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Cougar Killed in Chicago

When a coyote strolled into a downtown Chicago Quiznos and settled in the beverage cooler, it was an easily removed source of amusement. But when a cougar (Puma concolor) prowled the streets and alleys of Chicago’s Roscoe Village on April 14, the response was far different. Faced with a large predator in an urban neighborhood, residents may have had the chilling thought that, for the moment, they were not at the top of the food chain. Police eventually shot and killed the two- to three-year-old male.

Cougars, one of North America’s largest predators, were called “Keeper of the Deer” by Native Americans, but settlers feared they would kill humans and decimate game and livestock. Population growth and hunting eventually confined the cats to the far West. They rarely attack humans; however, increasing cougar populations in the West, particularly in more remote areas, have increased confrontations. Once pushed out of their range, they may be pushing back.

“Mountain lions are extremely secretive and they’re hard to survey,” notes South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks regional wildlife manager John Kanta. They are stealthy, solitary hunters that need a high-cover environment. An adult will eat one deer per week. Males have a 200–300 mile range, while females, frequently with kittens, roam about 40. The estimated 250 animals in the Black Hills are the closest breeding population to the Midwest.

Legal protection and habitat fragmentation have led to increased dispersal of males. Nebraska Game and Park Commission’s Sam Wilson explains: “The vast majority of these are sub-adult males that aren’t big enough, strong enough, or old enough to stay and create a home range, so they’re pushed out and those are the animals that wind up running several miles east if they had no females to stop them and hang around with…and they really, really cruise.” The Chicago cougar, if wild, may have been on such a trip. Lab blood tests confirmed that it was the same individual seen in Milton, Wisconsin.

Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri border the easternmost breeding populations and are the first to receive the wandering males. All have taken steps to monitor them and only in Iowa are they not protected. Nebraska reports the most sightings, and has seen a significant increase in the past five years; 36 of the 50 confirmed sightings since 1991 occurred after 2004.

For Chicago Wilderness states, contacts are much less frequent. Wisconsin has had a report system in place for several years, although the only confirmation was the Chicago cat. Cougars are protected and cannot be hunted in the state. Indiana, a heavily agricultural state, lists them as extirpated (locally extinct). Michigan, with a Cougar Team of specially trained wildlife officers, does confirm travelers through the Upper Peninsula, but no southwest sightings have been verified. The state disputes claims that it has a breeding population. Three cougars have been found dead in Illinois; two were downstate. Like Wisconsin and Indiana, Illinois has food, water, and cover, but may lack large enough roadless and unpopulated open spaces for a big cat to roam.

Clay Nielsen of Southern Illinois University’s Cooperative Wildlife Laboratory has found that cougars have been traveling east since 1990, using well-covered pathways, waterways, and grasslands. Deer, whose numbers are higher than they were in the 19th century, provide cougars with a steady food supply. Nielsen has identified a few areas in states to the west that might be suitable habitats.

The return of cougars to the Chicago Wilderness ecosystem is a complex question. Says Nielsen, “Obviously, animals could potentially travel through…but there’s not a large enough chunk of suitable habitat for a viable population….I would suggest that in five or ten more years we’ll know an awful lot more about the phenomenon.” While Nielsen does not consider it urgent, he does think that states should be considering policy for dealing with cougars.

Not everyone agrees that the Midwest cannot support a cougar population. Bruce Patterson, curator of mammals at The Field Museum, surmises they could learn to live in smaller areas, as have other species. DNR’s Fur Resource Specialist Ron Andrews agrees: “Because we have seen other restored wildlife and species coming back on their own in habitats believed to be too small for their existence, it may be possible that mountain lions could adjust and adapt the same.”

It may be some time before we know more about the long, strange journey that Chicago’s cougar had been on. Mike Schwartz, research ecologist at the US Forest Service’s Montana Research Station explains that the lab does not yet have enough database samples to provide more than a “weak” link to the South Dakota-Wyoming populations.

While the appearance of the Chicago cougar does not herald the return of this species, its presence is a reminder that we once shared the landscape with these magnificent animals. Whether the “Keeper of the Deer” can become an integral part of our ecosystem again will be up to us. Says Andrews, “In Iowa and perhaps elsewhere, human intolerance may be the true deciding factor.”

—Elizabeth Riotto