Specific Software Needed

• Acrobat Reader 5.0.
  

Bookmarked Sites

TIP: Preview all sites and videos before presenting them to the class.

The Living Edens -- Canyonlands, America's Wild West
http://www.pbs.org/edens/canyonlands/canyonlands.htm
This Web site profiles a location inhabited by cougars and other unique wildlife.

OnLine Newshour -- Conflict Resolution
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/range_2-13.html
This is a report about how a rancher, a U.S. Forest Service official, and an environmentalist are working together to solve ecological problems.

Big Cats Online - Puma
http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/agarman/puma.htm
This site contains facts and figures about the cougar.

Mountain Lion Foundation
http://www.mountainlion.org/
Web site of a California conservation and education organization dedicated to protecting the cougar.

California Mountain Lion Page - California Wildlife Protection Coalition
http://www.sierraclub.org/chapters/ca/mountain-lion/
This site discusses the protection of the cougars of California.

Mountain Lions in California - Coarsegold Resource Conservation District
http://www.crcd.org/lionart.html
The CRCD Web page explains cougar-human interactions for local landowners.

Confirmed Cougar Attacks in the U.S. and Canada
http://www.frii.com/~mytymyk/lions/attacks.htm
This Web site describes dangerous encounters between humans and cougars.

A Sad Encounter
http://www.defenders.org/habitat/highways/new/target/call.html
Brian Call's story of finding a road-killed Florida panther.

Friends of the Florida Panther
http://www.floridapanther.org
This organization raises public awareness about Florida's endangered state mammal.

North Dakota Reader -- Living With Wildlife
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ws/nwrc/is/living/nd_agreader.pdf
This is a downloadable PDF document about the conflict between wildlife and society.

City of Boulder -- Mountain Lions
http://www.ci.boulder.co.us/openspace/nature/lions_bears.htm
This site features information about the cougars of Colorado, with statistics and facts about the nature of cougar attacks.

Big Bend National Park -- Lion Country
http://www.nps.gov/bibe/NR/lions.htm
This Web page, which discusses the cougars of Big Bend National Park, also links to sites outlining research being performed on the cougars and other wild cats of the park.

Mountain Lions In California -- Expanding the Dialogue
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/lion/outdoor.lion.html
This is a publication of the California Department of Fish and Game detailing the issues relating to cougar­human encounters.

University of Oregon Department of Landscape Architecture -- Gallery
http://www.uoregon.edu/~landarch/gallery/LA_gallery.html
This is another site exhibiting urban design renderings.

National Park Service -- Yellowstone National Park
http://www.nps.gov/yell/home.htm
The official Web site for Yellowstone National Park is a valuable resource for maps and other useful information.

Materials

Students will need the following supplies:

• Computers with Internet access
• Pens, pencils, and other writing tools
• Graphic organizers for collecting and organizing research
• Presentation board
• Art supplies

Teachers will need the following:

• Television and VCR
• The video of the episode TRAIL OF THE COUGAR from Thirteen's series NATURE
• Photos of cougars and other big cats of the world
• Photocopies of Web resources if there are not enough computers available

Steps

Introductory Activity
(one class period)

1. Show photos of the following: lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, and jaguars. Then pose the question, "What do all big cats have in common?" Write the responses on the board. Characteristics that should be elicited include:

• They are fierce predators.
  
• They are highly intelligent animals both in stalking prey and in interactions with their own.
  
• They prefer hunting large prey animals and need a large number of them in their habitat.
  
• They will attack other animals, including livestock and humans, if they or their offspring are hungry or threatened.
  
• They generally avoid humans.
  
• They require a large home range, and are territorial.
  

• If there is one, where does it live?
  
• If there isn't one, why not?
• Is there a big cat that is native to your own local ecosystem?
• Is it good or bad that we don't have big cats wandering in our communities?

2. Once students have identified the cougar, give them some background information. Begin by telling students that the cougar is America's own "big cat." Describe its size using photos, a ruler and life-sized outline drawing on the board. Inform students that alternate names for the cougar include mountain lion, puma, panther, painter, el tigre, catamount, and the scientific name Felis concolor. Although it is probably best known as the "mountain lion," it was actually once present in many non-mountainous ecosystems throughout North America, such as forests, lowlands and swamps, and probably could have been found in the local habitat before civilization developed there. Since it was considered a threat to farming and ranching, the cougar was hunted into near-extinction, surviving in mountainous areas in the West that were inaccessible and not suitable for human settlement. In recent years, the number of cougar-human incidents has increased. More cougar attacks on humans have occurred in the last 20 years than in the previous 100 years. Ask students their opinions on why there is such an increase.

3. Have students form groups of four. They will each divide a sheet of paper into two columns. One column should be titled "Perceptions about cougars." In this column students should list all the things that they or other people have come to believe about cougars from news reports or the entertainment media. The other column is titled "Facts about cougars." Students will fill out this column with information they find at the following Web sites:

Big Cats Online -- Puma
http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/agarman/puma.htm

The Living Edens -- Canyonlands, America's Wild West
http://www.pbs.org/edens/canyonlands/canyonlands.htm

Mountain Lion Foundation
http://www.mountainlion.org/

Big Bend National Park -- Lion Country
http://www.nps.gov/bibe/NR/lions.htm

4. When students have completed their lists of "perceptions" and "facts" about cougars, facilitate a class discussion comparing the two lists. Perceptions might include portrayals from movies and television of unprovoked cougars pouncing on unsuspecting human victims, that they are almost extinct, that they are found only on mountain cliffs, and that in general they are very dangerous. The data that students find will tell them that cougars' numbers appear to be increasing in some areas, and that although they generally avoid humans, there has been an increase in attacks on humans in recent years.

