Loving Monsters (Cougars are just big, lovable pussy cats, after all.)

Tech Central Station ^ | November 5, 2003 | Glenn Harlan Reynolds

[quidnunc]

NPR science reporter David Baron has a new book out, called "The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature." Baron's book is about the return of cougars to the Boulder, Colorado area after decades of hunting-induced absence, and their eventual taste for eating human beings — along with the various fantasy ideologies regarding wildlife and nature that this chain of events revealed.

But, in light of the book's subtitle, I don't think it will be terribly unfair if I use this story as a, er, parable. For the story it tells is, at core, an old one: Monsters are loose, and some people know it, while others pretend not to.

It's a standard theme, from old tales to modern stories like "Harry Potter" and "Buffy." The modern twist is that some people see it as moral to take the side of the people-eaters. One suspects that this isn't so much in spite of the people-eating, but because of it.

Cougars were once regarded as timid, fearful of humans, and far more likely to flee at the sight of people than to regard us as food. Of course, there was a reason for that: for millennia, humans had attacked Cougars whenever possible, regarding them as a menace to safety and as competitors for valuable game. Showing one's face around Indians produced arrows, spears, and torches; later on, appearing around European settlers produced a faceful of lead. Aggressive cougars tended to die young, or to receive sufficient aversive conditioning to learn to leave humans alone.

Later on, a generalized revulsion against predators set in. As Baron notes (it's the source of his title, in fact), meat-eating was supposed by some to have begun with Original Sin — "carnivores" in the Garden of Eden were said to have eaten fruits. In the post-lapsarian world, however, hunting was long seen as something manly, championed by those, like Teddy Roosevelt, who feared that excessive urbanization and industrialization would cause Americans to become too distanced from the reality of nature. But as that distancing took place in spite of Roosevelt's efforts, what is now called "fluffy bunny" syndrome appeared, and predators were regarded as inherently evil. Coupled with stockmen's continuing aversion to having their cattle and sheep eaten by predators, this produced programs of predator eradication that led to the near-extinction of cougars' only natural enemy, the gray wolf, and the removal of cougars from all but the most remote areas.

But then "fluffy bunny" syndrome extended itself to become "fluffy mountain lion syndrome." Government-sponsored cougar hunting ended, bounties were removed, and cougars started to make a comeback. Boulder's inhabitants disliked hunters, and liked the idea of living with wildlife, causing populations of deer in residential areas to explode. Meanwhile low-density housing meant that more and more people were living along the boundary between settled and unsettled areas. As cougars, their fear of humans having dissipated after years of not being hunted, moved into semiurban areas bursting with deer, they acclimated to human beings. People were no longer scary and, after a while, started to look like food.

-snip-

[quidnunc]

Quote:

Nonetheless, the same strand of wishful thinking appears: perhaps this time, the cougars won't want to eat us. Some people, apparently, would rather be dinner than face up to the fact that nature is red in tooth and claw, and that — in this fallen world, at least — the lion lies down with the lamb only after the lamb's neck is broken. (Worse yet is the noxious strand of liberalism that suggests we somehow deserve to be dinner.) … The effort to remake the world so that it is safe for predators seems rather odd to me. What sort of person would rather be prey? The sort who lives in upscale neighborhoods, and campaigns against hunting, apparently. I suspect that over the long term this isn't a viable evolutionary strategy in a world where predators abound. 

Only a few months ago a cougar-loving woman in Canada was killed and eaten while out jogging — by a cougar.

[Rocky Mountain High]

Imagine that. The fruitcakes in the Boulder area are far more comfortable with a mountain lion killing a person than the other way around. Come to think of it, most liberals would rather see a person brutalized than shoot a two-legged predator also.

[farmfriend]

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[martin_fierro]

"I looooooooove yooooooou...."

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[Maceman]

The fruitcakes in the Boulder area are far more comfortable with a mountain lion killing a person than the other way around. Come to think of it, most liberals would rather see a person brutalized than shoot a two-legged predator also.

Not a coincidence that the fruitcake left has applied this same philosophy to dealing with Islamic terrorists.

Which only goes to prove -- scratch a liberal, find a misanthrope.

[Not A Snowbird]

I got stalked by a mountain lion a couple of years ago while with a group on an "owling outing". She made her presence known, we stopped, and left her territory. The more reckless adults were all for continuing, but we had kids with us (trolling with lion bait) so we decided to go look for owls from the safety of the road.

Had we been attacked, after hearing her moving through the brush and hearing her warning growl, it would have been nobody's fault but ours. She would have been simply doing what comes natural, probably protecting a cub or two.

[Grammy]

I had a friend who raised cougars. I was horrified when my kids came home saying "he's so cute, he loves to fall asleep sucking on your fingers" (the cat already outweighed the kids). The cat was raised from a kitten, and even slept in their bed for a long time.

Several years later the cougar was dead. He had attacked the owner when he fell to his knees in the cage, and the owner shot him.

[Dead Dog]

Had you been attacked, you would never have heard her.

[Jim Cane]

The latest cougar sighting in this neck of the woods occured three days ago when a UPS driver on his way to Colebrook, CT saw one near Danbury Quarters Road, only a couple miles from where another local named Pete had struck one with his vehicle over a month ago.

Fortunately, the DEP says that they do not exist, so there is no danger. So if you are being eaten, at least you can be comforted by the knowledge that you are being chewed to death by an imaginary beast.

[BadAndy]

It is characteristic of liberals to see danger where none exists and to not see danger where it does. Personally, I am in favor of liberals being eaten by wildlife.

[Question_Assumptions]

Now that New Jersey is completely in the hands of the Dems, it won't be long before the state is a risk free smorgasboard for the bears, coyotes, and cougars moving into the state. Of course maybe they'll just eat the geese. That could be a good thing.

[Dead Dog]

The problem is, they make these environmental laws while sitting in their urban ivory towers. The children of suburban and rural conservatives are far more likely to be eaten.

Buy yes, I'm all for liberals being eatin'. I'd by the video.

[Maigret]

Get an Anatolian Shepherd, not only are the fabulous dogs to have in the family, you won't see cougars or other predators hanging around your place. We've had ours for four years and while the neighbors - 20 acres apart - are bothered by bears, cougar, even wolves now, they don't mess with our place. Just the presence of an Anatolian is usually enough to make predators avoid your area.

[riverrunner]

I prefer a large caliber firearm. Don't have to feed it the don't crap all over the place ect.

[Not A Snowbird]

Had you been attacked, you would never have heard her.

Exactly! She was giving us fair warning to leave her alone.

[Brett66]

Is that the guy that was turned into bear food?

[Maigret]

Yes, but your firearm doesn't adore you :)

[martin_fierro]

Yup: The former S. Cal. druggie guy who thought grizzlys could be tamed by singing to them.

He and his girlfriend were proven wrong in spectacular fashion, caught on videotape.

[SauronOfMordor]

To anybody who chooses to think about it, this makes sense. An unarmed human is a perfect prey for a cougar -- slow, hornless, clawless, no sharp senses, and lots of meat.

It was only by millenia of evolutionary teaching that coming close to a (habitually-armed) human meant death, that cougars avoided humans. It only took a few cougar generations to reverse that