ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Last updated in September 2008

Numerous books on cougars are available in libraries, book stores, and online dealers. Remember that the cougar goes by other names, and books are sometimes titled or listed under Mountain Lion, Puma or Panther.  The list below includes books specifically on cougars in eastern and central North America and on cougars in general.  Except for a few articles specifically relevant to eastern cougars, journal literature is not included.  Most of the books listed below are either still in print or can be purchased inexpensively from used book dealers such as amazon.com and alibris.com.  Journal articles and rare books are best read in large university libraries or obtained on interlibrary loan if you don’t live near one.  However, several journal articles are linked to this website.

Allardyce, Gilbert. 2001. On the Track of the New Brunswick Panther: The Story of Bruce Wright and the Eastern Panther. Copyrighted by the author. 145 pp. Copies are available from Westminster Books, Fredericton, New Brunswick, www.westminsterbooks.com

*Bolgiano, Chris, and Todd Lester, Donald W. Linzey, and David S. Maehr.  2003. Field Evidence of Cougars in Eastern North America.   Presented at the 6th Mountain Lion Workshop, Dec. 12-14, 2000, San Antonio, TX.  Some of the listed items are no longer considered valid evidence of wild cougars in the East.

*Bolgiano, Chris. 2002.  Living in the Appalachian Forest:  True Tales of Sustainable Forestry.   Stackpole Books, 200 pp.  An exploration of the meaning of "sustainability" as it applies to postindustrial woodlands in the world's most biologically diverse temperate forest, the southern Appalachians.  Includes a chapter profiling Todd Lester, founder of the ECF, and the potential role of cougars in the eastern woods.

*Bolgiano, Chris, and Jerry Roberts.  2005.  The Eastern Cougar: Historic Accounts, Scientific Investigations, New Evidence.   Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 246 pp.  A collection of articles, documents and original contributions plus an extensive reference list.
 
*Autographed copies of Bolgiano's books may be purchased through the ECF store,   with proceeds going to the ECF.
 
Butz, Bob.  2005.  Beast of Never, Cat of God. Guilford, Connecticut: Lyons Press, 243 pp.  Concentrates on the controversy over evidence of cougars in Michigan, which has lessons for the East.

Cardoza, James E., and Susan A. Langlois.  2002.  The eastern cougar:  a management failure?  Wildlife Society Bulletin 30(1): 265-273..  Discusses the history of sightings and the probability that some are of real cougars.  Recommends that wildlife professionals do serious research based on standardized protocols.

Downing, Robert L.  1984.  The search for cougars in the eastern United States.  Cryptozoology 3:31-49. This article summarize the only agency-supported search for cougars in the East, conducted by U.S. Fish & Wildlife biologist Robert Downing.

Harden, Blaine.  Deer draw cougars ever eastward.  New York Times, November 12, 2002.  As of September 2008, you can find this article online by Googling the title.

Humphreys, Charles R.  1994.  Panthers of the Coastal Plain. Wilmington, NC: The Fig Leaf  Press, 200 pp. & map.  Between August 1990 and January 1993 the author personally interviewed people who saw cougars within a 40-mile radius of Wilmington. Approximately half of the sightings were of black animals. Plotting each sighting on a detailed map of the area, Humphreys determined that they tended to appear in clusters. He concluded that the region has supported a viable population of panthers for at least 40 years and that it has increased along with the number of deer. However, the assumed panther tracks he photographed are dog tracks.  A rare book.

Kirk, Jay.  2004.  Aslan Resurrected. Harper's Magazine, April, 2004.  An entertaining account of people searching for cougars in the East.

Parker, Gerry.  1998.  The Eastern Panther: Mystery Cat of the Appalachians. Halifax, Nova Scotia: Nimbus Publishing Ltd.. 210 pp. Parker investigated reports of cougars in Atlantic Canada between 1976 and 1984. He relates stories of hunts for the last surviving eastern panthers in the 1800s and the men who killed them. His search for stuffed eastern panthers took him to museums large and small. He reviews some tantalizing reports of sightings in the 1900s and introduces us to modern-day panther hunters, who search relentlessly for more sighting reports and physical evidence.  Out of print and becoming rare.

