The strongfeasibilitystrong of the north-eastern USA supporting the return.pdfVIP

The feasibility of the north-eastern USA supporting the return of the cougar Puma concolor J O H N W . L A U N D R É Abstract The cougar Puma concolor was part of the pre- favourable towards the species’ return (Nilsen et al., 2007)? European fauna of the north-eastern USA. It was extirpated Although public acceptance of a carnivore’s return is in the late 1800s and since the late 1900s there have been important to the success of a reintroduction effort, assessing discussions concerning its reintroduction to the region. One the adequacy of an area to support the species is the first site considered is Adirondack State Park in northern step. Without sufficient habitat and food resources even the New York. In 1981 an assessment of the feasibility of most publicly supported reintroduction effort will fail. returning cougars concluded that the Park had adequate An assessment of the habitat and food resources of an prey and forest cover to support a small population of area for the reintroduction of a large carnivore requires a cougars but that conflicts with humans would cause the landscape-scale analysis of its habitat, information on how demise of this population within 10 years. Thus reintroduc- the species will use the landscape, details of its food tion at that time was not advised. Since then knowledge of requirements and an assessment of prey resources. One cougar ecology and how cougars interact with humans has such species for which this detailed analysis is needed is the increased substantially. Based on information compiled Am