Life Studies by Ernest Thompson Seton
This is one in an ongoing series of nature essays from Lives of Game Animals (1925-1928) by Ernest Thompson Seton.
The Chase of The Cougar/Vol. I pg. 109
“On my desk before me now is a huge mass of printed matter gathered in thirty-odd years, dealing with Cougar hunts.
Most of these tell us how the hunter, “absolutely alone and without assistance of any kind, excepting that given by a pack of Cougar hounds and a very small army of experienced mountaineers, and armed with practically nothing but two or three high-power repeating rifles, had actually done to death a gigantic, ferocious, roaring, yelling Cougar that, according to the most conservative guesses, weighed when alive over 300 pounds and was estimated to be over 11 feet long.”
Stories of this class are a regular output of the current magazines of today. Before passing on, let me say that any one man, woman, or child, who has a couple thousand dollars to spare can do this very feat; that is, kill a Cougar, without the slightest risk, discomfort – or glory.”
Felis couguar Kerr/Vol I. pg. 39
“The largest ♀in the [Theodore] Roosevelt collection of 8 adults was 7 ft. long and weighed 133 lbs.; the smallest was 6 ft. long and weighed but 80 lbs.; the others weighed 124, 120, 118, 108, 105, 102.”
Summary/Vol. I pg. 131
“There are three important facts that should be kept in mind while considering the mass of evidence on the disposition of the Cougar.
First, the creature is naturally of a mild and playful disposition when not goaded by hunger, fear, or danger to its young.
Second, all these highly developed animals display an amazing amount of individual variation; some may be fierce and some may be gentle.
Third, all wild animals learn to fear man and let him alone in regions where guns are in general use.”
In view of these facts, then, I should expect the Cougar to be more dangerous to man when Cougars were more numerous and man less perfectly armed than now.”
Chapter The Last/Vol I. pg. 134-135
“This is the end of my attempt to compile and give with reasonable fullness a history of this animal; to put together the few scattered fragments that have been collected of the great mosaic, that in its completeness should reveal to us the powers and mind of our fellow hunter, the Cougar.
But vast and baffling are the gaps; great vacant spaces cover most of the field. Outside of what it kills, and how to kill it, I find little indeed on record. A score of questions come up, the answers to which should be the key to many other secrets.
When and why does it purr? Does it have a succession of sounds; that is, a song to express joy and vigour? What is the meaning of spitting, if it does spit? Why does it lash its tail? Can it really see in the dark? How does it communicate with its follows other than by sound? Does it go to special trees to splash them with urine? Does it bury its dung? Does it use odour posts? Does it ever form friendships with other animals? Does it ever assume the duty of protecting man? Does it store food for the far future? Does it pair for life? Does it resent encroachment of other Cougars on its hunting grounds? Does it ever make long, adventurous journeys hundreds of miles from home? Are there bachelors or old maids among them? What are its amusements? Has it any social games or meeting places? To what age does it attain. How do most die?
For thirty years I have kept in touch with all that has been written or its known of the American Cougar. The result has been a huge mass of material, enough to make several octavo volumes, and of this mass now before me, and herewith given you in condensed form, fully 99 per cent. deals with how we may hunt, pursue, murder this wonderful, beautiful animal. Of the remaining 1 per cent. remaining, about one half deals with alleged, more or less doubtful attacks of this splendid creature on man, or his material interests in the form of flocks and herds. Less than one half of the remainder deals with the real animal, its home life, its gentleness, its amusements, its struggles, its gropings after something better than the world in which its superb animalism makes it king supreme.
Smitten With Shame
I am smitten with indignation and shame when I realize these things. I say to our authorities in charge of such matters, who publish proudly every year their shocking lists of Cougars killed in the West: “Yes, I suppose so – it is so and must be; your masters demand that you do it. But meanwhile, what have you wise men added to our knowledge of this glorious exemplar of the laws that made the world? With all your opportunity, and your covert admiration of the noble brute that you hound with blatant advertisings to its death, what have you given to another generation of its inner life, its home life, its conquest of the laws of heat and space, its perfect motherhood and – I think – at times, its perfect fatherhood?”
All that is known, every shred of fact recorded known, I have gathered, so far as I have been able, into these meager pages, and, reading them, I blush for those I herd with. “Kill, kill, kill,” is their cry, their only doing, and their cry. Fifty pages there are of senseless, brutal killing, and only one of “Stop! Are we not robbing our people and ourselves of something more beautiful and more worth while than countless works of human art on which we have so wisely lavished untold gold?”