Comments on: Tigers in Dallas?

By: aastra

aastra — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 00:43:47 +0000

It’s a trend that seems to be happening almost everywhere. Wild animals are making a go of it deep inside urban areas. Deer, raccoons, coyotes, skunks, cougars… I think the greening of cities has something to do with it. Some people might take offense at the idea but your typical city contains much more green space today than it did 40 or 50 years ago. The areas that were cleared for development back then are now mature and full of tall trees, flower beds, small plants of innumerable varieties, ponds, fountains, etc. Why is it commonplace for wild animals to penetrate deep into cities today when it was highly unusual just a few decades ago? I think the answer is, because they can. More than ever before, the concrete jungle tends to flaunt less concrete and more jungle.

By: SIRUPAPERS

SIRUPAPERS — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:16:18 +0000

As a native Dallasite I heard about this yesterday and, at first, I thought the tigers were a possibility (as there are plenty of stupid people who keep large exotic cats as pets). But once you read the actual text of the call it becomes obvious that they were dealing with Bobcats. While I think this is a case of urbanites who have no idea about local fauna there is a more disturbing aspect to this story. Union station is inside the city of Dallas, not the heart of downtown but close enough. I have seen wild Bobcats and coyotes in the southern suburbs like DeSoto and Lancaster (well south) but for them to come this far into a major city?

While most people will talk about encroachment I have to point out that all new construction is happening 20 miles south, plus we’ve had a very wet spring and mild summer so there should be plenty of game…unless a new predator has been introduced into the region driving smaller cats in search of new habitat. I have had several friends tell me that they have seen mountain lions around Joe Pool lake, and if there was an actual population (not just one or two) then the smaller Bobcats would be driven out of their normal ranges by the larger intruders.
Or perhaps there is a new, unknown, predator migrating into the forest areas around Dallas, either way this could be the first account of a new and troubling trend.

By: Delmonstro

Delmonstro — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 14:38:00 +0000

Looks like I should go investigate this sighting!