Land to provide food, shelter and the resources for the next generation of life on spaceship Earth is becoming harder and harder to obtain for all life forms engaged in the struggle for survival on a daily basis.

Mother Earth has been showing signs of wear and tear, abuse and misuse, anger and frustration at the state of environmental affairs she is forced to deal with.

The cycle of life on her surface continues to turn in the same way it has for millions of years, life continues to be born, grow to maturity and then spread out in the endless cycle of growth and retraction that is determined by the abundance or lack of the necessities of life.

Residents of America’s urban-coyote capital Chicago recently woke up to a sight that will have them watching their kids closer and looking over their shoulders more when their walking in any of Chicago’s trail of forest preserves that link together open spaces in the urban Chicago area.

Residents spotted a 150 pound cougar lurking in the shadows of one of Chicago’s urban neighbourhoods, just waiting around for dinner maybe or looking for a quick meal.

Mountain Lions and Cougars are a new trend in Chicago’s urban environment that has an estimated 2,000 coyotes living in the urban Chicago area, but a trend that will have game wardens, police, and Chicago residents worried.

Unfortunately, the big cat had to be destroyed, I’m sure it was as confused, surprised and fearful as the humans involved in this affair, only lost and in unfamiliar territory.

Experts contacted about the affair are currently doing tests on the cougar’s DNA to compare with blood found at a Wisconsin sighting, witnesses reported a cougar of similar size and colour to the one killed in Chicago.

Experts say the cat didn’t have the tell tale signs of a pet cougar that may have gotten loose or run away, apparently it had a full set of strong claws and teeth, unlike a cougar kept in captivity whose claws would normally be filed down if it belonged to a prudent owner.

Expect to see more wildlife intruding into urban areas around the world in the years to come, especially since we intruded on them first and they are actually just trying to repopulate areas of the country that has been cougar country for thousands of years.
Chicago’s trails of forest corridors leading into the city made the trip easier for the young cougar and he was probably just following instincts millions of years in the making. In the future we may have to rethink how we create green areas within our urban areas, both to prevent meetings between humans and wild animals, like cougars, and to help save the innocent lives of animals only attempting to survive as we are.

Land for big predators to live, prosper and eventually reproduce on, are disappearing at an alarming rate everyday, which unfortunately means large predators are disappearing every day and if things continue without change they will eventually go the way of the Dodo bird and Tasmanian Devil and the thousands, maybe millions, of other species that have met humans to their demise.

Think of the possibilities, soon, maybe humans will be the large predator still roaming free on Mother Earth or even still existing.