.
Puma concolor, Belgrade Zoo: photo by Bas Lammers, 2009
Two o'clock in the morning on the Avenue: desolation. Somebody sees a big cat. A ninety-pound female cougar, or mountain lion, or puma -- Puma concolor. Police are called. The animal flees. It is pursued, shot with rifles, then again with a shotgun, and killed, two blocks away, in a backyard.
Puma concolor is a majestic and solitary creature. What this particular animal was doing on the same block as one of the most famous high-end eateries in the world is anybody's guess. Likewise unknown is whether her return that night was awaited by her cubs. The sole certainty here is that she never made it back up into the hills whence she had come.
It's a human world, humans own it and make the rules. In this case, though in fact there was no evidence that the hunted-down animal had intended to harm anyone, it was "public safety" that provided the rationale for the killing.
The remaining population of Puma concolor in California is a few thousand, and shrinking.
As I limp past the bedraggled remnants of the makeshift memorial erected on the spot where the mountain lion was first sighted, I say a little prayer to the big-cat gods, and beg their forgiveness.
Puma concolor is a majestic and solitary creature. What this particular animal was doing on the same block as one of the most famous high-end eateries in the world is anybody's guess. Likewise unknown is whether her return that night was awaited by her cubs. The sole certainty here is that she never made it back up into the hills whence she had come.
It's a human world, humans own it and make the rules. In this case, though in fact there was no evidence that the hunted-down animal had intended to harm anyone, it was "public safety" that provided the rationale for the killing.
The remaining population of Puma concolor in California is a few thousand, and shrinking.
As I limp past the bedraggled remnants of the makeshift memorial erected on the spot where the mountain lion was first sighted, I say a little prayer to the big-cat gods, and beg their forgiveness.
Puma concolor, Belgrade Zoo: photo by Bas Lammers, 2009
Puma concolor, sleeping: photo by Trisha M. Shears, 2007
Cougar (Puma concolor), sitting, Sedona, Arizona: photo by AskJoanne, 2007
Street memorial at location on Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, where a 90-pound female Mountain Lion (Puma concolor) was sighted at 2:13 a.m., August 31, 2010. Two blocks away and a little over hour later the animal was shot twice with rifles, then again, fatally, with a shotgun, by police, in a residential backyard: photo by John Bennett, 2010
Moche puma, pre-Columbian (c. 300 A.D.), from Larco Museum collection, Lima, Peru: photo by Lyndsayruell, 2007
