Man Killed by Cougar, Officials Confirm. By Rene Romo. Albuquerque Journal Southern Bureau.
This is near the country where they do all that worrying about Mexican wolves.
New Mexican man killed and eaten some by a cougar
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Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.
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It won’t let me read it, but I read it yesterday. The article I read made it sound like the man was in the bathroom cleaning his false teeth when the cougar attacked. said they found the water running in bathroom with teeth on sink, I just can’t imagine a cougar going into a home, it must have been sick or starving. They said they shot a cougar and wounded it, but did not say if they caught it or not. I am so sorry for the loss of this man’s life, but sure would like to know the whole story behind it. Guess those folks in NM need to add cougar to their list of animals they have to build cages for to protect the children at the bus stop….
April,
You can view the article, you just have to sit through a commercial. The article says the man was likely bathing outside under a nearby rock ledge–they said nothing about the cougar entering the man’s bathroom. It also noted that the last fatal cougar attack in NM was more than 35 years ago.
There have also been suggestions in other press accounts that a different individual in the area of Pinos Altos–not the poor fellow who was killed–had been feeding this animal in the hope of getting pictures of it. Apparently not all the morons hang out in the Yellowstone area.
If the authorities find out this is an accurate account and they catch the person, he will undoubtedly find himself in some serious trouble.
Always there are a lot more questions than answers in an article like this. . was there a stream there, was the man naked and small or was he a big man, was he sitting or standing. Answers to a lot of these questions could explain why a cougar thought he would be easy prey. As it turns out, the cougar was apparently right. Perhaps the cougar had been watching him from the rock ledge for weeks. All speculation as there is no way we will ever know the truth of the attack.
Once again,
People have to be accountable for their own safety in the wild. You’t expect that because you decided to go out there that the “wildlife police” will be there to protect you.
It’s like people I encountered in southern California who believe that since they moved there, god was supposed to turn it into a tropical wetland from an arid desert complete with bountiful water supply.
I meant you can’t expect… The office is busy and my fingers were distracted.
This news is truly tragic and sad.
All things told, however, the natural environment with its potential dangers is still much safer than spending time in a city. These things unfortunately happen from time to time. Like fatal lighting strikes.
What I find really telling though, is that the anti-wolf people in New Mexico don’t seem to have the same hysterical reaction to the presence of mountain lions in our wildlands as they do to the presence of a handfull of wolves. And this despite the fact that mountain lions have been responsible for many, many times more fatal attacks than wolves have.
Mountain lion attacks are rare. Wolf attacks are even more rare. Yet the mountain lion is tolerated, while the wolf is painted as a near demonic being waiting in the shadows to eat you and your children.
C. Walton,
The Catron County attitude is wrapped up in hatred of the federal government and dislike of outsiders. This feeds the wolf issue because it is seen a federal action and the work of outsiders, not that they may really have convinced themselves that the wolf is some kind of great threat.
Catron County was the subject of many newspaper, and some academic articles, as long as 15 years ago. The focus may change, but the hatred of the feds and the unpleasant parochialism is a constant.
Yeah, I can’t imagine them really believing all the hyperbole that they spout off about the wolf. It is so obviously contrary to objective facts.
I just can’t believe that anybody can be that disingenuous.
Such vociferous hatred of the federal government in Catron County is really quite hypocritical considering that Catron County residents receive more federal welfare (food stamps, Social Security) than the national average.