Beast of Never, Cat of God: The Search for the Eastern Puma [Hardcover]

Bob Butz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2005

Somewhere between myth and reality, the truth behind America's last wild predator.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cougars have long been thought extinct in Michigan, but a coterie of environmentalists and wildlife enthusiasts, led by Michigan Wildlife Conservancy biologist Patrick Rusz, believe otherwise. In this engaging study of a wild animal and its human acolytes, journalist Butz traipses around with Rusz in search of droppings, paw prints, mauled deer carcasses and the testimony of people who have sighted the elusive beasts. He maintains a critical distance from the obsessive and sometimes off-putting Rusz and from his antagonists at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, who remain dismissive of mounting evidence of the cat's presence. Butz, who was eventually granted his own magical glimpse of a prowling cougar, writes evocatively of the animal's habits and charisma. He makes it the focus of a larger panorama of backwoods northern Michigan, a hunter's paradise, with a quirky population of outdoorsmen and conservationists for whom the cougar offers both the promise and the pitfalls of an element of nature that can't be readily bent to human purposes. The result is a beguiling mixture of scientific lore, meditative natural history and vivid reportage. Photos.
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From Booklist

Puma concolor goes by many names: cougar, catamount, mountain lion, and the author's preferred puma. Once found from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it has now been extirpated from the U.S. east of the Mississippi--or has it? An increasing number of people are claiming to have seen one. Nature writer Butz met Patrick Rusz, embarked on proving there were wild pumas in Michigan; he enlisted Butz as a reporter and sometime helper. What follows is a mix of politics (the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Rusz do not see eye to eye), history (both feline and human), and reporting, interspersed with the author's meditations on the meaning of wilderness and the place for large, toothy predators in the modern age. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; First Edition edition (January 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592284469
• ISBN-13: 978-1592284467
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,307,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The whole controversy., March 7, 2005

By 

Kevin Heyde (Missouri) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beast of Never, Cat of God: The Search for the Eastern Puma (Hardcover)

This is an excellent book that will entertain people from all walks of life. Butz does an excellent job of playing the role of "true reporter", and definitely doesn't play favorites in this book. He tells the saga of cougars in Michigan as he sees it. The truth can be painful, and Butz's pen dishes it out to all of the major players involved. The MWC, DNR, and CN all take their fair share of lashings. On the other side he gives them credit where credit is due.

Butz draws you in as only a real life detective can, and holds your full attention to the very end of the book. Those that are new to the controversy of mountain lions living in Michigan will have the entire saga laid out before them. Seasoned veterans who have been following the battle for years will learn many new facts about the evidence of growing puma populations that exist in Michigan and other places in the east.

Many readers, that are looking for "the answer", may come away from the book as frustrated as they were before they read it. This frustration seems to stem from the fact that the fuel feeding the controversy is pure political fodder, and has little to do with the simple question of whether or not pumas exist in Michigan and the rest of the eastern states. There are still many questions left unanswered, but the book clears up the major points. The reader is left to form their own opinion about the status of cougars in Michigan which is still definitely up in the air. If you are interested in cougars in the eastern USA this is an absolute must read!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From a 30-year Eastern Cougarmaniac, January 9, 2005

By 

Helen McGinnis (Harman, West Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beast of Never, Cat of God: The Search for the Eastern Puma (Hardcover)

For more than one hundred years, ever since cougars were pronounced extinct in the eastern US, people have continued to report sightings. Since the 1970s, many have become intrigued with these reports and have attempted to document them with evidence such as tracks, photographs and more recently, with remote camera pictures, hair samples, and scats, which can be identified by DNA analysis. A few confirmations have been logged in the northeastern US and eastern Canada.

One state which seems to have more than its share of evidence is Michigan, although no dead bodies have showed up yet. Late in 2001, Dr. Patrick Rusz, biologist for the private Michigan Wildlife Conservancy (MWC), released a report summarizing this evidence and began to search for more. In November, he announced that he had discovered tracks, deer kills, and scats characteristic of cougars on the north shore of Lake Michigan. Later, he found more scats on Michigan's Lower Peninsula.

The announcements set off a whirlwind of controversy. Does Rusz have evidence or doesn't he? The author is an outdoor writer who lives on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. For three years he accompanied Rusz on field trips. Butz also considers the possibility of cougar survival elsewhere in the East. It does seem that there is valid evidence in Michigan, but Rusz and the MWC have made major mistakes that have undermined their credibility.

Butz concludes that amateurs searching for evidence will never be successful in persuading recalcitrant state wildlife agencies to protect cougars. Nor will a purely scientific approach. It's a political matter as much as anything else.

Meanwhile, there is undoubted proof that cougars are extending their range from the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills eastward. Recently two crossed the Mississippi River into Illinois. Their appearance has been greeted a mixture of delight and unwarranted fear.

Butz' book is a good read. I recommend it to anyone who is excited about the return of wildness to the eastern United States.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Eastern Puma Controversy, a Commentary, October 27, 2009

By 

Brian Allen "neotropical birding" (Manistee, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beast of Never, Cat of God: The Search for the Eastern Puma (Hardcover)

I am fortunate to live in a region of Michigan near to one of the described "hotspots" of Puma sightings. My friends frequently run a trail where a park service ranger had a young Puma follow her. I have many people that I believe and many that I don't believe tell me they have seen a Panther/Cougar/Puma/ Mountain Lion when I see them in my office. With this and the controversy in the papers I couldn't help but be interested in this book.

I can say this book did not disappoint. When I picked it up I was currently reading two other books and just wanted to look it over but started reading it. I couldn't put it down, as Jim Harrison reviewed on the cover "very engaging". I felt that the author did what any of us with the time, curiosity, and writing ability would do to explore the history of sightings and the reliability of the people investigating them. If you want all sides of the Eastern Puma story I can highly recommend this.