Cougar Biologist(Elk too) Rick Rosatte checking in after our exchange about the status of Cougars in Ontario............Regardless of origen, Cougars are a protected species as the Canadian Scientists subscribe to the proposition that all Cougars in North America are of the same genotype and therefore it does not matter where they emanated from as it relates to their Protection Status...................Also, a very nice note from Noah Sudarsky who is writing an article for National Geographic Magazine about FREE RANGING MTN LIONS which will appear in a future issue

On Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 3:32 AM, Rick Rosatte <rrosatte@nexicom.net> wrote:

Hi Rick: Yes Ontario does re-wild (restore) certain species. For example, I led a project about 14 years ago to restore elk (Cervus elaphus) to Ontario (see attached publication). We captured wild elk in Alberta Canada, then transported them to Ontario and released them in 4 different areas of the province. I have had 12 graduate students (MSC, PhD, post-doc) studying elkr behaviors during the last decade. Most of that is published as well. Some of the US states restored elk as well (Kentucky, Tennessee) from the same source population in Alberta. We have also restored wild turkey's.

 However, we have yet to release any cougars. They are listed as endangered provincially & the gov't is designing a recovery strategy. I have been collecting evidence to prove that cougars exist in Ontario and have submitted that for publication. Too bad that was not published when the US F&W survey did their review. However, there is evidence that cougars exist in Quebec as well as New Brunswick. But again that evidence was essentially ignored in the review. At this point I don't know if re-wildling is in the cards for Ontario but time will tell.

Rick Rosatte

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 On Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 9:37 AM, Rick Rosatte <no-reply@kontactr.com> wrote:

Sender's name : Rick Rosatte
Sender's Email : rrosatte@nexicom.net
Referrer : http://kontactr.com/user/rick.meril

Hi Rick:

I read the blog today and part way down there is a media article by Scott McNeil, Ottawa, entitled "There are still eastern cougars in Ontario". Just to set the record straight this was a misquote. It should have read "Cougars still exist in Ontario"- we have evidence that cougars exist in Ontario but are uncertain of their origin. They could be native animals, immigrants from the west, escaped/released cougars, or most likely a genetic mix of all of those sources.

Rick Rosatte

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Sender's Email : noahsudarsky@gmail.com
Dear Rick Meril

I just came across your terrific blog

. I'm authoring National Geographic Magazine's first article on free-ranging mountain lions, scheduled for 2012.  I'm already in the thick of it, meeting a bunch of scientists tomorrow in San Fran, along with my editor.

 Checking out the Santa Cruz study Friday. There's a lot of great people working out there. Just wanted to thank you for this, and give you the head's up.  Cheers, nms