Lowe Cara Blessley - Listening to Cougar

Listening to Cougar indeed! And hearing, through the voices of some of our finest writers, the echoes of wildness and of fear and of pure joy that say so much about who we are and who we have become.

BILL MCKIBBEN, AUTHOR OF The Bill McKibben Reader

As long as there are still cougars out there, wilderness itself survives. By gathering the best stories to be found from people who have personally experienced the great cat, Marc Bekoff and Cara Blessley Lowe have brought our most elusive animal to life.

DAVID ROTHENBERG, AUTHOR OF Why Birds Sing AND
Thousand Mile Song

Elegant and powerful, cougars are icons of wilderness that stir our dreams and emotions. The vibrant tales of encounters with cougars in this anthology express not only admiration for this adaptable predator but also convey that its survival is our moral obligation. The book is a timely and thoughtful blend of natural history and evocation of a mysterious creature.

GEORGE B. SCHALLER, WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY

Listening to Cougar captures the grace, beauty, and majesty of cougars, and powerfully conveys what cougars mean to people through their own experiences and stories. A must-read for the public, ranchers, scientists, managers, and conservationists, this well-written collectiongives voice to views that until now have gone little-heeded by policymakers, and will help cougars by helping us find common ground.

SUSAN G. CLARK, PROFESSOR OF WILDLIFE ECOLOGY AND

POLICY SCIENCES, YALE UNIVERSITY

I especially enjoyed the return to old school naturalist writings, celebrating writers who truly know their subject and write about it as scientists and storytellers, from the head and from the heart.

KATHY BROWN, PARK RANGER / DISTRICT NATURALIST,

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK

Listening to Cougar describes many scary and awe-inducing, face-to-face encounters with mountain lions (also known as cougars and pumas). I was riveted and could not put the book down. Mountain lions can stalk, ambush and kill a full grown man. Is that why we find these large, pure carnivores so endlessly fascinating? In addition to all the exciting stories in the book, deftly woven in with intriguing information about cougars, what I love about Listening to Cougar is the books emphasis on peoples emotions, feelings and passions. Cara Blessley Lowe and Marc Bekoff have brought together nearly twenty outstanding writers, including poets, biologists, hunters, naturalists and researchers, who tell in lyrically lucid prose of their intimate experiences with this most elusive of animals. Once cougars were the largest ranging mammal in the western hemispere, but humans have relentlessly killed them and stolen their habitat. Listening to Cougar is a profoundly important book. If enough people read it and start working for conservation, the magnificent mountain lion could still be saved.

CHRIS PALMER, DISTINGUISHED FILM PRODUCER IN RESIDENCE

AND DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL FILMMAKING,

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

A far-ranging, inspired collection of voices speaking for cougars and seeing the world through the eyes of this great but vulnerable cat.

BRENDA PETERSON, AUTHOR OF

Build Me an Ark: A Life with Animals

In Listening To Cougar, reverence for cougar lives on through the power of story from those who have been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the shadow cat in the wild. This collection of essays brings to life the power and majesty of this large cat and whether or not you have been fortunate enough to see one in the wild, these gripping stories bring home the importance that these animals remain living wild and free in our natural world.

SHARON NEGRI, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND FOUNDER,

WILDFUTURES, A PROJECT OF EARTH ISLAND INSTITUTE

LISTENING to COUGAR

Marc Bekoff and Cara Blessley Lowe, Editors

2007 by the University Press of Colorado

Published by the University Press of Colorado
5589 Arapahoe Avenue, Suite 206C
Boulder, Colorado 80303

All rights reserved

First paperback edition 2008
Printed in the United States of America

The University Press of Colorado is a proud member of the Association of American University Presses.

The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, and Western State College of Colorado.

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1992

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Listening to cougar / Marc Bekoff and Cara Blessley Lowe, editors.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-87081-894-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)

ISBN 978-0-87081-936-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. PumaAnecdotes. I.

Bekoff, Marc. II. Lowe, Cara Blessley.

QL737.C23L57 2007

599.7524dc22

2007033012

Design by Daniel Pratt

17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to Wildlife Biologist Rocky Spencer,
who spent his life educating people how to peacefully co-exist
with wildlife. In his final years, he worked extensively with
cougars. He loved this work immensely and learned a great
deal about listening to cougar.
For all wild animalsmay you remain wild at heart.
MB
For Jen, ever courageous.
CBL

CONTENTS

FOREWORD
Jane Goodall

Cara Blessley Lowe

Ted Kerasote

Steve Edwards

J. Frank Dobie

Janay Brun

Linda Sweanor

Christina Kohlruss

Gary Gildner

David C. Stoner

Julia B. Corbett

THE SACRED CAT: THE ROLE OF THE MOUNTAIN LION IN
NAVAJO MYTHOLOGY AND TRADITIONAL LIFEWAY
Steve Pavlik

Rick Bass

Deanna Dawn

Suzanne Duarte

Cara Blessley Lowe

Marc Bekoff

Joan Fox

Wendy Keefover-Ring

BK Loren

Barry Lopez

MAPPING VALUES: COUGARS AND THE
PERSPECTIVES OF HUMAN STAKEHOLDERS

JANE GOODALL

When I was about nine years old, I found, in the secondhand bookstore that I haunted as a child, a book about a wonderful friendship between a boy and a wild cougar. I cannot remember the plot, and although I have searched and searched among the hundreds of books that fill every room of our house, I cannot find that little paperback with its orange/red cover. But it gave me a fascination for cougarsalso known as mountain lions or pumas. I wanted to find out more about the beautiful big cat of the Americas, with its dark rounded ears, white muzzle, and glorious sand-colored coat. The cat that would never hurt you, I was sure, unless provoked.