Post by wvhsparent on Sept 16, 2009 9:45:13 GMT -5
Keep an eye on your small dogs.......
September 16, 2009
By BILL BIRD wbird@scn1.com
Monday morning proved to be anything but the start of a typical workweek for Lance Clarke.
Clarke was driving about 8 a.m. to his job at BP Cantera II in Warrenville.
He was northbound on Raymond Drive and crossing Diehl Road in rush-hour traffic when he looked to his right at the grassy, wooded area at the base of the Raymond Drive bridge over Interstate 88. That tract lies in the northwestern corner of the McDowell Grove Forest Preserve near Naperville's far northwest side.
"I saw this thing come up the hill, shake the dew off itself and then go down the hill" and disappear to the east, Clarke said.
"It was definitely feline, sleek and muscular. It was a tawny brown color with darker ears. The tail was very long, about two-thirds as long as the rest of the body ..."
"The size was far larger than a house cat," Clarke wrote in an e-mail. "Its body stood above and cleared the undercut grass it was standing in."
Clarke stopped short of declaring he had seen a mountain lion, but he wouldn't be the first to make that claim this month. Wheaton police on Tuesday fielded their second report of a possible cougar sighting in just 11 days in that city, near a creek barely 10 miles from where Clarke spotted his big cat.
"My first thought was, that's a d**n mountain lion," Clarke said. "It was certainly a 40-, 50-, 60-pound thing, so I don't think it was a bobcat."
Clarke reported the sighting to officials of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County. "I certainly don't want to see anybody get hurt," he said.
Dan Thompson, an ecologist with the forest preserve district, said his agency has received about two dozen telephone calls so far this year from citizens who believe they have seen mountain lions here.
"I'll never say no, I'll never say never. There's certainly a possibility that this exists, but I can't say yes or no one way or the other" as to what people might have seen, Thompson said. Without photographs or similar evidence, "it's just really hard to validate what you're seeing," he said.
Cougars are believed to be migrating eastward from the Rocky Mountains, and the Chicago area provides them with abundant deer and other creatures on which to feed, Thompson said.
Mountain lions typically require more open space than local forest preserves provide, "so it's difficult for them to establish themselves here," Thompson said. But compared to coyotes and other animals that have learned to live in suburbia, "they certainly do pose a bigger threat (to people,) no question."
Tuesday's sighting in Wheaton involved a cat described as large and black in color. It was seen near East Cole Avenue and Bridle Lane, and investigators found "a possible paw print" they will have examined by a wildlife expert, according to a release from Wheaton police.
September 16, 2009
By BILL BIRD wbird@scn1.com
Monday morning proved to be anything but the start of a typical workweek for Lance Clarke.
Clarke was driving about 8 a.m. to his job at BP Cantera II in Warrenville.
He was northbound on Raymond Drive and crossing Diehl Road in rush-hour traffic when he looked to his right at the grassy, wooded area at the base of the Raymond Drive bridge over Interstate 88. That tract lies in the northwestern corner of the McDowell Grove Forest Preserve near Naperville's far northwest side.
"I saw this thing come up the hill, shake the dew off itself and then go down the hill" and disappear to the east, Clarke said.
"It was definitely feline, sleek and muscular. It was a tawny brown color with darker ears. The tail was very long, about two-thirds as long as the rest of the body ..."
"The size was far larger than a house cat," Clarke wrote in an e-mail. "Its body stood above and cleared the undercut grass it was standing in."
Clarke stopped short of declaring he had seen a mountain lion, but he wouldn't be the first to make that claim this month. Wheaton police on Tuesday fielded their second report of a possible cougar sighting in just 11 days in that city, near a creek barely 10 miles from where Clarke spotted his big cat.
"My first thought was, that's a d**n mountain lion," Clarke said. "It was certainly a 40-, 50-, 60-pound thing, so I don't think it was a bobcat."
Clarke reported the sighting to officials of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County. "I certainly don't want to see anybody get hurt," he said.
Dan Thompson, an ecologist with the forest preserve district, said his agency has received about two dozen telephone calls so far this year from citizens who believe they have seen mountain lions here.
"I'll never say no, I'll never say never. There's certainly a possibility that this exists, but I can't say yes or no one way or the other" as to what people might have seen, Thompson said. Without photographs or similar evidence, "it's just really hard to validate what you're seeing," he said.
Cougars are believed to be migrating eastward from the Rocky Mountains, and the Chicago area provides them with abundant deer and other creatures on which to feed, Thompson said.
Mountain lions typically require more open space than local forest preserves provide, "so it's difficult for them to establish themselves here," Thompson said. But compared to coyotes and other animals that have learned to live in suburbia, "they certainly do pose a bigger threat (to people,) no question."
Tuesday's sighting in Wheaton involved a cat described as large and black in color. It was seen near East Cole Avenue and Bridle Lane, and investigators found "a possible paw print" they will have examined by a wildlife expert, according to a release from Wheaton police.