5. Discuss with the students whether the characteristics of big cats (lions, tigers, leopards, etc.) that were identified earlier in the activity also apply to the cougar. How does the cougar compare to the other big cats?

2. After viewing the program, have students express their feelings about the cougar, what most impressed them about its character, its needs, and its role in the environment. How are cougars and humans impacting each other? What is the long-term future of the cougar? Tell the students that the cougar remains protected in areas where it is threatened, but the increase in cougar-human encounters has raised concerns. Return again to the discussion of the possible causes of this phenomenon. Causes mentioned might include:

• The spread of civilization into rural areas.
• An increase in cougar numbers due to the success of protection efforts.
• The increase in numbers of animals that cougars prey on, such as deer, in more populated areas.
• The increasing popularity of outdoor activities, which brings more people into cougar habitats.

4. Tell the groups that they will prepare to discuss the following question from the perspective of the interest group they belong to: "How do we deal with the increase in dangerous encounters with cougars?" To help them with their research, the students will use the Interest Group's Perspective on Cougars Organizer, as well as the information from the Trail of the Cougar Organizer. Students may gather information from the following Web sites; they should also start gathering facts and images for use in their subsequent presentations:

OnLine Newshour -- Conflict Resolution
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/range_2-13.html

California Mountain Lion Page -- California Wildlife Protection Coalition
http://www.sierraclub.org/chapters/ca/mountain-lion/

Mountain Lions in California - Coarsegold Resource Conservation District
http://www.crcd.org/lionart.html

Confirmed Cougar Attacks In the U.S. and Canada
http://www.frii.com/~mytymyk/lions/attacks.htm

A Sad Encounter
http://www.defenders.org/habitat/highways/new/target/call.html

Friends of the Florida Panther
http://www.floridapanther.org

North Dakota Reader -- Living With Wildlife
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ws/nwrc/is/living/nd_agreader.pdf

City of Boulder -- Mountain Lions
http://www.ci.boulder.co.us/openspace/nature/lions_bears.htm

Mountain Lions In California -- Expanding the Dialogue
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/lion/outdoor.lion.html

5. Allow students in each group to pool their research and share what they learned with the rest of the group. Visit each student group to make sure that all students are actively contributing to the discussion. Afterward, encourage students to think about what they learned about their particular interest group and its perspective on the issue. Use these questions to get them started:

• Have your interest group's attitudes about cougars changed in the last hundred years?
• What would protecting both the cougars and your group's interests involve -- limiting use of the habitat by humans, reintroduction, protective measures, education programs, restricted development, relocation of cougars?
• Which interest groups might have similar goals, and which groups may diverge the most in their beliefs? For example, are environmentalists and animal rights activists always in agreement? Are environmentalists and ranchers always in disagreement?
• Should laws protecting the cougar be changed based on recent information?

Activity 2:
(five class periods)

1. Present the students with the following hypothetical situation:

• The government is allowing a developer to build a large community in a wilderness area next to Yellowstone National Park.
• There are ranches in the area. The ranchers are wary of the cougars, which are protected. At the same time, incidents of cougar attacks on humans and livestock have been increasing.
• The developer has proposed a plan that allows development and protects the cougars, but none of the other interest groups are satisfied with it.
• The students continue playing the roles of interest groups (the same groups they played in the previous activity) and create their own plan for the development. They will present their recommendations as a display and oral proposal presentation in a mock "community meeting." Afterwards, students will write individual reports on their own opinions about the future of cougars in North America.

2. Prepare students for their research by telling them to keep in mind that their goal is to develop a community that promotes the natural beauty of the environment as a community asset, protects the cougar, and supports the interest group's own goals. To help students focus their research, encourage them to consider the following questions:

• Development might mean loss of food and habitat for the cougar. How would that impact your interest group's development plan?
• How would your development plan take advantage of the surrounding natural assets given the nature of the controversy?
• Would hiking and bike trails be allowed?
• What public services should be provided -- an education program, special warning signs, special emergency services?
• Could safety be promoted in an unobtrusive manner?
• What steps would be needed to protect the cougar from the hazards of civilization?

Culminating Activities/Assessment:

Activity 1:
(two class periods)

1. Students now hold a "community meeting," in which the new development plans are proposed and discussed. Each group will present its display to the rest of the class in 6-8 minutes, explaining the reasoning behind its development plan: how the plan protects humans and cougars while serving the needs of the interest group. Instruct non-presenting students to take notes and prepare questions and comments. Allow at least 2 minutes for questions and answers after each presentation.

2. After all of the groups have presented their displays, moderate a whole-class discussion about what the best plan should include. Students may take a vote on the best display/development plan or develop a plan that combines the best of the group plans.

3. For homework, instruct students to write a brief position paper defending their point of view on the future of cougars and human-cougar interactions in the face of increasing development. The paper should state a position and be backed up by factual details from the research to support the position.