Helen McGinnis of Eastern Cougar Foundation revealing her Organizations findings....Revealing that Cougars in the Southern Appalachians are indeed Ghosts and currently extirpated from the region

From: Meril, Rick

To: 'HelenMcGinnis@frontiernet.net' <HelenMcGinnis@frontiernet.net> Sent: Sat Apr 10 08:48:28 2010Subject:

 

Re: Wolves in South Dakota

 

Helen

Teriffic data.......I am never put off or upset hearing your very informed response and insights.

Keep em coming my way and many thanks.

Rick

 

From: Helen McGinnis <HelenMcGinnis@frontiernet.net>
To: Meril, Rick
Sent: Sat Apr 10 07:51:57 2010
Subject: Re: Wolves in South Dakota

Thanks, Rick.  I'm glad you weren't upset by my response.   I let Chris Spatz read it below I sent it to you.
 
The most recent blog items are posted on our Home page- www.easterncougar.org  All the items, going back to the beginning in June 2008, are in "Cougar News," which can be downloaded from the left column of our Home page.  All the items are categorized by state and other subjects.  I am mainly limiting news items to areas from which cougars have been extirpated (and to the three areas that have been recolonized).
 
Females occasionally travel long distances, but rarely.  I wrote an article entitled "Females are the key to cougar recolonization" in the June 2009 issue of our newsletter - http://www.easterncougar.org/newltr_pdf/ecfnew_june09.pdf  No females have been documented outside of the three recolonized areas since the one was killed in SE South Dakota in 2007.
 
I am attaching one significant recent news article.  It's now official.  A cougar population does exist in the Pine Ridge area of northwestern Nebraska.  This is the third area to be naturally recolonized.  Females and kittens have been documented for the past few years.  So far, cougars are protected in Nebraska; their attitude is very different from attitudes in North and South Dakota, where hunting seasons have been instituted.
----- Original Message -----
From: Meril, Rick
To: 'HelenMcGinnis@frontiernet.net'
Sent: Saturday, April 10, 2010 10:36 AM
Subject: Re: Wolves in South Dakota

Helen

Truly thorough and full explanation you are below. Thank you for your thoughtful response

I do have eastern cougar foundation as one of my favorite links,,,,,,is there another URL address u can give me for your COUGAR NEWS BLOG?

Meanwhile , like u, want restoration thru colonization and REPLANTING(a..ka. Yellowstone restoration of wolves) to take place for the cougar..........the lack of female dispersal makes it very tough for this to happen without human assistance.

Thanks for your friendship and informative updates.

Happy weekend Helen!

Rick

 

From: Helen McGinnis <HelenMcGinnis@frontiernet.net>
To: Meril, Rick
Sent: Sat Apr 10 04:53:28 2010
Subject: Re: Wolves in South Dakota

Rick,
 
Yes, I am getting the email alerts.  Thanks.  I am enjoying them.
 
The ghost cats in the East are truly ghosts.  Except for our ongoing remote camera project in the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in western Kentucky, the Eastern Cougar Foundation has largely abandoned the search for evidence of cougars in the East.  All of the photographic images and videos of assumed cougars we have seen have turned out to be bobcats or housecats, which a smattering of incomplete views of other animals such as dogs and deer.  Almost all the assumed cougar tracks are dog or small bear.  Almost the photos and videos of assumed "black cougars" are housecats, which can be distinguished by difference in body proportions and behavior--with one exception--a black leopard shot in Missouri that had been declawed.  (For example, housecats often raise their tails vertically when they are standing or walking; cougars never do.)
 
Our major goals now are restoration of viable cougar populations in suitable regions of the central US and reintroduction of cougars in the East outside of southern Florida.  By restoration, we mean doing what we can to ensure the survival of dispersing subadults from the Rockies, Black Hills, Texas, the Pine Ridge area of NW Nebraska and perhaps from the Badlands of SW North Dakota.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of confirmations are of young males;  unlike wolves, female cougars rarely disperse long distances.
 
I am going into some detail because at the top right of your screen you have an item entitled
Are Cougars recolonizing Michigan?...The Appalachians next?
The answer to your rhetorical question is No.  The cat in the Sterling Heights video is undoubtedly a house cat.  There are five recent confirmations (probably representing no more than 3 cougars) on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  No recolonization can take place without females and kittens.  No cougars have been documented on the Lower Peninsula despite what the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy, Denise Massey, and others are saying.
 
If you allow yourself to get sidetracked into the controversy as to whether cougars now exist in the East, you will be doing nothing to further their recovery.  There is absolutely no evidence of any populations of cougars in the East outside of Florida, and almost no evidence of ANY isolated cougars.  The only confirmation of a cougar in the East since 2000 was in November 2008, when an undoubted young male Florida panther was shot in west-central Georgia.  The reason that no cougar have been documented in the East in the last 10 years, with that one exception in Georgia, is that in most states, it is now illegal for private owners to keep potentially dangerous animals such as cougars, and it is now also illegal to transport them across state lines.  The few cougars documented between 1990 and 2000 in the East were probably former captives.  In the US, at least, there were not enough of them to establish a population.
 
That being said, I really appreciate what you are doing for carnivores.  We would appreciate your calling your readers' attention to our website, especially our blog, Cougar News.  Many articles are posted on our Home page every week.  Most are derived from the news media, but we also post original items.  Few news article on cougars in the East are posted because we have a policy of not posting such articles unless there is evidence, and the evidence is cougar. 
----- Original Message -----
From: Meril, Rick
To: 'HelenMcGinnis@frontiernet.net'
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 11:17 AM
Subject: Re: Wolves in South Dakota

Helen

Good to hear from you.....thanks for this scoop

Hope you are signed up to get email alerts everytime I post a new column.

How are things with our "Ghost Cats" in the East? Is there something I can publish giving you and Eastern Cogar Foundation some publicity?

Rick.....in a so-wierd-weather 88 degree day in Baltimore.......things are screwed up!!!!!

 

From: Helen McGinnis <HelenMcGinnis@frontiernet.net>
To: Meril, Rick
Sent: Wed Apr 07 08:08:29 2010
Subject: Wolves in South Dakota

Several recent unpublicized confirmations.  Google wolf south dakota.
 
Congrats on your new blog!