This story is repost from August 2008.
"Maladaptive" is one of those nice words that skirts over a wide range of bad outcomes in predator behavior -- anything from a lost tooth or torn claw for tackling too large a piece of game, to a torn flank if gored or ripped by a large animal, to death -- the most maladaptive outcome of them all.
In this case, the maladaptive behavior occurred when a mountain lion, about 15 miles outside of Denver, entered the open French doors off the backyard of a family's main bedroom. Inside was an adult couple with their two dogs asleep on the floor at their feet.
The big cat ignored the couple and went for the family's 12-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever, which was killed, partially eaten, and its body left partially covered over under a nearby pine tree.
When the 135-pound mountain lion later returned to finish his meal, a shooter for the Colorado Division of Wildlife put a bullet through its brain.
It's one thing for a cougar to snatch a lamb, cat or farm dog from the remote edge of a farm; it's quite another for a lion to have so little discretion around humans that it feels secure enough to enter a bedroom or living room. There's no coming back after that, and a bullet to the brain is always going to be the response, as it always has been.
That said, I bet these folks never sleep with the doors wide open again, and I bet they never leave their pets outside unguarded in mountain lion country.
Lions are not the only thing being trained in this story; so too are the humans.
"Maladaptive" is a two-way street!
"Maladaptive" is one of those nice words that skirts over a wide range of bad outcomes in predator behavior -- anything from a lost tooth or torn claw for tackling too large a piece of game, to a torn flank if gored or ripped by a large animal, to death -- the most maladaptive outcome of them all.
In this case, the maladaptive behavior occurred when a mountain lion, about 15 miles outside of Denver, entered the open French doors off the backyard of a family's main bedroom. Inside was an adult couple with their two dogs asleep on the floor at their feet.
The big cat ignored the couple and went for the family's 12-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever, which was killed, partially eaten, and its body left partially covered over under a nearby pine tree.
When the 135-pound mountain lion later returned to finish his meal, a shooter for the Colorado Division of Wildlife put a bullet through its brain.
It's one thing for a cougar to snatch a lamb, cat or farm dog from the remote edge of a farm; it's quite another for a lion to have so little discretion around humans that it feels secure enough to enter a bedroom or living room. There's no coming back after that, and a bullet to the brain is always going to be the response, as it always has been.
That said, I bet these folks never sleep with the doors wide open again, and I bet they never leave their pets outside unguarded in mountain lion country.
Lions are not the only thing being trained in this story; so too are the humans.
"Maladaptive" is a two-way street!
- Related Link
** Darwin Awards
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