Tischendorf, Jay W. and F. Robert Henderson.  1995.  The puma in the central mountains and Great Plains.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska.  Wildlife Damage Management, Internet Center for Great Plains Wildlife Damage Control, Workshop Proceedings, 99-102.  Can be downloaded from http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/gpwdcwp/453.  One of the first reports listing recent confirmations in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, and the potential of the cougar to recolonize central North America.

Wright, Bruce S.  1959, The Ghost of North America.  New York: Vantage Press; 140 pp., and 1972, The Eastern Panther: A Question of Survival. Toronto: Clarke, Irwin & Co Ltd., 177 pp.   Many leading advocates of the existence of the eastern cougar owe their initial interest to Bruce Wright. He was a wildlife biologist in New Brunswick and the first to take eastern sightings seriously. In these books he recounts many sightings and experiences and explores possible explanations for the many sightings of black cougars.  Both books are out of print but available from used book dealers.

Hamilton, Dave.  Cougar Hysteria: Addressing Mountain Lion Mania in the Midwest & East.  Wild Cat News, December 2006.  Can be downloaded from the Publications section of the Cougar Network’s website, www.cougarnet.org

Anderson, Allen E.  1983. A Critical Review of Literature on Puma (Felis concolor). Colorado Division of Wildlife, Wildlife Research Section, Special Report Number 54. 91 pp. A technical summary of published research up to 1983, including evolution and taxonomy, movements and activity, prey species and interactions, nutrition requirements, mortality factors, longevity, causes of mortality, and management. The author concludes that pumas may occur in the southeastern US outside of Florida and in New Brunswick. Extensive bibliography. Out of print; available in some research libraries.

Barnes, Claude T.  1960. The Cougar or mountain lion.  Salt Lake City, Utah: Ralton. 176 pp.  Barnes gives many interesting historical details about cougars, such as the animal’s many names, and recounts many stories.  On page 63 he says he personally handled  a black cougar pelt.   However, several people, including Jay Tischendorf and Helen McGinnis, have tried to locate it without success.  Since no solid black cougars have been documented, the pelt’s past and present existence is dubious.  This is a very rare book.

Bolgiano, Chris. 1995.  Mountain Lion: An Unnatural History of Pumas and People.  Mechanicsburg Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books.  209 pp.  A history and contemporary overview of cougars in North America, integrating biology, folklore, and human psychology in a literary style.

Danz, Harold P. 1999.  Cougar. Athens, Ohio: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press, 310 pp. Strong points include discussion of cougar-human encounters resulting from human encroachment into cougar habitat. Brief accounts of fatal and nonfatal attacks on humans up to 1998. He gives  controversial recommendations for future management and prognosis for the cougar. Entertaining chapter on professional cougar hunters of the 17th to early 20th centuries. Information on status of cougars in all states and Canadian provinces. He is inclined to believe cougars occur in the East, but his references are mostly prior to 1980.
 
Hansen, Kevin.  1992.  Cougar: The American Lion. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Publishing, Published in Association with the Mountain Lion Foundation. 129 pp.  Comprehensive compilation of scientific research on taxonomy, biology, behavior, and interactions with humans, written in clear and accessible language.  PROBABLY STILL THE BEST INTRODUCTION TO COUGARS FOR GENERAL READERS.

Logan, Kenneth A., and Linda L. Sweanor.  2001. Desert Puma: Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation of an Enduring Carnivore.  Washington, DC: Island Press.  463 pp.  During their marathon ten-year study this husband and wife team radio-collared 241 pumas and logged nearly 14,000 radio-locations in the San Andres Mountains of New Mexico.  Much more than an account southwestern pumas, it considers all major studies in the United States and Canada and includes discussions of the puma’s fossil history and the use of DNA analysis.  This technical book is not an easy read, but is a must for anyone with a serious interest in Puma concolor.

Shaw, Harley.  1989.  Soul Among Lions: The Cougar as Peaceful Adversary. Boulder, CO: Johnson Books, 140 pp. Shaw’s experience as a state wildlife researcher radio-tracking mountain lions in Arizona with dogs, the knowledge that he gained from it, and his perceptions of lion hunters, guides, ranchers, environmentalists and wildlife agency bureaucrats are invaluable for anyone interested in the science of cougar study.

