DNA testing on a mountain lion killed on a road in Connecticut revealed that it had traveled 1,800 miles from South Dakota:
According to scientists with the US Department of Agriculture, DNA taken from the mountain lion showed its genetic structure matched a population of cats native to the sparsely populated Black Hills region of South Dakota.
The DNA also matched samples taken from hair and blood in Minnesota, directly east of South Dakota, and Wisconsin, which neighbours that state to the east, in late 2009 to early 2010.
Link -via Geekosystem | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user jurveston used under Creative Commons license
Michelle Bese of Salida, Colorado was sitting at the table with her five-year-old while her other child slept in another room. One her five dogs came in through the dog door and was followed by a cougar! Bese grabbed her son and hid in the bedroom where the two-year-old was and called 911. Sheriff’s deputies helped the family escape through a window.
“I looked in a bedroom window and could see a dog which I believed to be dead,” said Division of Wildlife area manager Jim Aragon. “The lion was in the same room, so I pounded on the window and side of the house in an attempt to get the lion to leave through one of the open doors.”
Eventually, Aragon and wildlife officer Kim Woodruff, along with Chaffee County Sherriff’s deputy Rod Lane, entered the home through the back bedroom window. They found the cougar in a room directly across the hall.
“We cracked the door open wide enough to see the lion and were able to shoot it with a tranquilizer dart,” Aragon said.
One dog died from injuries and two dogs lost one eye each. The cougar, believed to be starving, was euthanized. Link -via Arbroath
