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Author
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Topic: KU cat confirmed by DNA to be a cougar
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted December 10, 2003 04:26 PM
Some time back, I posted a link to a picture that was acquried by remote sensing of what some folks claimed to be a possible cougar on the west campus of the Univ. of Kansas in Lawrence, KS. There was mixed feelings on whether or not it was a cougar, or whatever. This week, a statement was relased confirming that scat retrieved shortly after that pic was taken was tested for DNA and found to contain cougar DNA.
This is the article from the paper.
http://www.ljworld.com/section/mountain_lions/story/154617
This is the first strong evidence of big cats back in Kansas. Still don't know if this comes from a wild cougar, or one raised by people that was just out for a stroll.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted December 11, 2003 07:25 AM
quote:
"I'm just really, really pleased they were able to find that kind of evidence and get it analyzed and nail it down."
Yeah, I'm surprised, too..... I will never be the same after that fiasco up in Washington with the "planted" lynx hairs.
But, don't get me wrong, if we can have lions next door in Montclair, I guess KU is within the realm of possibility.
Another thing they nentioned in the article was the possibility of a declawed domesticated lion not being able to survive in the wild. My cat is declawed, and he ambushes his share of lizards and birds in the yard. Survival is a relative thing.
Interesting item, Lance.
Good hunting. LB
edit: no hate mail, please. Cat found us, already declawed. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
[ December 11, 2003, 07:27 AM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 32386 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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LionHo
Knows what it's all about
Member # 233
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posted December 11, 2003 07:03 PM
Errr, regarding what I said in that other earlier thread,
"I'll happily eat my words and buy into the story if they collect scat, DNA sample it and it comes back F. concolor. (What'd be more typical, is that there'd lion sign all around versus very few sightings. NOT the other way 'round.
My money is on F. catus, Abyssinian breed. But I'd be delighted to be proven wrong."
(ahem...)
Okay, okay... I'm DELIGHTED that there could be a wild mountain lion in KS. I'd like nothing more than for it to be true!
That said, I hope this all doesn't turn out to be some kind of hoax or a captive gone feral. I'm somewhat surprised, and still a bit skeptical yet, of it being a free-ranging, born-in-the-wild ML lion--given the the terrifically long odds of setting a camera for it, capturing it on film, and finding scat, in that sequence.
Too, instinct tells me that if there are wild mountain lions in KS, this one is part of a significant population. Because it'd be a poor biological strategy, for re-establishing a population after having once been extirpated, that a pioneering individual wild cat would be so brazen and not stealthier (IOW running around on a college campus having it's picture taken would qualify it for a Darwin Award).
LionHo
[ December 12, 2003, 04:22 AM: Message edited by: LionHo ]
Posts: 88 | From: Ventana Wilderness, CA | Registered: Aug 2003
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