Cougar travels from the Black Hills to Connecticut

Every now and then we hear reports about cougars where they are not supposed to be.  I have great confidence in the work of wildlife managers in their ability to figure out where critters breed even though the science is imperfect.  What is exciting to many of us, is that individuals disperse into marginal areas which may or may not eventually hold a reproducing population.  Over the last few months there have been cougar reports and trail camera photos across the northern states.  Unfortunately this lone dispersing individual was recently killed by a car in Connecticut.  DNA indicats that the cougar was originally fom the Black Hills in South Dakota, more than 1800 miles away from where it ended up.
From this sad story, hopefully we can draw out a little hope that the natural tendency of wildlife populations once they get healthy is to go forth and prosper.    Check out this link to get the full story.
http://easterncougar.org/CougarNews/?p=4021