HUFFINGTON
09.30.12
WILD KINGDOM
to a variety of labs for genetic
analysis, the most prominent being the U.S. Forest Service’s Rocky
Mountain Research Station in
Missoula, Montana. The results
were staggering: Not only had the
animal apparently come from a
known population in the Black
Hills of South Dakota, it’s DNA
precisely matched genetic samples
that had been collected from individual samples of scat — that is to
say, cougar shit — or hair found in
Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Not long afterward, a New York
State biologist who had been following the Milford cat drama
shipped the Missoula team some
hair samples found near Lake
George. These, too, came back a
very close genetic match to the
Milford cat.
What seemed to emerge was a
revelation. This young male, perhaps in a relentless if directionally
futile search for a mate, somehow
managed to assemble thin patches
of forest, scrubland, farms and almost certainly suburban backyard
habitat into a 1,800-mile corridor
linking the bedroom communities
of Connecticut to New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and ultimately
the wilds of western South Dakota.
Bill Abrams,
right, with
Bo Ottmann.
Abrams, a
well-known
outdoorsman and
professional
fishing guide,
says he saw
a mountain
lion in
Connecticut
30 years
ago. He now
carries a
camera with
him wherever
he goes.