I received multiple emails in response to my article about Delaware cougars that rain in last Thursday’s News Journal. They all are fascinating. Excerpts from the emails are pasted below.

Feel free to share your feedback, too.

Email 1 – 8/4/2011

Email 2 – 8/4/2011

Email 3 – 8/4/2011

Email 4 – 8/4/2011

Email 5 -8/5/2011

Email 6 – 8/6/2011

Here is my article that ran in last Thursday’s News Journal. – SMK

It wasn’t that long ago when cougar (a.k.a. mountain lion) sightings and cougar-related news reports were big stories here in Delaware.

From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, reports of Delaware cougars frequently surfaced, with most sightings occurring in northern New Castle County.

Videos, photos, tracks, prey kills and first-hand accounts from public employees provided direct evidence of at least one cougar in Delaware, and as a result, the New Castle County Police assigned an officer to capture the cougar. After months of hunting, a cougar was never captured and a carcass was never found, but sightings persist. As recently as last November, a cougar was reportedly seen in Pike Creek.

Theories indicate that at least one cougar that was illegally kept as pet in southeastern Pennsylvania escaped or was released in 1996 and traveled into northern Delaware to escape deer hunters. However, with the number of sightings that have been reported since then, and with recent news regarding a wild cougar found in Connecticut, I now question if Delaware could have a wild cougar or two.

Last week the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection presented genetic testing results that showed the cougar killed in Connecticut actually traveled from the Black Hills region of South Dakota. The cougar’s movements were tracked and recorded as it progressed through Minnesota and Wisconsin, and genetic tests showed that tissue from the Connecticut cougar matched the genetic structure of the mountain lion population in the Black Hills region. After further analysis, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service Wildlife Genetics Laboratory matched the Connecticut cougar’s DNA with DNA collected from the exact cougar whose movements were tracked in Minnesota and Wisconsin from late 2009 through early 2010.

According to Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Daniel C. Esty, “The journey of this mountain lion is a testament to the wonders of nature and the tenacity and adaptability of this species. This mountain lion traveled a distance of more than 1,500 miles from its original home in South Dakota — representing one of the longest movements ever recorded for a land mammal and nearly double the distance ever recorded for a dispersing mountain lion.”

Now that science has proven that cougars are capable of traveling long distances, should we reconsider if Delaware could have wild cougars after all?

“Anything is possible,” said Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife Game Mammal Biologist Joe Rogerson. But he is quick to point out that the odds don’t favor wild cougars in Delaware. “The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the eastern cougar subspecies extinct [in March 2011], so any cougars that are around the East Coast are most likely released or escaped pets,” says Rogerson. “Plus, the chances of something like that, with such a huge home range, not getting hit by a car, picked up by a trail camera, or shot by a hunter are slim.”

As an optimist looking to encounter new things in the woods, I am holding out hope that cougars, more coyotes, and maybe even a black bear or two make their ways into our state. My wishes may seem far-fetched, but Rogerson added that he’s received reports of sasquatch, African lion, hyena and chupacabra sightings in Delaware.

I guess we’ll really never know everything that lurks in Delaware’s forests and fields, but just in case, I’ll keep my eyes open for a good sasquatch taxidermist.

Remember when cougar sightings were common here in Delaware?

Although I have heard rumors that Delaware’s cougar sighting were likely caused by up to three ‘pet’ cougars that were released by their owner in southeastern Pennsylvania about 10 years ago, I now question if the cougars could have actually been wild!

I was following an interesting story in early June about a cougar (a.k.a. mountain lion) that was killed by a car in Milford, Connecticut. Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection presented genetic testing results that showed the cougar killed in Connecticut actually traveled from the Black Hills region of South Dakota.

The cougar’s movements were tracked and recorded as it progressed through Minnesota and Wisconsin, and genetic tests showed that tissue from the Connecticut cougar matched the genetic structure of the mountain lion population in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. After further DNA analysis and comparison, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service Wildlife Genetics Laboratory matched the Connecticut cougar’s DNA with DNA collected from the cougar whose movements were tracked in Minnesota and Wisconsin from late 2009 through early 2010.

According to Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Daniel C. Esty, “The journey of this mountain lion is a testament to the wonders of nature and the tenacity and adaptability of this species.  This mountain lion traveled a distance of more than 1,500 miles from its original home in South Dakota – representing one of the longest movements ever recorded for a land mammal and nearly double the distance ever recorded for a dispersing mountain lion.”

Now that science has proven that cougars are capable of traveling long distances, should we reconsider if the Delaware cougars are/were wild after all? I will conduct some more research and cover this topic in The News Journal.

To read more about the traveling cougar, see http://www.ct.gov/dep/cwp/view.asp?A=4013&Q=483778. You can also view the PowerPoint presentation that was delivered on the topic.