Unusual new resident in my current city

[SailingFan]

YouTube - Chicago Police shoot a cougar in city neighborhood

The Associated Press: Police Shoot Cougar in Chicago

CHICAGO (AP) ? Chicago police say an officer has killed a 150-pound cougar in a residential area on the city's North Side.
Police say several residents reporting seeing the cat early Monday and the officer shot the animal in an alley.
Authorities say the cougar will be checked for any markings, chips or tags that would show if it was someone's pet rather than a wild animal.
Confirmed sightings of cougars, also known as mountain lions or pumas, are rare in Illinois but authorities in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette say they received several reports of cougar sightings during the weekend.

Cougars have attacked and killed a number of people in rural areas of California and Colorado in the past decade, but seeing them in an urban area is extremely rare as they prefer to stay far out of sight.

Cougar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There have been 108 confirmed attacks on humans with twenty fatalities in North America since 1890, fifty of the incidents having occurred since 1991. The heavily populated state of California has seen a dozen attacks since 1986 (after just three from 1890 to 1985), including three fatalities.

My grandparents live in the mountains of Colorado and they wake up many mornings to find a cougar laying in the sun on their porch. The cougar has killed at least 4 large dogs owned by their neighbors.


I find it fascinating (and just slightly scary) that large predators are moving eastward in the USA. Some animal researchers are estimating that more than 100 coyotes live in Chicago, feasting on small dogs, cats, and geese.

When I was growing up, I used to go outside of town and lay in a field to stare up at the stars in the sky. Hearing wolves and coyotes howl in the distance will definitely make your hair stand straight up!

But in completely unrelated news, my EOI has been submitted! 145 points!

[MotherBear]

Originally Posted by SailingFan

But in completely unrelated news, my EOI has been submitted! 145 points!

Hurray and good luck. With 145 points you should do OK.

I've read that a lot of wild animals are now moving into cities because of the lack of food outside and changes to their environment. Let's hope it won't become a big problem in the future, but it could do if it continues.

[selchie]

Be careful in New Zealand. There have been reports in Oamaru of marauding bands of yellow-eyed penguins roughing up people on their way home from the bars. They take wallets and barf up half-digested herring on the unfortunates.

[Welshgirl]

Darn penguin hoons Remind me not to visit Oamaru any time soon

[selchie]

Seriously, though, lots of predators are making a comeback, and moving back into areas where they had previously been eradicated. In my neck of the woods, there have been more sightings of mountain lions near people's homes. Usually those homes have been recently carved out of those same lion's territories.

Mountain lions in Chicago, though...