ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605280008
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
COLUMN: Dispatches from Rye Hollow
SOURCE: STEVE KARK
I read in the paper recently that at least one state wildlife biologist believes there's a chance, though a slim one, that wild cougars may still exist in Virginia.
I'm glad to hear it, though not because I'm your typical outdoorsy kind of guy.
I like hiking and camping well enough, but only for a few days at a time. Without a hot shower and the other amenities of civilization, I tend to become irritable by about the third day of this sort of thing. I need my TV fix. I have to check my e-mail.
Still, I want to believe the cougars are there, not because I think I'll ever get the chance to see one. I probably won't. I just need to believe they're there. The world would be a very different place for me if they weren't.
Like most folks, I suppose, I'm fascinated by such animals, provided they're kept at a safe distance. I've grown accustomed to my place at the top of the food chain and become rather unsettled by the presence of anything that might temporarily upset the status quo.
While my wife and I were camping in British Columbia last summer, someone was attacked and killed by a cougar in a nearby town. This person had been mountain biking on a trail near his home. Authorities found him and his bike beside a stream. Apparently, he surprised the cougar as it paused to drink. The rushing water probably covered the sound of the cyclist's approach.
I regret the loss of the cyclist's life, but he lived in a wilderness area and should have known better than to have gone mountain biking in such a place.
Moreover, such occurrences are exceedingly rare, especially when you consider the increasing numbers of people who venture into the wild.
More people - generally children - are mauled or killed by dogs each year, yet there has been no large-scale effort to discourage keeping them as pets. Why then not learn to accept a predator like a cougar in its wild home?
Should you come upon a wild cougar, the generally accepted strategy is that you freeze, stand upright and don't run. If the cougar persists and continues to approach, the experts say, you should face the animal and talk to it, attempting to back away as you do so.
I know the drill, but this does little to diminish my concerns when we camp in such places. Besides, who knows what any one of us would do in this situation? Conversation would be my last guess.
I remember sleeping very little the night we camped near the town where the cyclist had been killed. All night, it seemed, every rustle of the leaves came to signify a cougar's imminent attack. And let me tell you, there's a lot of nighttime leaf rustling when you camp in the woods.
As it turned out, the only thing that invaded our campsite that night was an 8-inch banana slug. It slimed its way over the top of our tent and across the picnic table, where we found it the next morning.
No, I wouldn't say I look forward to being attacked by a wild cougar, but I'd certainly like to see one. That some might still exist in our Virginia mountains thrills me more than I can say.
I'm certainly no "tree hugger" - or, in this case, cougar hugger. My needs come first, and they always will. It's simply that my needs include knowing that there are still wild places in these mountains where such animals could survive.
It might be imprudent to hope that such places still exist. On the other hand, for me at least, it would be equally imprudent not to.
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