Cougar, puma, catamount, panther – all names for one of the most mystical animals of the Americas, the mountain lion. The allure of this cat has captivated the imagination of field biologists, hunters, animal lovers, and wildlife watchers all over the world. Once the largest ranging mammal in the Western Hemisphere, mountain lion sightings today […]
This article https://buckrail.com/why-coexistence-with-mountain-lions-matters/ is a journalistic exploration into the VALUE of mountain lions on the landscape. The article also identifies how we can reduce our negative impact on them. To co-thrive with lions, bears, and wolves, we must change the interpretation of their presence from public distrust and lack of knowledge to appreciation and […]
For people to care, especially about things they may rarely see, there must first be a ‘connection’, a bond, an indelible knowing that our mutual existences depend very much on the cognitive decision making of the human animal. P22 shone a light on exactly how habitat loss impacts a single animal, yet represents every animal […]
As we celebrate Presidents’ Day 2023, let’s take a look at the history of mountain lions in California over the last century. We’ll see why that state has come to be the best example of having both the worst challenges for lions in the form of huge development, and some of the most progressive solutions […]
We are always inspired when one of our Directors pops up in a news feed and we will be bringing you more insights into the things that inspire them to support the issues that we all care about. Each Director brings special knowledge, passion, experience and skill to our organization. Dr Jane Goodall changed the face […]
As keystone species, apex predators play a role in structuring most ecosystems through competition and facilitation, thereby affecting community structure, prey abundance and behavior, vegetation, and abiotic processes.
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recently published a study that compounds previous evidence of the positive role large carnivores, such as cougars, have on the landscape. Known as a keystone species, just like in architecture, lions’ presence or absence ‘holds up’ or ‘destabilizes’ the rest of a structure. In nature it is other species-both flora […]
Sadly, another mountain lion was killed on a highway in Southern California this week. This comes on the heels of the vehicle collision death of four year old P81 on January 22nd this year. These human caused mortalities are a microcosm of the impacts that we have on the landscape. There is not much indication […]
With the recent announcement of yet another look at the grizzly bear delisting process moving forward in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, voices are being heard, both expected and some not-so-much. The Cougar Fund was present in Missoula in the winter of 2013/14 when the delisting process started again, again. One of the most avid proponents […]
When legislation is considered about how to avoid stock depredations by wild predators, it can become mired in looking at short term solutions. Killing coyotes, foxes, wolves, mountain lions, and bears en masse, doesn’t really solve anything. It is a very temporary ‘fix’. Let’s take a moment to ask ourselves why we opt for widespread […]