Tinsley, Jim Bob.  1987.  The Puma, Legendary Lion of the Americas.  El Paso:  University of Texas, 142 pp.  Illustrated with contemporary photos and reproductions of historical prints, Tinsley's book comprehensively reviews the folklore and history of cougars, including a chapter on black cougars with a photograph of a carcass in Costa Rica.

Adams, Jonathan S.  2006.  The Future of the Wild: Radical Conservation in a Crowded World.  267 pp.  Beacon Press, Boston.   Explains why cougars and other large carnivores are crucially important in maintaining biodiversity on the Planet Earth.

Ray, Justina C., Kent H. Redford, Robert S. Steneck, and Joel Berger (editors).  2005.  Large Carnivores and the Conservation of Biodiversity.  Washington, DC; Island Press,  526 pp.  A collection of articles written by scientists who have studied the role of carnivores around the world, on land and in the ocean.  Chapters especially relevant to cougars include

• Large carnivorous animals as tools for conserving biodiversity: assumptions and uncertainties by Justina C. Ray
• Forest ecosystems with carnivores: when ungulates rule by William J. McShea
• Large carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores in South Florida: an evolutionary approach to conserving landscapes and biodiversity by David S. Maehr, Michael A. Orlando, and John J. Cox
• Hunting by carnivores and humans: does functional redundancy occur and does it matter? by Joel Berger

Foreman, Dave.  2004.  Rewilding North America: A Vision for Conservation in the 21st Century.  Washington, DC; Island Press.  295 pp.  Legendary “eco-warrior” Foreman, founder of Earth First! and the Rewilding Institute, sets out a plan for conserving wildness and biodiversity.  Among his recommendations: restore cougars to the East.

Young, Christian C.  2002.  In the Absence of Predators: Conservation and Controversy on the Kaibab Plateau.  Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.  269 pp.  During the 1920s an all-out effort was launched to eliminate mountain lions from Arizona’s Kaibab Plateau, part of which is in the north part of Grand Canyon National Park, the rest in the Kaibab National Forest.  The effort was successful.  The deer herd multiplied, stripping the land of edible vegetation.  Then the herd, having eaten itself out of house and home, crashed.  At least, that’s what wildlife biology students learned in the 1940s, 50s and 60s.  Then opinion changed: the problems with the deer herd were caused by multiple factors, not necessarily by elimination of pumas.  Now the pendulum of opinion is swinging back again.  This account tells the story up to the early 1940s.
 
Russo, John P.  1964.  The Kaibab North Deer Herd: Its History, Problems and Management.  Phoenix, Arizona: State of Arizona Game and Fish Department, Wildlife Bulletin No. 7.  195 pp.  The story of the Kaibab deer herd is continued up to 1961, but the account is obfuscated in this book.
 
Stolzenburg, William.  2008.  Where the Wild Things Were: Life, Death and Ecological Wreckage in a Land of Vanishing Predators.  (See review by Christopher Spatz)  New York; Bloomsbury.  291 pp.  A readable account of the latest scientific information on the importance of apex predators in the maintenance of biodiversity on land and in the water. 

Anderson, Allen E.  1983. A Critical Review of Literature on Puma (Felis concolor).  See description under General above.

MountainLion.net.  This is an online bibliography, with a second, annotated section, maintained by KC Lamb.  http://mountainlion.net/  You can look for specific topics by using the Edit-Find feature of your computer.

Baron, David. 2004. The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature.  NY:  W.W. Norton & Co., 2004. 277 pp. See Book Review by Helen McGinnis.

