Green Week: Cat people

Reports of big cats roaming the wilds of southwestern Rhode Island are nothing new. During the past decade, folks in rural South County have called the Independent with sightings of mountain lions in their backyards. They're convinced, and they're vocal, but so far they don't have proof in the form of photographs, video or other viable evidence (although one cougar watcher claims to have a skull, scat and pictures of tracks to indicate that panthers prowl in these parts). Arguments against the big cats: They don't show up as roadkill and, strangely, they don't seem to go on cat-like killing sprees, terrorizing domestic animals or wildlife. Conspiracy theorists believe that state environmental management officials know the cats are here in limited numbers. They point to the fact that for years officials were reluctant to admit that black bears were back, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. (All it took to silence the doubters was for one bear to go public a couple of weeks ago, eluding officials from Narragansett to North Kingstown, turning all of Rhode Island into bear paparazzi. But "Fluffy" the bear, like the Warwick manatee from two summers ago, wanted no part of the publicity, and high-tailed it to Connecticut.) We know that mountain lions once hunted here, and they are increasing their range throughout the U.S. With the emphasis on cleaning up the environment over the past few decades, preserving wilderness and preventing toxic chemicals and pesticides from polluting air, water and soil, wildlife has made a comeback, even in the second-most-densely populated state in the union. Rhody is exploding in deer (a.k.a. big cat food) and a state that was once logged to near baldness is now more than two-thirds forested (a.k.a. cougar cover). So maybe it's not a matter of if but when for the first documented case of the Eastern puma returning to Rhode Island. After all, the only thing that matters to all animals except humans is habitat, not borders.