Major news! Three females confirmed well ahead of predictioins IP: 50.204.144.106 Posted on December 16, 2015 at 04:15:45 PM by weather01089
The cougar network posted the following:
"Within weeks of our peer-reviewed paper suggesting females are likely to take 25 YEARS to recolonize parts of the Midwest, we have THREE females confirmed in Manitoba, Kansas, and now in Tennessee - hopefully she's still alive. It would seem we may have less time than we thought to organize our education and outreach!"
Michelle Larue's great work was peer reviewed. This clearly shows that thoughts regarding cougar expansion are way behind the curve of reality, as we have been noting here. A pretty decent population is assumed by the Canadian Wildlife in Ontario and Quebec, and even now a few into New Brunswick. One cat was removed and relocated. from a populated area literally a couple miles from the US border this summer. That cat is likely into Northern New York by now. The thoughts on the females were that this wasn't likely to happen for another 25 years. Mother nature dictated otherwise. It was theorized that females don't travel real far normally, but it is being documented that that's not always the case. With one female hit on the NH/Canada border in the last couple of years (lactating female), and a kitten hit, clearly this trend is going to expand into New England. The few we have now will become more and more and not that far into the future! Replies: