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Reintroduction & Rewilding
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Cougar Reintroduction in Ohio
Note: this is not currently happening, but I will email the information I gathered to the Ohio Division of Wildlife to try to convince them to at least consider bringing these big cats back to my home state. With that out of the way, let's get started. Many years ago, Ohio was full of large animals. These included White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus), elk (Cervus canadensis), Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), American Black Bears (Ursus americanus), Gray Wolves (Canis lupus), Canada Lynx (Lynx canadensis), Bobcats (Lynx rufus), Bison (Bison bison) and of course cougars, the cat with way too many names (Puma concolor). When the white man came along, they hunted all the animals to the point of extirpation. Now in the present, animals like the turkey are now plentiful again, bears and bobcats are making a comeback. While the wild has improved, our ecosystem is missing something vital. That would be an apex predator. I do not count black bears as true apex predators because while they are large, powerful, fast, and do eat meat, 95% of their diet is plant based. I also do not count human hunters as true apex predators because real apex predators don't need laws to make sure they don't kill off everything. I had a choice between the cougar and the wolf, and I have chosen the cougar due to it's better ability to live closer to people. Now to get deeper into detail. Ecological Reasons When predators are taken out of an ecosystem, prey populations increase, and overbrowse or overgraze areas. Here in Ohio, the only native wild ungulate is the White-tailed Deer, and you better believe the deer are huge in numbers. In fact, the deer populations in state parks have grown to the point where hunters are allowed to go into them and kill deer to keep the population under control. Even the staff Cuyahoga Valley National Park have decided to allow the culling of deer in the park. https://www.toledoblade.com/sports/outdoors/2019/04/12/culling-continues-to-address-deer-overpopulation-in-parks-protected-areas/stories/20190414016 https://www.nps.gov/cuva/planyourvisit/are-there-too-many-deer.htm So as you can see, we do have a deer population issue. With the return of the cougar, they will keep the number of deer in check in areas where hunters really shouldn't be allowed to hunt in. When it does come to population control, by keeping deer in check, they can help reduce deer and vehicle collisions. If cougars came back to the east or midwest, in 30 years, 155 deaths could be prevented and 21,000 injuries could also be prevented, and a single cougar could help save nearly $40,000 in associated costs. Another issue we have with deer in Ohio is Chronic Wasting Disease. Hunters in the state now must be wary to try to prevent harvesting a deer with the disease for obvious reasons. Cougars on the other hand are different, as they can eat the meat of diseased animals, but that of course, doesn't mean they could eat a deer with CWD. Can they though? Actually yes, in one study, cougars seem to selct for CWD infected mule deer since they were easier to catch and kill, and there is no evidence that this disease affects predators. So with the return of the cougar, the spread of the disease can be slowed down. https://mountainjournal.org/predators-and-chronic-wasting-disease When it does come to controlling the deer population, there is a huge difference between hunters and cougars. For example, sometimes a cougar that kills every 10-14 days can kill 20 deer a year and a cougar that kills every 10-18 days or a cougar with cubs that kills every 2-3 days can kill up to 52 deer a year (Mountain lion Foundation). An average deer hunter in Ohio only kills about 1-2 deer in a year (ODNR website). So having cougars is a much much much more effective way of keeping deer populations under control. One thing both hunters and farmers in Ohio have in common is that they hate coyotes. Luckily, cougars do include coyotes in their diet, one female even had a thing for coyote meat. https://thehumanfootprint.wordpress.com/2018/01/19/a-mountain-lions-penchant-for-coyotes/ Along with that, a recent study by Panthera on cougar interactions with other predators does confirm that cougars do dominate coyotes.  *This image is copyright of its original author In Ohio, we also have a population of Wild Boar, which are not native to North America at all. The goal is to get them out of the ecosystem, or at least get them under control. Research and camera traps confirm that cougars do include wild boar in their diet in the Davis Mountains in Texas and also Florida. I do have to say that they make up a small percentage of their diet in Texas, but the region that research was conducted in has lots of other wild big game, it's practically a buffet up there for them. Ohio doesn't have as many big game animals, so perhaps wild boar will be a bigger part of their diet here.  *This image is copyright of its original author Last but not least, a study has found that some areas in Ohio are now capable of supporting elk herds! As we all know, cougars prey on elk, and in this case, having a natural predator keep their numbers in check is going to be VERY important. 