Deurbrouck, Jo.  2007,  Stalked by a Mountain Lion: Fear, Fact and the Uncertain Future of Cougars in North America.  Guilford, Connecticut: FalconGuide. 2007.  187 pp. Some chapters in this book are stories of attacks from the point of view of the victims and their families.  Others are written from the perspective of cougars, trying to survive in a world increasingly dominated by human development.  It is a revision of Cat Attacks: True Stories and Hard Lessons from Cougar County by Deurbrouck and Dean Miller.  (Seattle, Washington: Sasquatch Books, 2001.  221 pp.)  The wording of many of the chapters is the identical; what has changed are the titles and photographs at the beginning of each chapter.  For example, Chapter 2 in the 2001 version is entitled “Profile of the Killer” and is illustrated with a memorial plaque for the victim of a cougar attack.  In the 2007 version, Chapter 2 has been re-titled “A Crash Course in Cougars” and is illustrated with a photo of a cougar in a non-threatening pose.  Also added to the 2007 version are color plates, including a remarkable sequence of a cougar capturing a mountain goat in Glacier National Park, and two chapters on cougars in the East., featuring Barbara Chaplin of CougarQuest and reports from Shenandoah National Park and elsewhere in NW Virginia.

Etling, Kathy.  2001. Cougar Attacks:  Encounters of the Worst Kind.  Guilford, CT:  Lyons Press, 246 pp.  Reviews the biology of cougar attacks, analyzes many cases, and discusses methods for dealing with cougars.  It includes lengthy tables of verified and highly probable fatal and nonfatal attacks up to January 2001, which were collected by Lee Fitzhugh, author of several scientific articles on cougar attacks.  Some readers will find the sheer number of reports discussed boring.

Fascione, Nina, Aimee Delach and Martin E. Smith.  2004.  People and Predators: From Conflict to Coexistence.  Washington, Island Press, 285 pp.  A series of articles by biologists.  Especially relevant to cougar recovery in the East and Midwest are these articles: “Carnivore conservation and highways” by Bill Ruediger and “Dispersal and colonization of the Florida Panther: Overcoming landscape barriers—biological and political” by Davis S. Maehr.

Torres, Steven.  2005.  Lion Sense: Traveling and Living Safely in Mountain Lion Country.  2nd Edition.   Guilford, Connecticut:FalconGuide.  77 pp.  An amazing amount of information is packed into this little paperback book, written by a cougar expert in California.  HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Culver, Melanie, W.E. Johnson, J. Pecon-Slattery, and S.J. O’Brien.  2000.  Genomic ancestry of the American puma (Puma concolor).  Journal of Heredity 91(3):186-197.  A landmark study of genetics of 31 cougar subspecies.  Five eastern cougar (Puma concolor couguar) museum samples (from NY, PA, Quebec, RI, and WV) were found with viable DNA.  Culver concludes that there is no basis for maintaining the traditional cougar subspecies taxonomy, and recommends collapsing them to six subspecies, including one for all cougars north of Nicaragua.  Because of the extremely small sample size for the subspecies traditionally called the eastern cougar, it is unlikely that any genetic profile can ever be created to distinguish this subspecies from others. Click here for a pdf copy(1.6MB) of the article. See Culver's maps of traditional and proposed new cougar taxonomy on left margin.
 
Culver, Melanie.  2005.  Genetic variation, gene flow, and population identification for North American pumas. Pp. 142-149 In  The Eastern Cougar.  See complete citation under Cougars in Eastern and Central North America above.  A summary of Culver’s findings for the general reader.

Culver, Melanie.  DNA and the origin of the North American puma.  Wild Cat News, December 2005.  Can be downloaded from the Publications section of the Cougar Network’s website, www.cougarnet.org.  Another popular summary of Culver’s DNA research.

Goldman, Edward A.  1946.  Classification of the Races of the Puma.  Part II of The Puma: Mysterious American Cat by Stanley P. Young and Edward A. Goldman.  Washington, DC, The American Wildlife Institute, 358 pp.  Reissued as a paperback by Dover.  Although based on outdated science, Goldman’s classification and assumed 31 subspecies are still mentioned in documents as recently as the Draft Recovery Plan for the Florida Panther in 2005.  It describes the pelage and has excellent plates showing representative skulls of  30 assumed subspecies.  Although Culver determined that all North American cougars belong to a single subspecies, there are definite regional differences in puma populations in different parts of the continent. 

Bekoff, Marc, and Cara Blessley Lowe, editors. 2007.  Listening to Cougar.  Boulder, Colorado, University Press of Colorado, 200 pp.  Contributions by Rick Bass, Marc Bekoff, Janay Brun, and many others.  Foreword by Jane Goodall.

