People settle on cougar territory. Cougar gets used to people. People kill cougar.
The title summarises in three short sentences the story of this cougar and, frankly it is a sad story and a sad indictment of the failure of humans to protect wildlife. As human population numbers grow rapidly there is only one trend: it’ll get worse.

Cougar shot because she got used to being around people. Note: the coat colour is inaccurate due to this being a poor quality screenshot.
This particular cougar (aka puma) was used to sunning herself on a sundeck in a Ruskin trailer park, USA. She made it a habit and it cost her her life because once a large wild cat gets used to being around people, the authorities decide that the cat is a danger to the residents.
Of course the people are much more of a danger to the cat! The cat’s death at the hands of people is proof of that.
Conservationists went to the trailer park that the cat had made her resting spot and tranquillised her. They took her away and euthanised her.
They say relocation does not work because the cat comes back. This is because the cat’s home range included the trailer park. Perhaps the trailer park should have been relocated?! I suggest this because the family of this cat was probably at this location before the trailer park. Or she was forced to choose the spot because of human settlement expansion elsewhere.
The cat was 15-months-of-age. Her life was ahead of her. At first she lounged on the deck of Kevyn Helmer’s deck late last year. Last Monday another resident at the park found her sleeping in his yard.
It’s speculated that she was feeding on cat food. It’s almost a replication of the original domestication of the wild cat 10,000 years ago. This cougar was becoming semi-domesticated, almost a community cat. The only problem is that she was big and considered dangerous.
Female cougars aren’t that big though (about the weight of a ten year old boy) and they are shy and can be scared off. Wasn’t there a better more humane way of dealing with this? It’s just so sad. She was innocent, harming no one.
Source: mapleridgenews.com.