ProjectWapiti_FinalReport_PDF.pdf (Size: 2.84 MB / Downloads: 0)
Cougars also happen to be ecosystem engineers, their kills actually provide food and hokes for carrion dependent beetles, and they make more kills than other predators, which is more important to the ecosystem, and it increases the number of animal interactions, so they're essential to maintaining ecosystem resilience in. I'll put in this chart made by scientists that sums up this whole thing.  *This image is copyright of its original author https://markelbroch.com/blog/2019/02/mountain-lions-as-ecosystem-engineers/ For another point, tigers have proven to also be beneficial to people living in their home ranges, and experts have been learning lots of new things about cougars, so maybe perhaps cougars have an unknown way of benefitting people as well. (Check my post in the human interactions thread). Also, we do have American Burying Beetles in Ohio, which also need carrion for food and to raise their young, and they happen to be endangered in Ohio, and carrion availability may be one of the factors to allow these beetles to prosper. (ODNR website) So the return of the cougar can help with the recovery of the beetles as well. Economically With cougars coming back, I believe that will help the economy, why? The answer is Eco-tourism! think about it, the animals people really want to see are big animals. With more large animals in the state, the better tourism can be, and tourism does make more money then hunting does. For example, in the Great Bear Rainforest in Canada, people spend 12 times as much money then trophy hunting. So the return of cougars and elk, can help the economy in this way. Hunting and Conflict Not all people will be happy about cougars coming back. Those would be hunters and farmers. I will also try to convince the ODNR to not allow cougar hunting in Ohio. The reasons for this are that cougars are self-regulating, they are controlled by food availability (Predator Defense), and by each other since they're territorial, males kill cubs that aren't their own, and they will kill other cougars in fights. Cougars also don't decimate game populations like hunters claim. Both predator and prey have coexisted for millions of years, and predators kill the sick, weak, or wounded members of populations and therefore, making the game populations healthier and stronger. Hunting the dominant males ends up leaving unnatural numbers of juveniles because the territory is now available to them, and juveniles are the age group that is most associated with attacks on humans because unlike the adults, they haven't learned to avoid humans yet, so hunting only increases the odds of a person being attacked by a cougar. As for attacks, they are rare, only 25 deaths have been confirmed in 130 years. In fact, hunters seem to be more dangerous as approximately 1,000 people in North America are shot by hunters every year, 100 fatally (Predator Defense). Pretty ironic wouldn't you say? After listening to their excuses, I completely ignored hunters because they will make up any excuses to make sure that they don't have to share any of the game animals with predators. That's the way they are. Farmers on the other hand are a different story because they do depend on livestock. Also especially since Ohio happens to be one of the most agriculture happy places in the United States, I did have to take them into consideration. Since hunting cougars only brings bad, I looked into the non-lethal methods of protecting livestock from cougars. Here's the list, info from the Mountain Lion Foundation. 1. Packs of guard dogs 2. Confinement Shed lambing, kidding, and calving 3. Fall birthing 4. Multi-species stocking 5. Aversive Conditioning 6. Brush Clearing of trees and bushes within 1/4 mile of buildings and livestock concentrations 7. Fencing with fences over 12 ft tall, can be electric I will also suggest some changes to the law enforcement, like increasing the number of game wardens per county to try to prevent poaching. Also here's the link to juvenile problem cougars. https://www.conservationmagazine.org/2009/11/troubled-teens/ So there you have it, cougars have every right to live here in the Buckeye state, and hunters are not good sources of information on predators. |
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