Ewing, Susan, and Elizabeth Grossman, eds.  Shadow Cat: Encountering the American Mountain Lion. Seattle: Sasquatch Books, 1999. 225 pp.  A collection of thought-provoking essays that explore the relationship between the cat and humans. Authors include Rick Bass, Chris Bolgiano, Harley Shaw, Ted Williams and Terry Tempest Williams.

Hauck, K. 2000. Prey and Habitat Availability to Support a Cougar  (Puma concolor) Population in the Whiskey Jack Forest (Kenora Management Unit). M. Sc. Forestry. Thesis. Faculty of Forestry, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. 78 pp. (Advisor: D. Euler, PhD).

Houser, Rhonda S.  2002.  The use of geographic information systems to model habitat for Puma concolor cougar [sic] in the northern Blue Ridge of Virginia.  MS Thesis.  Richmond, VA: Virginia Commonwealth University. 

LaRue, Michelle A., and Clayton K. Nielsen.  2008. Modelling potential dispersal corridors for cougars in midwestern North America using least-cost path methods.  Ecological Modelling 212 (2008):372-381. 

Taverna, Kristin, et al.  1999.  Eastern Cougar (Puma concolor couguar):  Habitat suitability analysis for the central Appalachians. Charlottesville, VA:  Appalachian Restoration Campaign.  23 pp.  Uses four parameters -- land cover, deer density, road density, and human population density to analyze potential cougar habitat in the central Appalachians. 2,437 kb, 27 pages (large PDF) .  See map on left margin.

McGinnis, Helen J., Jay W. Tischendorf and Steven J. Ropski (editors)..  2006. Proceedings of the Eastern Cougar Conference 2004.  Morgantown, West Virginia, USA.  On a CD which can be ordered from our online store.

Proceedings of the Mountain Lion Workshops, 1976-2005.   You can get a complete set by joining the Cougar Network - http://www.easterncougarnet.org/members.html - for $30.00.  Many university libraries and libraries for professionals have these proceedings.  Only a handful of articles are about cougars of the East and Midwest.

Ropski, Steven J. and Jay W. Tischendorf (editors).  The Eastern Cougar Conference, 1994, Gannon University, Erie, PA [Proceedings].  Published by American Ecological Research Institute (--AERIE). 245 pp.Contains abstracts or full text of twenty papers. 

Bruce, Jay C., Sr.  Cougar Killer. 1953.  Reprinted in 2007 in Silver City, New Mexico: High-Lonesome Books.  172 pp.  Bruce was California’s first official cougar hunter, a position he held for 28 years.  He grew up poor in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains.  Cougar killing was a job to him—so many dollars per carcass.  A look the past and the attitudes toward cougars in the early 1900s.

Danz, Harold P. Cougar.  Much information on noted cougar hunters of the past.  More under General above.

Dobie, J. Frank.  1950.  The Ben Lilly Legend.  Reprinted by University of Texas Press, Austin in 2007.  Lilly was born in Alabama and grew up in east Tennessee.  What he loved above all was hunting cougars and bears.  Studying these animals always meant killing them.  More than any other person, he was probably responsible for eliminating them from the lowlands of east Tennessee and adjacent parts of Mississippi.  From there he moved to the Big Thicket of Texas and continued his campaign, and then on to the Southwest and Mexico.  If any one person was responsible for exterminating the grizzly of the Southwest, it was Lilly.  He was articulate and soft-spoken but eccentric.  He never hunted on Sundays, even if he was in the middle of a chase.  His hounds were famous, but if one failed to perform, he might beat it to death in front of his other dogs to teach them a lesson.

Grey, Zane.  1922 & 1924.  Roping Lions in the Grand Canyon.  Tom Doherty Associates LLC (www.tor.com), New York, reprinted in 1996.  154 pp.  A true account of a 1908 adventure. Grey and three companions, one of them a Navajo, a pack of hounds, and their horses ascend isolated Powell Plateau on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  Their purpose: capturing cougars alive by lassoing them.  Some readers will take this story as intended—an adventure in the awesome country of the Grand Canyon.  But the saga is a product of its time, so others will be dismayed at the cruelty and racism.

