HUFFINGTON
09.30.12
WILD KINGDOM
“Even if we had them here, or
if we lived in California and you
and I were in a spot where they’re
known to be,” Rego says, “we’d
still be impressed by this animal.”
You Are Not Co-Existing
For all its magnificence, Rego
says, the Milford cat was clearly
an anomaly — the exception that
proves the rule. A mathematical
man, Rego has grown weary over
the years of the endless stream of
emails and phone calls and blurry
photographs of supposed mountain lions submitted to his office. Many are well-meaning but
clearly mistaken. He shares several breathless accounts of cougar
sightings with accompanying photos of what are clearly house cats.
Many more submissions are obvious hoaxes — often using photographs of wild cats in the West that
are easily found on the Internet.
Rego is also well aware that
Ottmann and others hold him in
contempt, and that they accuse
him of ignoring or covering up the
presence of cougars in the state.
“It’s frustrating,” Rego tells me.
“It’s connected to logic. We just
have an incredible detection network out there in form of roads,
in the number of cars that strike
animals, in the number of people
walking outside in the winter, in
cell phones people carry — everyone has a camera — and in the
number of trail cameras. They
are capturing all kinds of amazing
photographs of wildlife in general.
We get photographs — good photographs — of does giving birth to
fawns. With cell phone cameras
and trail cameras we get lots of
nice, beautiful photos of bobcats.
There’s just this incredible detection network out there, so where
are all the photographs?”
I ask Rego whether there would
be any downside if mountain lions
did find a way to take up residence
in a place like Connecticut.
“There’s a downside to having
any animal in any area,” Rego says.
“We have bears. We have complaints about bears. We have coyotes. We have lots of complaints
about coyotes. Bears kill livestock.
They kill pets. Coyotes kill livestock and pets. All these species
worry people, whether the worry is
justified or not. They worry people.
They concern people.
“It’s a fallacy in the broad perspective to think that humans and
wildlife — much wildlife — coexist,” he continues. “Deer damage
crops in agricultural areas. They