I live in Omaha, NE and yesterday a mountain lion decided to come on in to town! 8O It is very unusual for such a thing to happen, and Nebraska's mountain lion population is virtually zero, except there may be some out in western Nebraska. This little (ok so maybe that's an exaggeration ) guy wandered into one of the city's busiest corridors, but luckily he was captured without any major harm coming to him or to people. A police officer shot him in the leg, unfortunately, but there's no broken bones. Our zoo is treating him for the injury. The zoo director estimates he's about a year and half old, and that some older, more dominate males kicked him out of their pack. He thinks that maybe the mountain lion traveled for hundreds of miles away from his original home, picked up the Big Papio river and that's how he ended up in the city. I think he's really pretty!
Save_The_Mop Posted: Oct 3 2003, 03:14 AM
Wow.Poor thing.I hope it gets better and will be released back into the wild.There was a report about a mountain lion running around where I live (Just to put it in perspecitive, deer are very hard to find around here) not too long ago.I don't know if they caught it or if it wasn't really a mountain lion.Thanks for sharing this with us,Sheila.
Crocsrule Posted: Oct 3 2003, 04:21 PM
That's interesting. Thanks for sharing that with us.
superlion Posted: Oct 3 2003, 11:45 PM
It is very rare for a puma to enter a city. They are very secretive - they say that when one lives in an area it will likely be sighted once every three years...
Wolfyu Posted: Oct 4 2003, 12:17 PM
Poor little guy...I hope he gets better.
I've never heard of Cougars living in packs...Are you sure that's what you heard?
superlion Posted: Oct 4 2003, 03:03 PM
Well, I haven't heard of that particularly either, but many large cats, especially males will form groups when they are still young... That behaviour is particularly well known in cheetahs, where the groups formed are called "coalitions".
Luna Manar Posted: Oct 4 2003, 04:16 PM
Tigers do it a lot, too. In fact, the arrangment of male and female territories suggests the existence of loose "prides" in Bengal tigers...it's more like a neighborhood, but they're finding that tigers interact and work together in the wild much more frequently than we used to think.
I think cats have a more intricate social structure than most people give them credit for. I have 4 cats, and I've frequently seen them work together to play and problem-solve...the two youngest, a male and female, often tag-team the older male in order to steal his food; one will harry him, while the other steals, and then they'll both run away and share the spoils.
superlion Posted: Oct 4 2003, 04:40 PM
Yes, tigers as well. Often a tiger that has just killed a large prey animal like a buffalo will roar to let other tigers know and they come and share the feast. And we all know about lions... Often feral cats will for large social groups as well... strangely enough, they are normally solitary creatures, but do quite well living together in one smallish area. (especially when there are plenty of mice)