Conference misery::feline_v1

    Speaking of panthers did anyone see the recent article about panther
    sightings in New England? (I think it was in the Globe.) The conclusion
    was that there may well be panthers passing through, but, since
    the sightings were so infrequent, there was a probablity of nearly
    95% that there is no native breeding population. My husband thought
    he saw one at night about a year ago in the woods in Warwick Mass.
    At least he saw something big and tawny with a long tail. Does anyone
    else have any panther sighting stories?

    Only years ago, when I was younger and growing up in Southern Vermont.
    I can remember one night there was something in our garbage can
    and when we (parents & kids) investigated, there was a panther (so
    my father says) on its hind legs with its head in the barrel.  
    
    Of course this was about twenty years ago, (God, has it been that
    long). And we grew up in a very isolated area.
    
    donna b.
    

Does anyone know the difference between a panther and a mountain
  lion?  Do we have panthers in the New England area?  i thought
  panthers were black and mountain lions were tan????  I thought
  I saw a mountain lion in an apple orchard in Harvard, Mass.
  about 15 years ago when i was riding horse back on day. It moved
  so fast that it was hard to tell for sure.

    Re .3:
    
    A true panther is a melanistic leopard and is native to Africa and
    has only a very distant relationship to the North American feline.
    
    However, in the days of the American pioneers, people were a lot
    less discriminating and called the largish cat over here buy a lot
    of names.  Among them were "Mountain Lion," "Panther," "Cougar,"
    and "Painter" (corruption of "panther").
    
    After all, we call almost all felines "cats" ...
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    

    Re: 3,4:
    
    Not to mention "catamount" and "puma."  The scientific name for this
    'cat of many names' Felis concolor.  
    
    Here are two reasons eaterners won't see many of them: 1) a 2300 acre
    area of wilderness has the carrying capacity of just one cougar, 2) in
    its habitat, a cougar can be almost next to you without your realizing
    it is there. [For whatever reason, cougars have been known to stalk
    human vistors for miles, without harming them or revealing its
    presence.] 
    

    The article I read - Globe SciTech section a few weeks ago compared
    cat sign in Florida where there are known breeding populations.
    They concluded that when breeding poplations are present scats can
    be found. Since searchers in New England have not found scat (fecal
    material) they concluded that the reported sightings were of transitory
    animals.

Associated Press Mon 20-OCT-1986 06:21                          Cougar Attack

        Boy, 6, Mauled by Cougar in Park Where Earlier Attack Occurred
    
    SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. (AP) - A 6-year-old boy was mauled by a
    cougar that snatched him from a hiking trail and took his head in its
    jaws before being scared off by the boy's knife-wielding father, the
    father said. 
    
    Justin Mellon of Huntington Beach, the second child attacked by a
    cougar this year in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park, was in
    satisfactory condition early today after being attacked on Sunday. "He
    never did cry that entire time," said Justin's father, Timothy Mellon,
    28. "He just fought that mountain lion, which had to weigh at least 150
    pounds." 
    
    About 200 people were evacuated from the Orange County park on Sunday
    afternoon while rangers and hunters stalked the animal. They failed to
    find the cat and planned to return at dawn today, said Tim Miller, a
    parks official. 
    
    Justin suffered lacerations on his head, arms and chest, said nursing
    supervisor Theresa Castillo at Mission Community Hospital in Mission
    Viejo. 
    
    Mellon said Justin was hiking with a group of children and adults. "The
    children ran ahead of us about 15 yards and around a curve," he said.
    "You could hear laughing. Then all of a sudden it turned into screams."
    Mellon said he pulled out a knife and ran to help his son. "Right
    before I got to it, (the lion) released him," Mellon said. 
    
    The park was the site of the state's first recorded cougar attack in 77
    years when a cat mauled 5-year-old Laura Michele Small of El Toro on
    March 23. The girl suffered serious head injuries. 
    
    Laura's parents last month filed a $28 million lawsuit in Orange County
    Superior Court against the county, the state and the National Audubon
    Society contending that they should have been warned of the danger of
    cougar attacks. "We get sightings almost every day; that's no secret,"
    said Tony Gimbrone, parks district supervisor. Warning signs were
    posted around the park after the attack on Laura. 
                                                     

Associated Press Wed 29-OCT-1986 19:11                         Cougar Attacks

             Restrict Use of Park Where Cougars Attacked Children
    
    SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - The Orange County Board of Supervisors on
    Wednesday barred children from hiking trails and campgrounds in a
    wilderness park where cougars attacked two youngsters earlier this
    year. Children will be allowed in picnic areas in the Ronald W. Caspers
    Wilderness Park, but only if accompanied by adults, the supervisors
    decided. 
    
    Adults will be required to travel in groups of two or more when hiking
    the trails in the park, in the Santa Ana Mountains 60 miles southeast
    of Los Angeles. They also will be required to get a free permit, giving
    rangers a chance to warn them of the cougars. 
    
    The supervisors also endorsed a recommendation from the county
    Environmental Management Agency to keep the park closed until Jan. 2
    while rangers and wildlife biologists try to count and study the
    behavior of the park's population of cougars, also called mountain
    lions or pumas. 
    
    The park, visited by an estimated 5,000 people a month, was the scene
    of the state's first mountain lion attack in decades: the March 23
    mauling of 5-year-old Laura Michelle Small of El Toro. Laura survived
    the attack, but remains partially paralyzed and blind in one eye. 
    
    On Oct. 19, 6-year-old Justin Mellon of Huntington beach was dragged
    from a trail by a cougar that took his head in its jaws. He is
    recovering from injuries that required 100 stitches to repair. 
    
