A new book, co-edited by Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder, blends stories, scientific reports, personal essays and even poems to illustrate the intrigue many people have with America's largest cat, the cougar.
Called "Listening to Cougar," the book explores the mysterious nature of the animals more commonly referred to as mountain lions and the powerful effect they have on people, especially those who have had personal experiences with the elusive, wild animals.
"Cougars are kind of like the icon of wildness," said Bekoff. "They are typically solitary, hard-core, natural-born killers and people are intrigued by them. It's amazing how we are intrigued by the presence of an animal who is dangerous."
The book is an anthology combining contributions from 19 writers including biologists, naturalists, philosophers and poets who provide biological, historical, spiritual and personal perspectives.
It was co-edited by Cara Blessley Lowe, a wildlife author and co-founder of The Cougar Fund, an organization dedicated to protecting cougars through education projects and by monitoring state policies regarding cougars.
"I have studied carnivores for years but the close encounters with lions that I've had up here, right by my house, motivated me to not only compile the stories but to get my own stories out," said Bekoff, who lives just west of Boulder. "So along with the book's co-editor, Cara Blessley Lowe, we asked all these writers if they would contribute stories about mountain lions, what they mean to them from a scientific, philosophical or personal perspective, and the response was overwhelming."
The stories range from a Colorado cougar ecologist writing about the journey young male cougars take after they are weaned - typically traveling up to 62 miles or more from the den to establish a territory - to a writer who sees cougars in her dreams.
There are also stories of personal encounters with cougars, including one Bekoff had just outside his home.
"What happens when you meet these animals, like I have, is you're amazed by their presence and sometimes you do everything that you're not supposed to do," he said. "For example, I ran away from a cougar I encountered, up a hill from my house, wearing clogs, and I was lucky that the lion had just eaten 20 pounds of a deer that he had killed and didn't chase after me -- the lion never moved."
Bekoff is the author of 20 books including "The Emotional Lives of Animals," released earlier this year. He has spent decades chronicling the emotional lives of animals and working for their protection. He hopes that people who read the new book come away with a better understanding of cougars and an awareness that where we live is their home, too.
"What we really wanted to accomplish was an appreciation of the cougar as an animal, as a being in this world that has the same right to live here as we do," said Bekoff. "We move into animals' habitat and we redecorate nature, if you will, and we expect them to leave, but this is their land, too."