Cougar [Paperback]

Harold P. Danz (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although National Park Service employee Danz (Of Bison and Man) states in his introduction that his purpose in writing this book is to determine whether cougars are more dangerous to humans than North America's other four major predators?the grizzly bear, the black bear, the gray wolf and the jaguar?he often roams far from his original thesis. Danz's research into the elusive cat is impressively thorough, much of it harvested from first-hand interviews, but his abundant facts and anecdotes fail to coalesce into a coherent argument. That flaw combines with his dry writing to make his book read like a long (if deeply informative) encyclopedia entry with subheads for appearance, breeding and family life, hunting, vanishing territory, relation with humans, relation with other animals, etc. In the end, Danz treads a careful line between zealous environmentalists and fiery hunters by concluding that "the cougar can and should inhabit only locations that are not used as everyday living space by human beings." Photos.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Danz offers a balanced presentation for conservationists, naturalists, environmentalists, hunters, and ranchers of our current level of knowledge regarding the mysterious American lion. The strength of this text lies in its analysis of cougar/human interaction and its documentation of cougar attacks on humans in North America. The book is well illustrated, and the anecdotal style makes for good reading. Danz (Of Bison and Man, Univ. of Colorado, 1997) is familiar with American big game; he has worked for the National Park Service and was the first executive director of the American Bison Association. Recommended for larger public libraries or junior college libraries but not suitable for academic research collections because it does not make a strong contribution to original wildlife research.ABill T. Johnson, Texas Tech Univ. Lib., Lubbock
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 325 pages
• Publisher: Swallow Press; 1 edition (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804010153
• ISBN-13: 978-0804010153
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,685,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Is So Good I Reviewed It Twice!, May 25, 2001

By 

C. Ryan (Winthrop, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cougar (Paperback)

I spent two months last winter in a mountain cabin far up a back road in Washington's Methow Valley, just below the Canadian border and just east of the North Cascade National Park, where there are many cougars. One broke into my nearest neighbor's house and I found fresh tracks one morning beside the road into town. So with all the cougar excitement in the Valley, I decided to learn more about them by reading this book. It's a good place to start if you want to know more about the big cats that are becoming a more common part of life throughout the West .

Cougar! is a comprehensive historical and natural history coverage of the cats by a retired National Park Service employee. Besides a description of cougar habits and hunting techniques with each of their prey species, interesting chapters describe the human-cougar relationship from Native Americans and Colonial times, through the bounty hunter years and on to the present.

There is a fascinating section in Cougar! that describes all documented cougar attacks, both fatal and non-fatal, in the U.S. and Canada from 1751 through mid-1998. Danz reports that the only fatal cougar attack in the United States between 1909 and 1974, was of a 13-year old boy traveling on snowshoes near Lake Chelan (not far from my winter retreat) in December 1924. When his body was found it was deduced that the young victim had cut off one of the cougar's front claws (!) while unsuccessfully defending himself with a pocketknife. Contemporary cougar fans may find poetic justice in descriptions of two recent non-fatal incidents where National Park campers were forced by cougars to spend the night up in a tree (!) until someone came to their assistance. There is also a description of historic and current cougar populations in each state (Washington, with 2,300, has one of the largest populations) and Canadian province, as well as the exhaustive bibliography you'd expect from a university press.

I really enjoyed Cougar!, and while the grainy black and white photos don't compare with those in Mountain Lion, it is the much more informative and interesting of the two books.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Five Star Cat Story, March 18, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Cougar (Paperback)

Cougar! is a comprehensive historical and natural history coverage of the cats by a retired National Park Service employee. Besides a description of cougar habits and hunting techniques with each of their prey species, interesting chapters describe the human-cougar relationship from Native Americans and Colonial times, through the bounty hunter years and on to the present. There is a fascinating section in Cougar! that describes all documented cougar attacks, both fatal and non-fatal, in the U.S. and Canada from 1751 through mid-1998. Danz reports that the only fatal cougar attack in the United States between 1909 and 1974, was of a 13-year old boy traveling on snowshoes near Lake Chelan in December 1924. When his body was found it was deduced that the young victim had cut off one of the cougar's front claws while unsuccessfully defending himself with a pocketknife. Contemporary cougar fans may find poetic justice in descriptions of two recent non-fatal incidents where National Park campers were forced by cougars to spend the night up in a tree (!) until someone came to their assistance. There is also a description of historic and current cougar populations in each state (Washington, with 2,300, has one of the largest populations) and Canadian province, as well as the exhaustive bibliography you'd expect from a university press. I really enjoyed Cougar!, and while the grainy black and white photos don't compare with those in some other books it is extremely informative and interesting.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars interested in mountain lions?, February 25, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Cougar (Hardcover)

Exellent coverage of North America's big cat. A detailed history as well as an human/cougar encounter list of recorded attacks. great infomation on life and physiology of my favorite animal.