Nowak, Ronald M.  1976.  The Cougar in the United States and Canada.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Gives a state by state history of cougars.  An invaluable reference for cougar confirmations in central and eastern North America up to 1976. Not published.  190 pp.

Robinson, Michael J.  2005.  Predatory Bureaucracy: The Extermination of Wolves and the Transformation of the West.  Boulder, Colorado; University Press of Colorado.  473 pp.  Focused on the federal government’s successful campaign to exterminate wolves in the West.  Cougars and coyotes were also on the extermination list but survived.  The head of the campaign waged by the Bureau of Biological Survey (now the US Fish & Wildlife Service) was Stanley Young, author of The Puma.  Continues the story up to the passage of the Endangered Species Act and reintroduction of wolves.  Fascinating.

Young, Stanley P.  1946.  The Puma: Mysterious American Cat, Part I: Its History, Life Habits, Economic Status, and Control by Stanley P. Young and Edward A. Goldman.  Washington, DC, The American Wildlife Institute.  358 pp.  Reissued as a paperback by Dover.  For many years, this was the only comprehensive work on cougars.  It still contains valuable information on the status and extirpation of cougars in the various states and Canadian provinces.  Much emphasis is place on control, which was the main concern prior to the 1960s, when most states removed bounties from cougars and reclassified them as big game animals.

Cougar Network.  Puma Field Guide.  Can be downloaded from www.cougarnet.org.  In addition to sign, it includes biological considerations, general life history, identification, assessment, and management.  Authors include Harley Shaw, Paul Beier, Melanie Culver, and Melissa Grigione.

Defenders of Wildlife.  2008.  Florida Panther Identification Guide, 18 pp. Excellent color photos, many by ECF Science Advisor Sue Morse.  Can be downloaded from http://www.defenders.org/programs_and_policy/wildlife_conservation/imperiled_species/florida_panther/

Alvarez, Ken.  1993.  Twilight of the Panther: Biology, Bureaucracy and Failure in an Endangered Species Program.  Sarasota, Florida: Myakka River Publishing.  501 pp.  From the back cover:  “The Inside Story of a Vanishing Cat:  Incompetence, waste and inexcusable delays are often the poorly seen features of endangered species programs in the United States. That is the conclusion to be drawn from this analysis of efforts to save the Florida panther, and from a review of three other programs: the California condor, the black-footed ferret and the dusky seaside sparrow. The government agencies given responsibility for these enterprises frequently lack the organizational flexibility, and the will, to intervene effectively in arresting the decline of small, endangered populations. After years of bumbling they show no sign of mending their ways. Unfortunately, environmental organizations sometimes appeal for donations to aid these beleaguered creatures while doing little or nothing to relieve the bureaucratic rigidity that threatens them. Twilight of the Panther reveals the details of this little known bureaucratic dysfunction and offers prescriptions for correcting them.”  Fortunately, definite progress has been made in the recovery of the panther, condor, black-footed ferret, but problems remain.

Fergus, Charles. 1998.   Swamp Screamer: At Large with the Florida Panther.  Gainesville, Florida: University Press of Florida.  208 pp.  Fergus is a resident of Pennsylvania who went south to learn about the panther.  His work complements Maehr’s book.  Contains information on cougars in general.  The title needs explaining.  Fergus has observed panthers “screaming” both in the wild and in captivity.  But screaming is probably not the best word to describe the sound.  Here’s what he says about the calling of a wild female in heat:  “Yowwwwwl!  The cry was sharp and descending.  Yowwwwwwwwwl!  Like a street cat’s caterwaul, but throatier and much louder.”  (Page 6)
.
Maehr, David S.  1997. The Florida Panther: Life and Death of a Vanishing Carnivore.  Washington, DC: Island Press.  259 pp.  Well written account by a notable panther biologist on the habits and politics of the Florida panther.

Maehr, D.S., M.J. Kelly, C. Bolgiano, T. Lester, and H. McGinnis. 2003. Eastern cougar recovery is linked to the Florida panther: Cardoza and Langlois revisited. Wildlife Society Bulletin 31: 849-853.  A response to the previous article by Cardoza and Langlois, calling for reintroduction of Florida panthers outside their present range and the active involvement of private interest groups. 

