Not too far back, there were reported sightings of a Mountain Lion in the suburbs of Baltimore. Ironically, around the exact same time, such sightings of (another) mountain lion were reported around the northern suburbs of Wilmington, DE.
Reading “Little House on the Prairie” with my little girl, Pa had a problem with a panther (i.e.: mountain lion, according to many refs.) He says how the panther can leap from tree to tree swiftly without leaving tracks.
Do you think the police working to catch these animals have the woodsman’s smarts to realize this? In both cities, the searches were fruitless. Of course, the media’s bright camera lights didn’t matters help either…
So, Are the police trained to be such wise trackers, of people and animals?
Jinx
“The Duke boys escaped by the roof tops. The cops never look up in Hazard Co.”
a line I recall from The Dukes of Hazard…maybe it’s really true??? :eek:
Tracking animals isn’t really a lost art. Many people today are expert at it… particulary hunters… so if there isn’t anyone in the locak department who is sufficiently knowledgeable there are usually people in the general area who are more than willing and able to help.
As far as jumping from tree to tree to escape goes… to me that doesn’t really sound plausible.
Moutain Lions, or Pumas as they are called out here in the west, are not as rare as you might think. They are very shy and do an amazing job of hiding from the general public. We’ve recently had some attacks in some county parks and at least one was tracked and killed a short time later and was found to have human remains in its stomach.
I am not an expert on these animals, but I am told that for a mountain lion to make itself visible to the public, let alone attack someone, is so unusually it is often means the animal is sick or otherwise confused for some reason.
These big cats don’t feed on humans, and while they might encounter one in a park their natural tendencies would be to hide or run away… not attack.
No offence intended, but your source for these abilities is a semi-autobiographical, semi-fictional account of a prairie superstition reported by prople who were in an area remarkably free of forests. You know where I’m going here…
Paperbackwriter, maybe all is fiction in your “novel” world, hmm? To clarify, make no mistake. I am not referring to the TV show - of which the earliest episodes attempted to be true to, what really was, the diary of Laura Ingalls. It was only under the encouragment of her daughter, Rose, that these accounts were published.
There are many museums dedicated the Ingalls in the various States (territories) in which they resided. In the past, I have read historians’ verifications of that rough life as she describes it. Not that every single event can be confirmed, but there is no reason to believe the story is an embellished tale her family’s life.
Specifically, as for the mention of trees (on the prairie), the specific description was referring to a stretch along a riverbank. She’s not trying to describe a major forest on the prairie. - Jinx
Anyway, the Ingells were originally from the Eastern woodlands–Ohio? The first book was Little House in the Big Woods.
dolphinboy, the sightings are not extrordinary because mountain lions are elusive; they are extrordinary because mountain lions are believed to be extinct east of the Mississippi, save for a few in the heart of Florida. The most likely explanation for a mountain lion sighting is that a pet or zoo critter escaped. This would explain why it allowed itself to be seen at all. An escapee may be both unused to life in the wild and used to humans as its caretakers. Another possibility is that unwoodsy witnesses had an accident of perspective and mistook a large domestic cat or a bobcat for a mountain lion.
Well, my pampered, spoiled house cat can do that. I’ve seen her do it along a line of trees. But she was after a small bird. I don’t think she had any concern for not leaving tracks.
Reading “Little House on the Prairie” with my little girl, Pa had a problem with a panther (i.e.: mountain lion, according to many refs.) He says how the panther can leap from tree to tree swiftly without leaving tracks.
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Were you reading Little House on the Prairie? I adored those books as a kid, and have probably read them a hundred times (I didn’t go outside much as a kid) and I thought that happened earlier in the series. I would think Little House in the Big Woods. Of course, I could be wrong, I haven’t read the books in 10 years or more.
"L aura Elizabeth Ingalls was born February 7, 1867, in a little log house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Laura’s childhood was spent traveling west by covered wagon, to Indian Territory in Kansas, to Grasshopper Country in Minnesota, and then to Dakota Territory, where she met and married Almanzo Wilder.
"Laura’s daughter Rose grew up listening to her mother’s stories of those pioneer days. She urged her mother to write them down so that other children could enjoy them, as well. So in the 1930s and 40s, Laura recorded her memories of those days of long ago in a children’s series known as the "Little House"® books.
“Although Laura died on February 10, 1957, at her home in the Ozarks of Missouri, she and her family will live forever in the hearts of her readers.”