On Sun, 14 Jul 1996, Diana wrote:
> This has been a very interesting discussion Don. It is obvious that =
> some of the wildlife management strategies do differ between our states =
> and it appears that Washington has cougar over a much brader area than =
> OR seeing as how yours are limited to the Wallowas. I think we just =
Oregon has cougars in more than just the Wallowas. I hvae heard of cats
in the Coast Range from reliable observers.
I'd also note that the population is spreading to places where
they were originally found--the rarest report in the last Nebraska
Ornithologists' Union newsletter was a railroad killed couagr between
Scittsbluff and Mitchell in western Nebraska--this is the same area which
had a rare bear alert for a black bear some 12 years or so ago.
The major concern lately in the Portland news in an increase in
the number of missing pets due to coyotes in the Troutdale area. Wild
animals will take our domestic pets (remember those eagle-small dog
stories a few months ago) and even small kids when they have the
opprtunity. Much as we would like to, we can't remove ourselves from teh
food chain, even if we are still in the middle of it rather than at the
apex.
All of this reminds me finally of the commercials during the
Oregon initiative whcih had a retired wildlife professor from OSU
spouting the evils of the spreading bear and cougar populations--after a
short discussion of some facts, the camera panned to several
sub-kindergarten youngsters playing on a swingset, implying the prey
possibility.
A very interesting thread!! RK
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ray Korpi "This is school; they have to do everything
Hm: Portland, OR everything assbackwards"
Wk: Clark College --Butt-Head
Vancouver, WA
rkorpi at clark.edu