Big Day for Cougars

Illinois sightings, Michigan mysteries, and a Cali woman who isn't afraid to slap a puma

Now that the Summer of the Bear is winding down, it seems jealous mountain lions are making a bid to claim the fall spotlight. Rather than rack up incident after steady incident, bear-style, it looks like they're going for an all-out media blitz. To wit:

• Ever since cops cornered and shot a cougar in a Chicago neighborhood back in April, cougar sightings are reaching record numbers in both Chicago and Illinois. At one point, Cook County animal control agents had to field an average of 18 sightings a day. While no physical evidence of subsequent mountain lion activity has been found since the cat shooting, officials won't rule out the possibility that they're around. "I am retired, but I don't have time to fabricate stories," said one man who saw two cougars crossing a road together in semi-rural Wonder Lake. "I may be old, but I'm not blind."


•  Mountain lions haven't existed in Michigan since 1906, but recent mysterious horse maulings and a warning from the National Park Service lend credence to the idea that a small population might live near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A 900-pound horse was mauled near Sleeping Bear Dunes, and while Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials denied that the attack came from a cougar, the vet who treated the horse, the owner, and the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy are certain that the large gashes and claw marks couldn't come from any other animal. Meanwhile, the NPS posted warning signs at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore warning visitors to beware after a volunteer claimed to have been stalked by a big cat.


• Last week, a grandmother in Northern California awoke to the screaming of her cat from beneath her bed and what appeared to be a large dog trying to get at it. "I was half asleep and first I though it was a big dog, trying to get under the bed, and I whacked him on the rear end, like, 'You're not getting my baby,' " (Jane) Chanteau said. The offending animal turned out to be a 4-foot-long mountain lion who'd broken into the house through a glass door hoping to make a meal of the family pet. After wandering around confused for a few minutes, the cougar made its way out of the house and dashed away into the nearby woods. Bearli the cat survived with a minor puncture wound and likely severe mental trauma.

Not a bad media coup for the cougar initiative, I'd say. But to ensure their continued visibility in Michigan, they should probably get caught in the act of killing a horse. Otherwise, they're just asking for some conspiracy theorist to come in and steal their thunder by inventing the "Chupacaballo.*"

—Ted Alvarez

Now you see cougars, now you don't (Chicago Tribune)
If it wasn't a cougar, what was it? (Detroit Free Press)
Mountain lion issues wake-up call (SF Gate)

*Thanks, EKH

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Monday, October 06, 2008 in: News & Events, Nature & Wildlife
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The Whitney Report

A quick photo spraydown from the Sierra Nevada's king mountain

Well the Mountaineers Route on Mt. Whitney worked out. Everybody up. Everybody down. Everybody safe - never a sure thing on big mountains with plenty of loose rock and heights to tumble from.

As I said in a previous post, difficulty is all about the conditions, meaning - in this case - glorious weather and dry rock. So the route was easier than expected and we never used the technical climbing doodads, except for a short length of 8mm rope to help one member feel - and be - safer descending steep, gravelly slabs on the way back to our 12,500-foot high camp at Iceberg Lake. Basically the route was 2,000 feet of Class II talus and easy Class III downsloping ledges covered with generous helpings of gravel and loose 'babyhead' boulders. I'd call helmets near mandatory here.

As an fyi, we saw about 10 people, total, on the route above camp. Meanwhile, most campsites on the standard hike up Whitney saw 40 people a night. Enjoy the pics. It was fun getting them. -- sh

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Thursday, October 02, 2008 in:
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Music Boosts Endurance by 15%

AC/DC on your iPod performs better than EPO, and its safe

I’ve long known that listening to an iPod or mp3 player during a long run or bike ride could boost my pace. When I first heard about it over five years ago, the intitial research pointed to a 10% increase in endurance. Back then, to see for myself, I did a test on a 60-minute snowshoe slog up a ski hill on consecutive weeks. Sure enough, my time up the hill while listening to a sad collection of ‘80s music was 6 minutes (10%) faster than without. Of course, I didn’t factor in the quality of sleep the night before, breakfast, or my coffee intake. But still the result was clear, I went faster when I listened to music.

More recent research by Dr. Costas Karageorghi of Brunel University’s School of Sport and Education in west London has now found the perfect beats to boost endurance up to 15%. That’s huge. If you currently run a 4-hour marathon, slashing 15% off your time works out to a whopping 36 minutes. If you ride 100-mile centuries in 5 hours, 15% knocks 45 minutes off your time. That’s the kind of insane advantage that would get you banned at the Olympics.

This weekend, Karageorghi will be able to put his beat selection to the test on a massive scale. At the Sony Ericsson Run To the Beat half-marathon outside London on Sunday, the 17 music staions along the course are going to follow Karageorghi’s carfully constructed playlist. Whether the 12,500 runners cover the distance 15% faster than the average times for half-marathoners remains to be seen. (Unfortunately, I haven’t found out what songs are on the list—maybe he’s already sold his playlist to Nike?)

The key to music’s effectiveness, according to Dr. Karageorghis, is two-fold: the runners match their strides to the beat to keep their feet moving and the music distracts them from their feelings of fatigue. Sounds obvious to me.  Still, I never would’ve thought that benefit would add up to a 15% advantage. Maybe marathon planners will read this and start allowing people to run with iPods; it’d certainly make their day shorter. I know I’m going to start running with mine again—as soon as I find some better music to load into my music player. Got any suggestions?

Source: www.sciencedaily.com

 

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Friday, October 03, 2008 in: Fitness
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