Mark Elbroch: If We Want Mountain Lions The East, We’ll Have To Bring Them

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Why do we need large carnivores Obviously as a scientist I like talk about the biological roles that they play and the ecological roles but I will drift and say that I think they re important for spirit and sort of human health more broadly whether that be mental health spiritual health whatever that sense of wildness that they bring to a landscape that they force you to listen when you re in the woods that you hear sticks break around you that you hear what the birds are doing so that you know whether there s something coming around the next bend These are all in my opinion truly enriching moments and necessary for human spirit and really for human health – Mark Elbroch Mark 00 12 23 These are all in my opinion truly enriching moments and necessary for human spirit and 00 12 30 really for human health Mark Elbroch is an ecologist and author storyteller and the director of the Puma Program for Panthera the global wild cat conservation organization Mark has been on the podcast before to talk about cougars but something has changed since the last time he was on For years many people in the scientific community and this is backed by research have claimed that cougars would return to their historic range in the eastern US in the next 10 to 20 years But there s a new study from Panthera that says that this is not true that they won t make it to the East Coast even by 2100 which means if we want cougars in the east we re going to have to help them This is a big deal because we do want cougars in the east Large predators make fragile ecosystems strong Mountain lions interact with nearly 500 other species and their reintroduction could lead to healthier forests less zoonotic disease and many other benefits Let s bring cougars home Click here to visit this podcast episode