles up to a couple hundred. The only exception seems to be when they're looking for a mate, when they can travel much longer distances. Male mountain lions are ejected from their mothers range when they reach maturity, and will typically wander off and look for areas occupied by other females. If there is already a male range overlapping that female range, the male mountain lion will either fight the other male for control of that area, or will move on to find another area without males.

My guess would be that the lion was born on the edge of their current distribution area and wandered off looking for a mate. He simply chose the wrong direction to walk. When he went into a new area and didn't find any mates, he did what most animals do in that situation, and just kept walking. He was walking through habitat friendly to his species, and simply assumed that the next female range would just be over the next hill or in the next valley. There was no way he could have known that mountain lions were exterminated in that area more than a century ago, so he just kept walking and looking.

[iscooterliberally]

3. The things us mammals will go through to find a mate.

Poor kitty. All that territory was apparently once his native habitat too. :cry:

[Angry Dragon]

4. R&K

:toast: to the cat

[SteveM]

5. Saw a "painter" in thej Fla Panhandle in 1970...

leaping across a state highway traversing the Wakulla Forest about 4 a.m. Though these cats certainly occupied this area well into the 20th Century, they have since been considered "extirpated" from N.Florida and inhabit SW Florida. The cat was probably a "pet" which was released to "fend for itself," or a cat looking for some kind of home range. Attempts to re-establish panthers into N. Florida have been problematic, but they are holding their own down state.

I have no problem with the presence of panthers, bears, wolves, jaguars (all present in Florida until the early 19th Century; bears making a comeback): They are hunting some of the same animals I hunt.

[iscooterliberally]

9. I crossed the Tamiami Trail a few months back.

I went from Miami to Naples on a rescue run for an adopted dog. There are a whole bunch of signs alerting to the fact that it's a Florida Panther area there. At night you have to slow down to 45 mph through the western part. I didn't get to see any big cats, but I was on the lookout for them. I hope they make a comeback. They are truly magnificent.

[SteveM]

11. I had some old-time Florida tales passed down to me through...

my Cracker heritage. And there is the (out of print?) Yahoo Bobcat, wherein the "falsely accused" bobcat is redeemed when it was discovered the real "culprit" was a panther. That good-bad dichotomy rums through some of the legends.

[iscooterliberally]

13. Have you seen 'How The States Got Their Shapes'?

They did a segment on the Florida Crackers in one of the recent episodes. They spoke about how the Crackers helped to round up a bunch of cattle so Walt Disney could start building Disney World. I think the show is on The History Channel. There's a state park not too far from where I live that you can sometimes spot bobcats in the late afternoon too.

[canaar]

15. Going further off topic for a moment --

I lived in Central Florida for a time (Imperial Polk County - Bartow. Includes Lakeland and Winter Haven). Bartow was home to Jacob Summerlin "King of the Crackers." Prior to the Civil War and Texas's subsequent dominance in the beef cattle industry, Florida was a major beef supplier to the nation. These cattle freely ranged primarily in Central Florida. The Florida 'cowboys' (a term to be later invented/popularized by the plains cattle drives) were referred to a "Crackers" because of the sound of the cracking whips that the cattle workers would use to assist in rounding up the cattle.

[SteveM]

16. My pre-Civil War Cracker ancestors are buried in Bartow...

They did more farming than catching cows. The term "Cracker" has many origins; one is the loud whip, another derives from the Scots term for "boasting, telling tall tails," another from folks who hand-cracked pecans against each other, still another (Georgia) for cracking corn for distilleries, and finally for talking, playing games or doing deals over cracker barrels in various general stores. Our family never saw, nor do they see now, an insult when one is described as a "Cracker."

From what I've read, Crackers never had much use for good saddles, boots or ropes; the whip was the thing!

BTW, Zora Neale Hurston, largely known for her collection of black folklore, and the novels she wrote based on it, published her last novel, Seraph on the Suwannee, in 1949. It depicts the struggles of a Cracker family, a theme most likely inspired by the novels South Moon Under and The Yearling by Marjorie K. Rawlings. Hurston spent the night with Rawlings, somehow not causing a stir in the Cross Creek area; hell, Marjorie had already hosted the president of G.E. and Robert Frost, among others. They were shell-shocked.

