This is a summary of the original article published in print. Read more from Jay Ingram in the Wild Things blog.
When you think of animals that have benefits for humans, what comes to mind? It likely isn’t cougars, but the big cats, large populations of which live west of Calgary, have an important role to play in protecting humans.
Ironically, the animal humans need protecting from, is deer. These terrifying killer deer inadvertently cause the deaths of more people annually in North America than any other animal species, and cougars hunt deer and help regulate the population size. The more cougars we have, the more in control the deer population is.
Researchers created a model that estimated in 30 years-time what the benefits of a larger cougar population in the eastern United States would be.
Cougars would save 155 lives, 21,000 people from being injured, and $2 billion in damages.
Read more about how cougars went from menace to hero in the eyes of researchers and conservationists in Canadian Wildlife magazine, Jan + Feb 2018, edition.