Cougars on the Cliff: One Man's Pioneering Quest to Understand the Mythical Mountain Lion, A Memoir

By Maurice Hornocker

Book Overview

Maurice Hornocker is recognized worldwide as the first scientist to unravel the secrets of America's most enigmatic predator--the mountain lion. A story of redemption, this book is a memoir about the never-before-told adventures, challenges, and controversies surrounding Hornocker's groundbreaking study of cougars in the remote reaches of the Idaho Primitive Area. North America's biggest cat was once killed for bounty dollars, slaughtered with impunity and driven toward extinction. But today's cat of intrigue, despite our lingering fears and misconceptions, has returned to much of its native range in the western United States and gained respect as a predator integral and necessary to wild ecosystems. This turnaround was triggered by one man: Maurice Hornocker. Cougars on the Cliff recounts the early years of his research (1964-1973) when he tracked lions following a dog's nose and footprints in the snow--before telemetry was available. Hornocker was first to learn that mountain lions living in stable populations limit their own numbers through territoriality and a concept he called "mutual avoidance." This insight flew in the face of long-held beliefs that cougars were prolific and wanton killers that needed to be controlled as vermin. Thanks to Hornocker's work, today cougars can be found throughout the West and have even started to reclaim their place in New England.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 149307329X
• ISBN13: 9781493073290
• Release Date: July 2023
• Publisher: Lyons Press
• Length: 328 Pages
• Weight: 1.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful and Important Memoir

Cougars on the Cliff is a very nicely worked (both in the quality of the writing and the presentation, including excellent photos) history of a partnership and friendship of two very different men who lead a landmark ecological study of the most wide-spread, and at the same time most elusive apex predator of the two American continents. Maurice Hornocker and Wilbur Wiles came together in the most remote part of central Idaho to initiate a wildlife study that no one but them thought could succeed. Their work has probably saved the cougar from extinction in the US, and has also awakened environmentalists, hunters, and (critically) state wildlife managers to the the subtle but vital importance of predators in functioning, healthy, ecosystems. It stands up there alongside Aldo Leopold and the Craighead grizzly works. But besides all that, it is a wonderful story and a GREAT read. Get it and enjoy it!