[JCMach1]

17. I grew up in the town where the Wahoo Bobcat was set...

...Florahome was almost surrounded by water. The Etoniah Company started digging in 1899 and the train came through. The area drained was called "Wahoo Prairie." Disney made a movie here and called it "the Wahoo Bobcat."... http://www.usacitiesonline.com/flcountyflorahome.htm

On the homestead, bobcats were frequent visitors... Haven't seen one in years though. We still have many deer, turkeys, hawks, gopher tortoises, rabbit, fox, and lots of birds... Including sandhill cranes every Fall.

[SnakeEyes]

6. Hope we dont see more of this

It's often a sign of climate changes.

[closeupready]

7. Beautiful specimen - so sad that it was killed.

:cry:

[Altoid_Cyclist]

8. Such a magnificent animal :(

Our local HS teams are called the Mountain Lions although we exterminated these royal cats from this area a long time ago.

Don't it always seem to go......http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWwUJH70ubM

Joni Mitchell and her still relevant song.

[The Stranger]

10. He was "killed on a road" -- what a fucking waste.

I guess some worthless piece of shit had to get there sooner and hit him.

[uppityperson]

14. You make a lot of assumptions there. How do you know the driver wasn't terribly upset vs "worthless

piece of shit"? Shame on you.

[caseymoz]

12. He must have been really unhappy where he was.

What motivated him to move and keep moving? What were the greener pastures he was looking for? We'll never know. How tragic.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

18. This is a very sad story.

He tried so hard to find a mate.

I think cougars are making their way back into the area I live. I've heard of two people seeing them and I think, by the way the dogs were acting one morning, one was passing by our place in the night. They follow the creek it seems.

Even though we have cattle and horses, I wouldn't mind seeing the big cats back. We have such a large population of deer there will be lots to keep them busy. We'll just have to make breed more horned cattle and keep the horses where they can make a run for it I guess. Let nature sort its self out.

We do have Bobcats and lots of coyotes.

[Auntie Bush]

19. Poor thing! What a sickening shame. I just hope he didn't leave

a couple of cubs without a father to help feed them...if they do that. I always think about the babies left behind whenever I see a road kill. After watching the Decorah Eagles cam this year... I'm very aware of the Dad's part in feeding the young. Of coarse all males don't do that but many do.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

20. Here's more about him

http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?Q=483778&A=4013

[Cherchez la Femme]

21. I saw a panther road kill about 30 mi. S Of Harrisburg

near York, a couple years back. Shocked me.

That freeway is so busy and convoluted, any wildlife getting near it stands little chance of getting back off it alive.


But as for the Florida panthers, I was reading just a week ago or so about the sub-species of Florida panther
--in fact I believe, as for sub-species of the Fl. variety, there is more than one--
and that there were something like 30 cats found dead on the Florida highways every year.

I'll go look, but I am not sure
in fact fairly doubtful
if I'll be able to dig those links up again :(


EDIT:

Couldn't find exact links I read then, but the 2009 road-kill deaths were 17; among them were at least a few nursing monthers whose kittens were never found, and so are considered now dead too
"baby panther kittens (are) hidden away by the mother for safety and (were, these of the subject of this article: link below) never located. They are presumed dead since cannot hunt and survive on their own"

A death toll in the year of 2009 of (a minimum of) 17, and

"There are over 100 Florida panthers remaining with their habitat increasingly diminished due to human development."

Almost, if not more than 20% of the population dead in one year!
Extinction is right around the corner...


Both quotes from: http://www.suite101.com/content/endangered-florida-panthers-again-road-kill--cubs-still-missing-a240767

Read more at Suite101: Endangered Florida Panthers Again Roadkill. Cubs Still Missing | Suite101.com http://www.suite101.com/content/endangered-florida-panthers-again-road-kill--cubs-still-missing-a240767#ixzz1TNKN48Kn