, August 2, 2011, you can wander far Cougars and widely. Young males are killed in Connecticut, which wildlife populations lived there for over a century — arrived in the State after nearly 2,000-mile journey, which started in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The scientists used DNA fingerprints to identify its home population and roztrzaskanych its use hair and fecal samples, the foot prints and pictures of cameras trail hike likely.JHaviv/iStockphotoThe story begins with the unidentified body was found on a roadside. Hit by a car in the wee hours of the morning, the researchers puzzled over which had come from and how they came to his resting place of asphalt.
But that's not human murder mystery: the victim was a young cougar, struck down in the Milford Parkway, Wilbur Cross Module 11 June. The incident shocked the country where drivers are accustomed to the adjacent deer dash in front of their customers succeed, 140-Pound feline predatory pricing. On 26 July, after working for weeks to submit the story scientists provided surprising cougar saga, cat, 2,000-mile journey from the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Green Lawns of southern New England.
In the case of young males was killed, the researchers originally thought the cat could be game — not wild cougars has been documented in Connecticut since the end of the 19th century.
But autopsy suggested otherwise. "He was not neutered, declawed tags was not was not overweight," says wildlife biologist Paul Rego Connecticut Department of energy and environmental protection, who coordinated the State investigation. There were no microchip under the skin of the animal — simply embedded Porcupine Quills.
Perplexed, the scientists sent a portion of the muscle to the u.s. Forest Service Wildlife Genetics laboratory in Missoula, Montana, Idaho, hoping genetics could help determine the cat's home range.
In the last decade laboratory built the extensive genetics, consisting of 50 different wild species, says the Director of the laboratory of Michael Schwartz. The scientists used mainly to study how land management affects the population breeding patterns and dispersion of animals to their current scope, which are essential for the prevention of reproductive isolation and inbreeding.
"But we do a lot of this kind of work, Schwartz says."Every once in a while it decides, it will display the cougar in the area, where there is no wild populations.”
Schwartz and his team compared DNA samples from the Connecticut Cat cougar about 800 in the database using DNA fingerprint techniques similar to those of officials of the U.S., probably used to identify Osama Bin Laden's body. They looked at 20 DNA microsatellites — areas with repeatable genetic elements different length — as well as passive inherited from DNA genome mitochondrialny. Mitochondrial DNA confirmed that the cat came from North America and there were imports of South America — are usually animals living freely in captivity. The data matched the genetic profile of microsatellite population cougar Black Hills, certainly 99,8%.
Although the Western United States is home to an estimated 30,000, the number of cats, cougars, Black Hills from only 200 to 250, "says wildlife biologist Jonathan Jenks from South Dakota State University in Brookings, who has studied the population because, recolonizing the area began in the 1990s. Jenks and his team put radio collars to the estimated 300 individuals and observe the Cougars relocated, during their journey to places such as Oklahoma and Saskatchewan. "Approximately 90 percent of adult males leave the sub-Black Hills," says Jenks. "And they travel extensively, that's for sure. Especially the males. However, I'm surprised this one has done so far. "
Schwartz says that he was stunned to learn that the genetic profile of the animal was already in the database's lab. "Do not believe it at the beginning," Schwartz said. "Actually, we had our Run was preparing the samples so as to make sure."
It appeared in earlier samples — hair and fecal matter — were collected over a year earlier by biologists track cougar associated with Connecticut in Wisconsin. First spotted in the chaplain, Minn., in December 2009 biologists track him he zig-zagged through Wisconsin, leaving a trail of Foot prints, hair and rufówka.
Even in Wisconsin — with his bears and Wolves, cougars are unexpected visitors, says mammal ecologist Adrian Wydeven from the Wisconsin Department of natural resources in the Park Falls.
There were only four cougars confirmed in that Member State as of 2008, so when travelling cougar appeared, Wydeven and his team kept watchful eye on its movements. From December 2009 through late spring 2010 they Haunted Cat trail, sampling and sending them to the laboratory. In December, the camera captured cougar prowling trail through the snow in the evening near the area where the hair had been previously sampled, providing scientists with a glimpse of the cat.
Then after another portrait of trailside in May 2010, cat disappeared.
The next time he appeared he was more than a year later and half a continent away, just a few kilometres from the Connecticut shore. Scientists do not know, the cat is voyages between Wisconsin and Connecticut, but wildlife biologist Clayton Nielsen Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, speculates the cat probably crossed Michigan Upper Peninsula, then shrink its way through New York. "There is no real way of knowing," he says. "But, going South through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, United States — it is a very poor Habitat, it is highly probable that people would read this animal."
Nielsen, which analyses the cougars in the Midwest, "says the young males are rising while roaming in the area, there are still not known to have produced populations East of the Black Hills, except for endangered groups of less than 100 in and around the Everglades of Florida. Scientists hypothesize that the Cat was wandering Connecticut in search of food and mate-but because he has not found a mate, he kept on moving. Female cougars will not travel nearly as far as males, which limits the establishment of a new created the populations. But Nielsen, if females hypothesizes several similar routes, it is likely that the population of cougar could re-establish itself farther east.
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