Sunday, April 13, 2008

Cougars in Northeastern Illinois




My very first blog. Ever. I thought today was a great day to do it because of the newspaper and TV news about cougar sitings in North Chicago, Illinois. Not too far from the third largest city in the US, a mountain lion, panther, or cougar, as Native Americans called them, was seen by several people yesterday in a highly inhabited suburban town. There were tracks in snow that have been identified by officials!

I have always loved wild animals. My name is Urban Woodswalker because I roam the 1000s of forest preserve acres near my home. White tail deer, Blue Herons, white egrets, red tail hawks, are just a few of the fauna I am lucky to see on a regular basis besides the usual gulls, squirrels, skunks, raccoons, and Gulls. Thrilling treats are to come across coyotes or beaver at work...but that seldom happens as both are usually quite shy of humans. A rare occurrence was the Peregrine Falcon that whooshed onto my balcony last month to capture and eat a bird at one of the bird feeders. WOW!

Cougars? They are migrating east ward again. I know that many states shoot and kill them when found in urban areas. The thought is that the cougar would have lost their fear of humans, and pose an extremely dangerous threat not only to pets, but to humans. Some states allow hunting cougar with a special permit. Yuck. I cannot imagine that at all - such a magnificent creature. Illinois is a state that does not have Cougars on the endangered species list because they say they don't exist here...even though there have been numerous sitings and even 2 dead ones found in the southern part of the state. If you read the links below you can learn much more about the cougar and how hums exterminated it in most of the eastern and midwestern states in the late 1800s.

I wish the cougar well. I hope it finds the rivers and forest preserves and can live a peaceful uninterrupted life there forever. Just leave it alone... :-)

Read all about the incident here:


http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/867240,5_1_WA29_COUGAR_S1.article


http://illinoisissues.uis.edu/features/2004july/cougar.html

HEAR a real live COUGAR Scream/Growl here:

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0WTbTiM8AFIulQBdAd82PAI?p=cougar+in+north+chicago&fr=my-myy-s&toggle=1&cop=&ei=UTF-8

The pendant shown is made from a 1999 US postage stamp, and 2 recycled aluminum pull tabs. Its called the "Cougar Pendant" and is available for sale in my shop here:

http://urbanwoodswalker.etsy.com/

*********************************************


9 comments:

CarolynArtist said...

I didn't realize where the cougar migrated and when. Cool write up. We need more blogs about conserving nature and her inhabitants. Great cougar pendant btw, I recognize that material!

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the world of blogging! I think you'll be happy you joined. I know you debated it for some time. Awesome introductory write up and your work is beautiful!

Duffydesigns said...

I am glad you blogged about the mountain lion. I think it's my favorite big cat. The thought of killing them purposely is sickening. We need to make peace with other earthlings, in my opinion.

Lady Apple said...

wow!!! i hadn't realized all that was going on with cougars!!!! & the pendant is very creative!!!

Wonderfully Sew Knit said...

Congrats on starting a blog! Great job. :o)

Urban Woodswalker said...

Gosh thank you everyone. I intend for this blog to be about the things I feel are important...nature, wildlife, recycling, and of course...Art and Craft!

Grizzly Mountain Arts said...

Welcome to the blogging world! Looks like you're off to a great start!

Pop Top Lady said...

You are off to a great start. We love Cougars and we have them here in Texas, too...Thanks for bringing attention to them and for being a great "cyberpal"!

Scott Bulger Photography said...

I was able to get a photo of a cougar while I was in Mexico working on my last book. They are truly beautiful animals.