Maehr, D.S.  2002.  Dispersal and colonization of the Florida Panther: Overcoming landscape barriers—biological and political,  In Fascione et al.  People and Predators… in the Cougar Attacks and Co-Existence section of this bibliography.

Maehr, David S., Michael A. Orlando, and John J. Cox.  2005.  Large carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores in South Florida: an evolutionary approach to conserving landscapes and biodiversity, in Ray et al. Large Carnivores and the Conservation of Biodiversity described in the Cougars and Biodiversity section of this bibliography.

Thatcher, Cindy A., Frank T. Van Manen, and Joseph D. Clark.  2006.  Identifying suitable sites for Florida panther reintroduction,  Journal of Wildlife Management 70(3): 752-763.

Bisque, Ramon E.  2004.  Lions of the Lyons: Colorado Cougars in a Modern Predator/Prey Drama.  Golden, Colorado: West by Southwest, Inc.  110 pp.  Few people, including cougar biologists, have had the opportunity to observe undisturbed wild cougars and their interactions with deer close up that Bisque, his family and neighbors have had.  They live outside Golden.  Excellent photos and descriptions of typical deer kills.  You can purchase a copy from Bisque’s website, http://www.bisque.com/ray/cougar

Brock, Stanley E.  1966.  Leemo: A True Story of a Man’s Friendship with a Mountain Lion.  New York: Taplinger Publishing Company..  176 pp.
Brock, Stanley E. 1967.  More about Leemo: The Adventures of a Puma.  New York: Taplinger Publishing Company..  188 pp.
Brock, Stanley E.  1972.  Jungle Cowboy.  New York: Taplinger Publishing Company, 1972. 190 pp.
The story of Brock’s relationship with a female puma he adopted as a kitten.  She was often allowed to run free on the huge cattle ranch he managed in southern Guyana.  Many interesting observations and photographs, and much about other animals that he observed and adopted.  Leemo’s story is strung out through the three books.  A classic set of books.

Mangelsen, Thomas D.  Story by Cara Shea Blessley.  1999.  Spirit of the Rockies: The Mountain Lions of Jackson Hole.  Omaha, Nebraska: Images of Nature.  64 pp.  For 42 days early in 1999, a mother cougar and her three seven-month old kittens inhabited a den on a butte within 100 yards of a road that runs through the National Elk Refuge near the border of Grand Teton National Park.  As the word spread, hundreds of viewers, armed with binoculars, spotting scopes and cameras, showed up to witness the rare spectacle of a cougar family living in the wild.  One of them was Tom Mangelsen, a noted wildlife photographer.  During the same period of time, the first wolves showed up in the refuge.  Magnificent photos of the cougars, wolves and other wildlife and their story, told by Blessley.

McCall, Karen, and Jim Dutcher.  1992.  Cougar: Ghost of the Rockies.  San Francisco: Sierra Club.  146 pp.  Working with Maurice Hornocker, wildlife photographer Dutcher enclosed a five-acre piece of beautiful Rocky Mountain country with a ten-foot-high fence and introduced a pregnant female puma of captive origin named Katrina.  For the next two years he recorded Katrina and her kittens on film.  Superb photos.

Maehr, David S., Reed F. Noss, and Jeffery L. Larkin (editors).. 2001.  Large Mammal Restoration: Ecological and Sociological Challenges in the 21st Century.  Washington, DC; Island Press, 375 pp.  Scientists discuss the challenges of reintroducing large carnivores such as wolves, wolverine, tigers, and grizzlies and ungulates such as elk, white-tailed deer and bighorn sheep.  Includes “The Florida panther: a flagship for regional restoration,” by Maehr, Thomas S. Hoctor and Larry D. Harris.

Cougar Management Guidelines Working Group.  2005.  Cougar Management Guidelines, First Edition.  Bainbridge Island, Washington; WildFutures.  137 pp.  Intended to be the bible for wildlife managers, co-written by a large group of cougar experts.  Much valuable information on cougar-prey relationships, habitat requirements, assessing populations, livestock depredation, sport hunting, and minimizing cougar-human conflict.

