Here's a story. I was driving down my road tonight and saw a silhouette off in the grass. It was an animal shape. Medium size. I was thinking coyote but when I got closer a little gleam of light hit it just right for less than a half second. There was only one thing my brain processed it to be.
A mountain lion.
Now, there are occasional reports of them in Wisconsin and a few of them have been proven, but they're all in Northwest Wisconsin, and I live in Southeast Wisconsin. There have been reports in a nearby town about three miles north of here, maybe three years ago. There was never any evidence to prove it and our DNR said it was likely a coyote or deer.
Was what I saw a mountain lion that mysteriously made it across Wisconsin without anyone seeing it? Yes.
No, wait, I mean no. In the moment, I was sure what I was seeing wasn't a coyote. Then I began to think. What about it made my brain process "mountain lion" and not "coyote", even when I was expecting it to be a coyote in the first place?
Here's a mountain lion.
Mountain lions are light brown. They're a medium size and younger ones can be smaller than most people realize. So I began to think, what other animals of that size share that similarity? It couldn't be a deer. The shape was way off. So, I cut the list down to only one animal.
Then I thought, mountain lions have white fur under their nose. Its a very obvious trait, & not one that many other animals have. So. I began to think... Are there any animals in my area that have white below their nose?
OK, maybe the facts and common sense are right, but its always fun thinking of the possibilities of nature. I've seen many coyotes in my life and I know what they look like, but because I only saw its face for a fraction of a second, the closest thing my brain could come up with is a mountain lion.
How about those mountain lions that actually do make it to Wisconsin? Its pretty impressive. We destroy habitat after habitat and some animals just keep trying to take their areas back. Sadly, always without success. Did you all hear about the Gray Wolf that traveled all the way to the Grand Canyon? I was following that story for awhile. It was a big moment. That area hasn't seen a wolf in over 70 years. Sadly, the latest reports suggest it may have been illegally shot by a hunter in Utah. Human's are great, aren't we?
