“Against the Capitol, I met a lion, who glared upon me and went surly by, without annoying me…”Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare, Act I, scene iii
Nature abhors a vacuum and wild animals are proving highly adaptive to changing environments. Last year, a coyote paid a surprise visit to a sandwich shop in the Loop. More recently, the shooting of a cougar in the Roscoe Village neighborhood made headlines. It has been suggested that this was the first time that a cougar had been killed within the city limits in more than a century.

Snow plow drivers often operate their trucks late at night and during the
hours immediately before dawn. As such, they see many things that those of us
accustomed to working from nine to five miss. Many animals are nocturnal. My
informants have told me not to discount the presence of more such animals.
Cougars had been sighted in forest preserves in Northern Cook County,
but the initial reports were discounted by skeptics. A helicopter
search of the forest preserves was hastily scheduled after the police shot and
killed the cougar in Chicago. Similarly, an unconfirmed report of a gray wolf
sighing was dismissed until such an animal was shot on the grounds of the
Chicago Botanical Gardens.

This morning, the Chicago Police Department acknowledged that a call was
received that a cougar had been seen near the intersection of California and
Lawrence Avenues. This street corner is in close proximity to the North Branch
of the Chicago River and not too far from the residence of Governor Rod
Blagojevich and his family. The police were attempting to confirm whether or not
the report was accurate according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Will Blagojevich
rethink his prohibitionist stance on gun ownership rights as a result of these
reports?

Predictably, animal rights activists decried the recent shooting of the
cougar by the police. Apparently, the activists felt that animal control
employees could have tranquilized the predator and relocated it to a comfortable
new home in the Lincoln Park Zoo. In my experience, Chicago’s Animal Control
Department cannot even keep up with the job of capturing feral cats and stray
dogs. I think that the police acted appropriately under the circumstances. It
can take multiple shots to put down such a large animal. Sedating and
capturing such a strong specimen would be no simple
matter. Cougars are powerful and rapid moving animals that are quite
capable of killing humans. Several deaths have been reported in other states,
most notably in the mountain ranges of California. Joggers have been viewed as
running prey and killed by some of the big cats.

One activist complained to a newspaper that the cougar’s civil rights had
been violated. I do not think that the animal was entitled to a jury trial
and a court appointed public defender. Another complaint voiced by the activists
was that real estate development has driven the animals into the city streets
since we have destroyed their habitats. That’s partially true, but the real
estate development occurred more than one hundred and fifty years ago. It did
not happen last month or last year. Perhaps these altruists will abandon their
own homes so that the real estate can become part of a wildlife
sanctuary.

Prior to the development of the modern Chicago metropolitan region, all
types of wild animals inhabited the area. It should be remembered that the local
geographic reference “Wolf Point,” which indicates the bank of the Chicago river
immediately to the West of the Merchandise Mart and close to the place
where the North branch of the river begins, was not a descriptive name created
by a real estate developer looking to market high priced condominiums. It was a
once accurate designation that dated back to the time when Indians and pioneer
settlers knew where a local pack of wolves was likely to be found. According to
a report published in The Sun Times, bears have returned to Northeastern
Iowa and it may be simply a matter of time until the animals find a means
of crossing the Mississippi river and returning to Northwestern Illinois.
Cougars were once to be found throughout the Eastern and Southern United States.
When given their choice of habitats, the animals seem to prefer hilly or
mountainous terrain. The Penn State Nittany Lions is a college athletic team
name that refers to the mountain lions that once roamed near Pennsylvania’s
Mount Nittany.

How is one to account for all of this recent animal activity? To some
degree, one has to credit the work of the Army Corps of Engineers which cleaned
up much of the pollution in local waterways, including the Chicago River and the
sanitary canals. There is an abundance of wildlife along the Northshore Ship and
Sanitary Canal, for instance, that was not to be found when these same waterways
were filthy and stagnant. Raccoons, foxes, opossums, coyotes, rabbits, ducks,
cranes and geese can be spotted on a regular basis. The biggest return
migration, however, has been that of herds of deer that have followed the river
banks and railway tracks back into the city and suburbs. The hard core
environmentalists and radical greens who want to ban automobiles and shut down
American manufacturing seldom stop to acknowledge that progress has been made in
terms of eliminating pollution and cleaning the environment. Air and water
quality have been improved, but publicizing such news does not generate
contributions to fund raising appeals as well as spreading gloom and
doom.

Controlling and managing the wildlife population presents a great challenge
to local government agencies. Hunting is illegal in the six county
metropolitan region of Northeastern Illinois on account of its concentrated
population. It is a public safety hazard to allow inexperienced hunters to shoot
at targets in a congested area. Without hunting or natural predators (yes,
vegans, animals are carnivores too), the deer population has been exploding.
Controlled hunts have been scheduled occasionally, using marksmen from the
Illinois State Police. These hunts produced meat for local food pantries, but
have been conducted quietly in order to avoid giving animal rights activists the
opportunity to organize protest rallies. There is a sizeable deer population in
the North suburbs. Follow the Chicago river and you cannot help seeing
deer.This accounts for the return of predatory animals to the region. The
cougars, coyotes and wolves are on the prowl for prey.

This phenomenon has not been isolated to Illinois. It has been happening
elsewhere too. The suburbs of Northern Virginia and the New England states have
had similar experiences. One of my regular readers resides in suburban
Connecticut. He has recently taken up deer hunting. He successfully stalked and
shot two deer during this past hunting season. The venison was used to make
sausages. I was surprised to learn that the legislature in Connecticut enacted
exceptionally liberal hunting rules to cull the herd in the Nutmeg State.
Hunters are permitted to shoot within five hundred feet of residential
dwellings, provided that they obtain written permission from the affected
property owners. Last year, the maximum legal limit for deer hunters was eleven,
provided that you purchased a bow and arrow hunting permit in addition to a
shooting permit. As anyone who has friends or family members who hunt in
Michigan and Wisconsin knows, the Connecticut limit is extraordinarily high. It
may be a reflection of the size of the deer population and the limited number of
hunters in the state. My correspondent was able to shoot two deer in an hour and
a half.

With a large deer population in residence in the Chicago suburbs, it is
clear to see why the cougar may have found a change of scenery to be so
inviting. A search is being conducted to determine if other big cats are in the
Northern suburbs. One thing is certain, the cougar was not traveling to Geneva
to watch the Kane County Cougars play baseball.

In Shakespeare’s immortal play, the appearance of a lion in the streets of
Rome is one of a series ominous signs that foreshadowed a calamity (the
assassination of Julius Caesar). I wonder if any of local politicians is feeling
uneasy. Although the date has passed, does any of our elected officials have
cause for concern? Did I feel an earthquake tremor? Who is the next to be
indicted? Is it “Public Official “A” (as Governor Rod Blagojevich has been
referred to in pleadings filed in the Rezko corruption trial). Rather than
promoting the Olympic Games, imagine staging a bread and circuses spectacle with
our thieving politicians being forced into the lions’ den! Would Soldier Field
prove to be a suitable substitute for the Roman Coliseum?

Beware the Ides of March (even if the calendar says it is May).

**

Daniel J. Kelley is a regular contributor to The Chicago Daily Observer.