Robinson, Michael J.  Predatory Bureaucracy: The Extermination of Wolves and the Transformation of the West.  See description under the Historical heading.

Alvarez, Ken.  Twilight of the Panther: Biology, Bureaucracy and Failure in an Endangered Species Program.  See details in the Florida Panthers section.

Many books about cougars have been written for children.  Look in your public library.  Do you have a favorite—one that gives accurate information and is enjoyable for both children and their parents, who may be reading them aloud?  Let is us know.

Montgomery, Rutherford. 2001. Yellow Eyes. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Press. 243 pp. Yellow Eyes is a cougar living somewhere in the Rockies. His greatest enemy is Cougar George, a government-paid varmint exterminator; his best friend is the Indian trapper Treon. Yellow Eyes is only trying to live his life. Montgomery had the ability to tell stories from an animal’s point of view without being overly sentimental. A true classic, reprinted ten times since it was first published in 1937. Many now middle-aged people remember reading this book as a transforming event. Check out the reviews at amazon.com. One reader says, “I believe this single read provided me with the empathy I behold today, for wildlife and their never ending plight with encroaching (so-called) civilization.” (Fiction, for all children.)

Cameron, Del.1999.  Call of the Hounds: An Intimate Look at Lion and Bear Hunting with Hounds.  Stevensville, Montana: Burnt Fork Publishing.  270 pp. This book is a favorite with hound hunters.  Cameron hunted bear and cougars in Montana, Idaho and southern Arizona and New Mexico from the 1940s into the 1960s..  Whether or not you find this book enjoyable will probably depend on whether you like the idea of sport hunting of cougars.

Also see books in the Historical section.

There is no substitute for seeing cougars in motion and hearing their vocalizations.  Used VHS videos are available from dealers through amazon.com and alibiris.com at low prices.

Trail of the Cougar.  2002.  Nature Video Library (PBS).  Co-Production of Thirteen/WNET New York and National Geographic Television in association with Trebitsch Produktion International GMBH.  VHS video only, can be purchased from www.thirteen.org.   An excellent overview of the problems cougars and humans face, trying to survive as development increasingly intrudes on cougar habitat.  Filmed on Vancouver Island, the Rockies, and in Florida.  Includes scenes of the mother and kittens that lived on the National Elk Refuge early in 1999 (See Spirit of the Rockies in the Cougars Up Close section above.)

Cougar: Ghost of the Rockies.   1993 & 2005.  DVD and VHS (used).  The content is similar to the book of the same name (see Cougars Up Close section above), with the addition of a prologue in which noted cougar biologist Maurice Hornocker, past ECF President Jay Tischendorf, and Kerry Murphy tree and retrieve a radio-collared cougar.  DVD an be ordered from ExploratonFilms.com - http://www.explorationfilms.com/exploration-films-cougar.html and other online merchants.  Used VHS videos can be purchased through amazon.com.

Puma: Lion of the Andes.  1996.  National Geographic.  Available on DVD and VHS (used).  Photographer Hugh Miles and an assistant located a young female puma’s sporadically used den and after 3 ½ months, habituated her and followed her life for two years.  The setting is the awesome scenery of Torres del Paine National Park in southern Chile.  The puma’s principal prey is the guanaco, a native wild camel, and hares.  Deer apparently do not occur here.  We see these animals going about their lives, as well as the gray fox (not the same species as North America’s gray fox), and the magnificent Andean condor, which scavenges puma kills.  The pumas here are quite large, and interestingly, their kittens do not have spots.

On Nature’s Terms: People and Predators Co-Existing in Harmony.  2001.  DVD, 25 minutes.  Shown on PBS and suitable for schools and organizations, this excellent program features prominent biologists and predator advocates--and the carnivores themselves.  Co-existence issues such as minimizing depredation of livestock and protecting habitat and dispersal corridors are presented in positive manner.  Although it's focused on the West, the program may excite you about the prospects of restoring large mammals in the East and protecting and even creating the wildlands that they will need to survive.

Copies are $20.00 and can be ordered online or by sending a check made out to WildFutures to the following address:  WildFutures/EII, Attn: Sharon Negri, 353 Wallace Way, NE Suite 12, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110.