Proceedings of the Seventh Mountain Lion Workshop

102 REDUCING PUMA ATTACKS · Fitzhugh et al.
watched all night and finally left the area as
rescuers arrived. (Personal communication
from Kathleen Kavalok to K. Etling).
The incident above illustrates the
presence of mind needed when confronted
by a puma. This person did everything just
right, but the puma responded almost the
opposite way from what was expected. We
believe the information we have provided is
correct in a statistical sense. It is very
important to remember what to do, but also
be prepared to adapt to the puma’s behavior.
With luck and aggressiveness on your part,
you may avoid an attack and also teach the
puma that humans may not be food after all.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We thank S. C. Reed for helping build
the spreadsheet, verify data, review files,
and enter new data. J. Schmidt helped with
the original compilation in 1985-86. R.W.
Riley, K. J. Stahle, S. E. Gordon, M. A.
Whittaker, B. R. Campos, M. E. Jackson, E.
Chen, A. M. White helped with data
organization and entry. E. L. Blake
provided some new ideas for analysis.
Details of incidents were provided by P.
Swift, California Department of Fish and
Game, R. Beausoleil, formerly of the New
Mexico Department of Game and Fish, K.
Bergersen, Arizona Game and Fish
Department, T. R. Collom, W. Castillo, and
D. Whittaker, of the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife, M. Austin and B. Guiltner
of the B.C. Ministry of Environment, M.
Gillett, R. Skiles E. Myers, A. Davis, J.
Case, K. McKinlay-Jones, of the National
Park Service, A. Barton, M. Shuey, L.
Lewis, and S. Galentine. We made
extensive use of new information in books
by K. Etling (2001), by J. Deurbrock and D.
Miller (2001), and by H. P. Danz (1999).
We thank the many who have provided
information about their personal
experiences, either to us or to previous
authors. P. Beier (1991) provided the first
scientific analysis of puma attack data, and
PROCEEDINGS OF THE SEVENTH MOUNTAIN LION WORKSHOP
inspired us to continue our work. Finally,
the very foundation, without which this
effort may not have ever begun, is C. T.
Barnes’ (1960) book. His book stimulated,
and to a large extent, enabled this project
during its infancy. R. G. Coss, H. G. Shaw,
L. L. Sweanor, W. F. Laudenslayer, W. E.
Howard, and R. E. Marsh improved the
paper with reviews of the draft manuscript,
but errors remain the author’s responsibility.
LITERATURE CITED
ANONYMOUS. 1917. Untitled comment by
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ANONYMOUS. 1925. An old question.
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ANONYMOUS. 1994. Phoenix Gazette and
Tucson Citizen. 20 July 1994.
ANONYMOUS. 2002. The New York Times.
12 November 2002.
BARNES, CLAUDE T. 1960. "The Cougar or
Mountain Lion." The Ralton Co. Salt
Lake City, Utah, USA. 175 pp.
BEIER, P. 1991. Cougar attacks on humans
in the United States and Canada.
Wildlife Society Bulletin 19:403-412.
COLORADO DIVISION OF WILDLIFE. 2002.
News Report. 8 January 2002.
DANZ, HAROLD P. 1999. Cougar! Swallow
Press/Ohio University Press. Athens,
Ohio, USA. 310 pp.
DEURBROCK, JO AND DEAN MILLER. 2001.
Cat attacks: true stories and hard lessons
from cougar country. Sasquatch Books.
Seattle, Washington, USA. 221 pp.
ETLING, KATHY. 2001. Cougar attacks:
encounters of the worst kind. The Lyons
Press/Globe Pequot Press. Guilford,
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FITZHUGH, E. LEE AND W.P. GORENZEL.
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Conference. T. P. Salmon (ed.).
Vertebrate Pest Council of the