Shooting from the Hip

Infamous cougar photo by David Rodgers

While the term “cougar” has taken on a new life recently — mostly one resembling an older Monica from Friends — the latest hiccup of cougar hysteria has been focused on the original one. You know, the mammal with four legs, a sandy mane and furry paws.

What’s more, this “hysteria” stems from an e-mail that’s been passed around since 2007. Sigh.

The e-mail, which included a few snapshots of a curious cougar hanging out on a porch, claimed that this big cat was peering into the windows of a nearby home, watching children play and strongly suggested he was surveying the wee ones as potential dinner options.

A recent write up in the Wall Street Journal mentioned this specific e-mail, saying that it was passed along as “proof” that cougars are back in a big way. When comparing various versions of the e-mail, you come to realize that this exact cougar showed up on the same exact porch for the same exact photo shoot in five different states. Exactly. That’s one busy cougar.

According to The Journal, there has been 765 cougar reports in Missouri alone since 2005. But how many of those have actually been verified by Missouri’s Mountain Lion Response Team? Oh, about two.

Apparently cougar-sighting mania has been going strong in Missouri since 2006. That’s when Missouri Conservationist published this in-depth article outlining the mountain lion myth.

“We have had only a handful of confirmed mountain lions in Missouri, despite hundreds and hundreds of reports,” writes Dave Hamilton, a resource scientist at the Missouri Conservation Department. “There have been eight confirmed mountain lions since 1994. One of these was hit by a car near downtown Kansas City in 2002 and another in 2003 near Fulton.”

Despite this low number of actual confirmed cougar sightings in the state, Missouri still employs an eight-person Mountain Lion Response Team, on hand to calm any further hysteria that might arise. So, you can rest easy … until that next forward makes its way into your inbox.

In the meantime, watch this crazy video of a mother cougar protecting her young from a grizzly bear.