Cougar in Chicago

• 22 Feb 2008, Cougar in southern Wisconsin, likely having come from the Black Hills.
• 30 March, A ‘very big cat’ is on the loose in North Chicago, authorities say: “Police in North Chicago are on the lookout for what Mayor Leon Rockingham described Saturday as a ‘very big cat’ that authorities believe could be a wild cougar.”
• 13 April, Wilmette put on cougar alert: “Two weeks after several reported sightings of a cougar on the prowl in North Chicago, four Wilmette residents are convinced they saw a big cat, too. Wilmette police said they received four reports Saturday morning of a cougar in the 300 block of 3rd Street near the CTA Linden station. Police searched the area, but found no sign of a cougar.”
• 15 April, Cops kill cougar on North Side: “Chicago Police Capt. Mike Ryan said the cougar tried to attack the officers when they tried to contain it.”
• 15 April, Slaying of cougar justified, experts say: “Adrian Wydeven, a conservation biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, said that dealing with a wild, dangerous animal in a city necessitates different methods than in a rural setting. ‘If this was in middle of the Wisconsin North Woods or a heavily forested area, going out and shooting a cougar wouldn’t be appropriate,’ Wydeven said. ‘But in an urban area, unless they are highly trained in using tranquilizer guns and have everything available, on short notice tranquilization is not always an option.’

UPDATE, 30 April 2008: DNA tests link cougar shot in Chicago to Wisconsin, South Dakota: “…the cougar police shot April 16 on the North Side of Chicago was the same animal that left blood drops in southern Wisconsin in January, Cook County animal control officials said Wednesday. The cougar’s genes link it to a population from the Black Hills of South Dakota…” The cougar did not have rabies. It’s marginally less bad to be attacked by a healthy cougar than by a rabid cougar, I guess, or maybe a rabid cougar is more likely to attack.