State spurns plan for colony of cats. Wildlife officials want no part of project to relocate cougars
BY AMY SCHLESING ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE


10/28/2002
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette

Copyright (c) 2002 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Inc. All rights reserved.



Arkansas officials want no part of a plan to expand the Florida panther population into wilderness areas outside of Florida, especially if it means bringing the endangered species back to the Ozark and Ouachita mountains.

A team of biologists from seven states, organized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is studying 14 potential areas to move a group of Florida panthers to help increase the cat's population. The relocation sites are in states where the big cats - commonly known as southeastern cougars, mountain lions or pumas - once roamed.


Arkansas is the only state with potential relocation sites that refused to join the team.

"The commission doesn't have any interest in reintroducing cougars into Arkansas right now," said Blake Sasse, nongame mammal program coordinator with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. "We have the resources to accommodate them, but culturally it's not appropriate for Arkansas right now."

Arkansas' reluctance to join the study team, however, won't protect the state from potentially becoming home to a colony of cats.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has identified two potential sites in the state as ideal for relocating cougars: U.S. Forest Service land in the Ozark and Ouachita mountains devoid of homes and roads.

The species recovery team is in the preliminary stages of a two-year study. Before choosing a location, the team will take into account public opinion and risks to human life and livestock.

"There are two or three potential sites in Arkansas. But it's too early to tell how those will rank at the end of the study," said John Kasbohm, biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "The whole political and social aspect of relocating cougars is why we've asked the states to join the recovery team, to help address people's concerns about the plan."

A century ago, southeastern cougars roamed the wild areas in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. Now on the brink of extinction from hunting and habitat loss, the only breeding wild population of cougars known to exist is in south Florida, where they are called Florida panthers.

But whether they're called Florida panthers, pumas, southeastern cougars or mountain lions, they're descendants of the same breed that once roamed Arkansas' woodlands, said Brad Gruver, biologist with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Known to biologists as Felis concolor coryi, the southeastern cougar has been a federally endangered species for more than 25 years.

Kasbohm believes the need for a relocation program is necessary for the species to survive.

"We are making sure we maintain and maximize the population of cougars to get it off the endangered species list," he said. "We need at least one more population of cougars to do that, to diversify the gene flow. We're talking a population of 250 cats in a particular location."

The recovery plan has a long way to go.

"We have 70 to 80 cats in south Florida, up from about 30 when we started," Gruver said. "That's probably about as many as there ever need to be considering the amount of land they require."

South Florida is simply running out of room.

Cougars typically claim territories of about 200 square miles, and generally keep to themselves except to mate. Cougars will establish territories adjacent to each other, with male cougars roaming even further.

And this year has been a boon for the cats in south Florida, with 30 cubs born this year to 13 mother cats. It's the biggest breading season since the state began a restoration program more than 30 years ago.

That is why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to spread the cats out, mix them with western cougars to strengthen their gene pool and give them more territory to roam and multiply.

While cougars are native to Arkansas, in June 2001, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission took them off its endangered species list and officially adopted the policy that there are no cougars in Arkansas. It's the only state to have done so.

"After 25 years of not finding any trace of cougars, we said it was gone and took it off our endangered list," Sasse, with the state commission, said. "If one is found here, it will still be protected under federal law. But we don't believe we have them here."

Wildlife specialists believe the only cougars in Arkansas today are western cougars that people tried to keep as pets but eventually released into the wild.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission receives about 100 calls each year from people who claim to have seen cougars. Most turn out to be oversized house cats mistaken for 200-pound cougars, Sasse said.

However, there are about 150 cougars being kept as pets in Arkansas, according to state Game and Fish Commission records. And in the last five years, eight have escaped. All eight were recaptured or shot, Sasse said.

"Cougars are really cheap to buy. I would not rule out a cougar showing up anyplace," Sasse said. "Two years ago we found one that a drug dealer owned and let roam free in Little Rock."

A cougar was hit by a car and killed in suburban Kansas City this month, and Missouri Conservation Department officials are baffled. While they believe it was released from captivity, evidence from the cat's necropsy revealed it had been living in the wild for some time.

Officials doubt they'll ever know how it got there.

Arkansas officials don't want to have to explain such an incident or quell the fear that accompanies it. Public reaction to cougars is one of the top reasons Arkansas officials say they decided not to take part in the cougar relocation team.

"We spend a lot of time dealing with nuisance bears and alligators and there is a significant amount of the population that believes they should not be in the state," said Donnie Harris, chief of wildlife management at Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. "If we were to bring in a large cat with the idea of expanding that population, by and large we'd be dealing with a lot of public opposition."

Florida tried a cougar relocation program a few years ago and decided it was best to leave the animals where they are. The state agency moved a few cougars into northern Florida to see how they would progress. Individual cats quickly spread out into Georgia and Alabama.

"If you let go a bigger core population, they stay reasonably close. But for them to live reasonably close can mean a lot of land," Gruver, with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said. "We're not going to attempt moving them north again. We've done our experiment, it will be up to [the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] whether to try it again."

Jim Ozier, biologist for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, represents Georgia on the study team, but he said he is unconvinced that the relocation plan is the best way to build the cougar population.

"But we're studying the possibility as part of the team. If the public is not ready to have these cats back in the landscape, we're not going to put them there," he said.

This story was originally published on Monday, October 28, 2002.