    Experts say the mountain lions view children as prey because of their
    high-pitched voices and jerky movements. "They see a kid as a big, fat
    rabbit," Gary Bogue said. "If you go to the zoo with your kids, watch
    the eyes of the leopards," said Bogue, who as curator of Alexander
    Lindsey Junior Museum in Walnut Creek has raised mountain lions from
    cubs. "They're staring at the kids." 
    
    Bogue said the big cats may be just naturally reacting to the size,
    voices and movements of small children. A domesticated mountain lion
    seeing a child will act much as a housecat does when it spots a mouse,
    Bogue said. It will crouch as if in preparation for a spring and watch
    intently. 
    
    Lee Fitzhugh, a mountain lion specialist at the University of
    California at Davis, said the lions may react to high-pitched noises
    and jerky movements of children. Studies show predatory cats are
    stimulated to attack by certain movements, particularly by objects or
    animals darting across their line of sight or away from them. 
    
    An adult has a good chance of stopping an attack, Fitzhugh said, by
    standing his or her ground and shouting. Such behavior isn't natural to
    prey species he said, adding that studies show cats are frightened by
    threats from above, as from a person standing over them. 

    I'm out here in Orange county not too far from where these attacks
    happened.  That's an interesting clipping.  A couple of points of
    interest that I wanted to add (we got lots more info, locally -
    too much really):
    The papers here published a photo that was taken during one family's
    outing the day before the second attack (the one in oct.). In the
    photo is a woman with her arm around her daughter, standing in front
    of a brush/bush area on one of the nature trails.  You can ver plainly
    see a/the cougar standing at the very edge of the brush (about 15
    feet behind them) looking out at them.  Interesting.
    
    Also, re: the clipping's last paragraph "An adult has a good chance
    of stopping an attack,..."
    It just so happens that the second attack was stopped by the little
    boy's father, when the father rushed at the cougar with a knife
    in his hand.  I guess the cougar didn't want to deal with the
    challenge.  He (the cougar) just dropped the boy, and ran off into
    the bushes.
    
    Molly

    Re: .8 and .9:
    
    I submit that the cougars behavior does not constitue an "attack"
    of any kind. The big cat is just fascinated/confused by the presence
    of an intriguing being (the small child).  This does not mean that
    these animals are not dangerous, just that we shouldn't interpret
    their behavior as decidedly aggressive; if such an animal diliberately
    set out to harm someone, that person would be instantly dead --
    adult or child. 
    
    Re: photo with cat in background:  Extraordinary! These animals have
    been reported to track hikers for miles (out of sheer curiosity?).
    Because of the animal's stealth, the people usually never realize
    they've been followed; afterward, park rangers spot the tracks.
    
    To sum up, cougars are not equiped by instinct to know what people
    are, or what to do about their presence.  I submit that the "prey"
    theory is bogus.
             

    O.K. So the cougar's behavior does not constitute an attack on the
    little girl or boy.  I think you're arguing semantics, and, so what?
    If the news report had said that a cougar in the park had been
    fascinated/confused with the presence of small children, and had
    nearly mauled a couple of young children to death in the course
    of investigating them, the readers would have been very confused.
    I think it's perfectly resonable to label these incidents as 'attacks'.
    The cougars motivation for 'attacking' is of interest to those who
    are studying such behavior, not the general public.  The point of
    the news in this case is to report an incident that may have bearing
    on the readers level of awareness about 'safety' in wildlife preserves,
    or wild parks.  It would hardly be likely to help people protect
    their children if you warned them about possible investigations
    by mountain lions, that 'could be harmful' to one's health....
    
    Anyway enough said.  Let's just hope it doesn't happen to another
    child, whatever the cougar's purpose.

    Re last few:
    
    Cougars are notoriously afraid of adult humans, but children are
    another matter.
    
    However: one thing that nearly brings me to a boil is the "tourist
    syndrome"; that is, if you're a tourist, you're immune from harm.
    The park rangers at Yellowstone Park talk themselves hoarse warning
    people against feeding the bears, and people feed the bears anyway.
    If _I_ saw a cougar, no matter how much I love felines (and I do,
    very much), I'd be wary.  If I had children, I'd be doubly so for
    their sakes.
    
    Don't penalize big cats for being cats, but don't assume that just
    because they're cats that they shouldn't be respected as possible
    maulers by visitors top their territory.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    

    Re: .1,.2 and .6:
    
    My major professor at Middlebury College has a 3-page article in
    "Vermont Natural History" (a publication of the Vermont Institute of
    Natural Science, Woodstock VT 05091) with the title as shown in the
    angle brackets.  It details the history of courgar encounters in
    Vermont, from the mid 19th century to July, 1986. 
    
    If anyone is interested in this subject, I can make photocopies
    from my reprint.  Or you can request a reprint from the author:
    
    	Dr. Harold B. Hitchcock
    	1 Locust Lane
    	Middlebury VT 05753
    
    I'd be interested to know if any of you know of any other sightings of
    this elusive Eastern subspecies of the mountain lion (Felis concolor
    couguar).  The animal is on both the Federal and Vermont list of
    endangered mammals and cannot be legally taken (hence no prospect
    for new museum specimens). 
    
    [Are there any former members of the now defunct "Irrepressible
    and Uncompromising Order of Panthers" among us? :-)]

    For another article, contact Yankee Publications in Dublin, NH.
    
    Yankee ran a story a few years ago about panther sightings in NE. They
    are indeed elusive and sightings are quite rare in the Norteast.
    But the big cats are here.
    
    Dick_who_used_to_handle_big_cats_in_the_zoo.