Word: lions
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...must be a great consolation to the family of the victim killed by a mountain lion in California to know that the death was simply a result of "being in the wrong place at the wrong time." Best of all, by being some cat's dinner, the victim contributed to its survival. Any man-eating animal is our natural enemy. Are we willing to sacrifice human lives to prevent its extinction? Richard Packham Roseburg...
Saving the Big Cats I applaud time for its cover story [Aug. 23] on the vulnerable status of big cats (lions, tigers, snow leopards, cheetahs and others) - surely one of the saddest legacies of today's world. Human overpopulation, hunting, poverty and ignorance - along with the horrendous practice of buying and selling animal parts - have proved to be obstacles too tough to overcome, even for creatures as magnificent as the big cats you pictured. Every solution mentioned by the scientists and conservationists is worth trying. We owe these animals our best efforts. Gillian Beach Cieri West Palm Beach, Florida...
...lingering bad feeling. The doping controversy that marred the start of the Games knocked the wind out of us. Although a record 22 athletes from around the world were disqualified for doping violations, it was our two star sprinters - Konstantinos Kenteris and Katerina Thanou - who got the lion's share of the bad press. And they were never proved to be dopers. O.K., they knew the rules about turning up for drug tests, they violated them, and they deserved to be punished. But International Olympic Committee officials posed triumphantly for the press with Kenteris' and Thanou's Games credentials after...
What has worked before, however, is noncaptive breeding programs. In the mid-1990s the Florida panther, a subspecies of the mountain lion, had been reduced to 30 to 50 animals that were showing hallmarks of inbreeding, including kinked tails and deformed sperm. In 1995 eight female cougars from Texas were transported to Florida and let loose. They began breeding with their endangered Floridian cousins. Last April, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials declared the program a success, estimating the genetically healthy population at 80 to 100 animals. Alas, the Iberian lynx has no suitable relative to reinvigorate its stock...
There is no simple way to reconcile expanding human populations and the territorial requirements of large predators. Whenever a choice has to be made, the needs of humans will trump those of big cats. Even on Mugie Ranch, where tolerance for lions is high, ranch manager Klaus Mortensen recently had to shoot a female lion he knew by name after she took to killing sheep. "If you don't move quickly, they teach the other lions [to do the same]," says Mortensen. Big cats cannot help themselves; they are natural-born killers. To keep them in a world where wilderness...