Cougar shot and killed within Chicago city limits

[knightni]

Theres nothing scarier than driving with a live cougar in your car.

Except a live deer.

[Controlled Chaos]

And there is also a story about a possibility of a second cougar in the area, they were looking for it today

Search Still On For North Shore Cougar

Reports Of Sighting Tuesday, After Roscoe Village Incident

 

POSTED: 2:22 pm CDT April 16, 2008

UPDATED: 3:06 pm CDT April 16, 2008

 

 

WINNETKA -- Searchers swooped low over the Skokie Lagoons in a helicopter Wednesday morning to look for signs of a cougar after several reported sightings of a big cat there -- including one on Tuesday, a day after a cougar was shot by police in Chicago.

 

Two Cook County Forest Preserve District biologists and a forest preserve police officer spent about 1 1/2 hours hovering above the sprawling forest preserve in an unincorporated area near Winnetka on Wednesday, but saw no signs of a cougar or other large cat.

 

"It was all coyotes, deer and waterfowl -- no signs of big cats," biologist Chris Anchor, one of the airborne searchers, told the Sun-Times.

 

A ground search by forest preserve workers and police also was taking place Wednesday in the preserve at the northern end of Cook County.

 

"We're just being extra, double cautious because of the circumstances," Anchor said, referring to the Monday night discovery of a 2-year-old, 122-pound cougar in Chicago's Roscoe Village neighborhood.

 

"Because of what occurred in Chicago, it behooves us to check out any sightings that seem credible," he said.

 

The most recent report of a big cat at the forest preserve came Tuesday morning, Anchor said.

 

Another sighting -- at Erickson Woods in the southwest corner of the park -- came about 5:30 p.m. Sunday, a county official said.

[Texsox]

And the sightings begin.

[NorthSideSox72]

UPDATE...

 

DNA tests show that the cougar killed in Chicago was indeed the same animal as the one who leapt over a farmer in southern Wisconsin (I was right on that one). And further, it is apparently originally from a population in the Black Hills of western South Dakota (I was wrong on that one - my guess was the closer population in northern Minnesota). Probably, it was also the one spotted in North Chicago and then Wilmette.

 

That cougar travelled a thousand miles or so to get to where it died. That's interesting in itself, but its also important in that the appearance in WI and IL does not appear to signal a significant range expansion of the species south from Canada and Minnesota, but instead appeared to be a single aberrant animal.

 

Linky.

 

[Kyyle23]

What in sams hell made that cat wander into Chicago and just camp out. Thats just crazy

[Texsox]

UPDATE...

 

DNA tests show that the cougar killed in Chicago was indeed the same animal as the one who leapt over a farmer in southern Wisconsin (I was right on that one). And further, it is apparently originally from a population in the Black Hills of western South Dakota (I was wrong on that one - my guess was the closer population in northern Minnesota). Probably, it was also the one spotted in North Chicago and then Wilmette.

 

That cougar travelled a thousand miles or so to get to where it died. That's interesting in itself, but its also important in that the appearance in WI and IL does not appear to signal a significant range expansion of the species south from Canada and Minnesota, but instead appeared to be a single aberrant animal.

 

Linky.

 

Wow! I didn't see that one coming. Thanks for updating.

[NorthSideSox72]

What in sams hell made that cat wander into Chicago and just camp out. Thats just crazy

I don't know, but that type of thing is not entirely unprecedented. Occasionally, an animal will start wandering, and just keep going. I remember when I lived in Iowa, some farmer woke up one morning to see a Moose wandering through his fields in north central Iowa, a few hundred miles from its normal range. Turned out it had a tumor or something. Anyway, sometimes I think something happens to an animal, and it kind of loses its natural sense of direction.

 

[knightni]

What in sams hell made that cat wander into Chicago and just camp out. Thats just crazy

ITALIAN. BEEF. SANDWICHES.

[Texsox]

ITALIAN. BEEF. SANDWICHES.

/homesick the only place I could get a good one closed.

[witesoxfan]

What in sams hell made that cat wander into Chicago and just camp out. Thats just crazy

 

You've apparently never been to South Dakota.

[Kyyle23]

You've apparently never been to South Dakota.

 

A+

[knightni]

I've been to South Dakota.

 

The best part: The sign that said "Welcome to Minnesota".

[Steve9347]

You've apparently never been to South Dakota.

What the hell are you doing in South Dakota?

[witesoxfan]

What the hell are you doing in South Dakota?

 

Cheap school, cheap beer

[Texsox]

Cheap school, cheap beer

 

Coming out of high school in the 1970s, the drinking age of the state where the college was located was a deciding factor for many of my classmates . Mine was simpler, finding a coach that would offer me a spot on his cross country team.

[Kyyle23]

Cougars in Chicago, Jaguars in Arizona

 

At least the cops didnt gun this one down

[NorthSideSox72]

Cougars in Chicago, Jaguars in Arizona

 

At least the cops didnt gun this one down

In the discussions in the Buster about the border fence last year, I brought this very thing up. Surprisingly to most people, there are in fact jaguars in SE AZ and SW NM. Only a few right now, but their very small populations are starting to increase a bit. They are still very endangered though. Jaguars are just one of a large number of animals that straddle that region, including a significant number of endangered species. And that is one among many, many reasons why a virtual fence is a much better decision than an actual wall. It would cause serious problems for many of those species.

 

[Texsox]

The laws the US government are trampling on, not just environmental, is a disgrace to every American who values their rights. Combine that with large campaign contributors receiving special exemptions, makes this a travesty of the tallest order.

 

On the plus side, they are wasting money in my local economy, and fixing an aging levee system that only comes into play during hurricanes.

[Balta1701]

In the discussions in the Buster about the border fence last year, I brought this very thing up. Surprisingly to most people, there are in fact jaguars in SE AZ and SW NM. Only a few right now, but their very small populations are starting to increase a bit. They are still very endangered though. Jaguars are just one of a large number of animals that straddle that region, including a significant number of endangered species. And that is one among many, many reasons why a virtual fence is a much better decision than an actual wall. It would cause serious problems for many of those species.

Is it worth noting that the government spent about $20 million on a prototype test of the "Virtual Fence" and it flat out didn't work?

[Texsox]

Is it worth noting that the government spent about $20 million on a prototype test of the "Virtual Fence" and it flat out didn't work?

 

Any sort of physical barrier, fails when we allow students, tourism, etc. We need a sane workable immigrant worker program tied to jobs, that allows American businesses to hire the workers we need.

[NorthSideSox72]

Is it worth noting that the government spent about $20 million on a prototype test of the "Virtual Fence" and it flat out didn't work?

Two things. One, it didn't "flat out" not work, it worked but didn't meet the level of expectations for the military. Two, that should be expected with any project involving high tech equipment. It was a test iteration. Heck, the company that produced it was shocked that the government came out the way they did about it.

 

My impression is, Congress feels that an actual wall makes them look tougher. Its more concrete, literally. So they are happy to point out when the first test didn't work exactly as planned.