Posted on 08/28/2010 5:51:19 PM PDT by george76
Salazar's 5-year-old son was attacked and severely mauled by a cougar that tried to drag the boy off a well-used hiking trail and into the woods in the Sandia Mountains outside of Albuquerque. The story was so frightening that it made national news.
"People would say that it was just an accident. That it was extremely rare, just a rare accident." ...Convinced that three attacks in three months didn't qualify as rare...
In 2006 and 2007, there were nine reported ... In 2008, there were 40 reported encounters before the attack on her son in May.
This led her into more research, where, she said, she discovered that both cougar and bear encounters, and attacks, were not as "rare" as people were being led to believe.
And, she found, there were encounters being reported in areas where there weren't supposed to be any of the predators, leading her to believe that population estimates weren't correct.
She began urging Game and Fish officials to take a hard look at predator populations, and their recent research has confirmed Salazar's suspicions. After discovering a flaw in its modeling, the department says there are 11 percent more bears and 72 percent more cougars than it had previously estimated.
This, Salazar said, explains why there have been an increasing number of reports of bears and cougars showing up inside cities looking for food, because despite good conditions the past few years their habitats are overpopulated. That forces younger animals out of established feeding areas that are dominated by older ones.
In the meantime, Salazar has formed an organization to support the Game and Fish proposal — New Mexicans for Proactive Wildlife Predator Management — which, she said, now has more than 450 members...
(Excerpt) Read more at news-bulletin.com ...
thin cougar population?
skinny old ladies after young guys?
NM ping
Helping to restore balance to the ecosystem while proactively addressing public safety
I’ll testify to that population.
Let me take her off your hands. Consider it Glenn Beck-inspired charity.
“She began urging Game and Fish officials to take a hard look at predator populations, and their recent research has confirmed Salazar’s suspicions. After discovering a flaw in its modeling, the department says there are 11 percent more bears and 72 percent more cougars than it had previously estimated.”
Slight bureaucratic discrepancy.
I suspect this thread will go downhill fast!
Can't anyone be serious here?
How To Survive a Cougar Attack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VshBT5Ua4uo
on Facebook : New Mexicans for Wildlife Predator Management.
Public comment on the proposed bear and cougar hunting rules can be emailed to nmdept.ofgameandfish@state.nm.us the public comment period ends Sept. 30, 2010.
http://www.currentargus.com/carlsbad-communitynews/ci_15895810
I was there at feeding time. The owner of the preserve got frozen outdated whole chickens for the cougars. He threw a couple into the cage. Each chicken was the size of a human head. I still shudder when I think of the crunching sound.
Well, she's not actually ON my hands, although....
Obammy will take care of thinning that population with death care, pronto!
NM list PING!
(The NM list is available on my FR homepage for anyone to use. Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list. For ABQ Journal articles requiring a subscription, scroll down to the bottom of the page to view the article for free after watching a short video commercial.)
Good article...Glad to see Game and Fish paid attention to Charlotte Salazar and admitted their errors.
Maybe CA and CO will reassess their methods and numbers after this finding by NM but am not holding my breath.
Could we just re-home them down next to Mexico for border protection? The libs just love “Survival of the Fittest” scenarios, it’s part of their creed.
“Can’t anyone be serious here?”
ROFLMAO!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.