Links, Photos and Miscellany For Your Pandemic Summer

1. On Facebook, the Mountain Lions of Pennsylvania Info Library. I don't think there is good evidence that there are mountain lions back in PA - yet. But PA is such prime mountain lion country that it's just a matter of time - they're back in Kentucky and Connecticut and recently there have been some more convincing observations in Upstate New York. My offer for a bet stands - if you do NOT think there will be mountain lions documented in PA by the end of 2025, contact me and let's make a bet with money in escrow and everything.
   
   (If you think there IS evidence, PLEASE comment below with source. Everyone has an uncle with pictures or a hide of one they shot, then when I ask for the evidence, they disappear back into the internet.)
   
   
2. On average, the Earth's trees getting shorter and younger. The smaller a tree, the less carbon it can hold.
   
   
3. I can't believe we've fallen so far as a country that I have to say this. Martinis are made from gin. Asking someone who orders a martini if they want gin or vodka, is like asking someone who orders a steak if they want it to be from a cow or a chicken. And now my beloved Taco Bell is breaking my heart, as the Pacifica location (which offers alcoholic drinks) offers vodka "margaritas".
   
   
4. Random Sonoma County countryside, the Moon and Venus over Sonoma, jalapenos which when they are done will destroy the universe*, and sharp tail snakes I keep finding in my backyard.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   *I had the jalapeno seeds cursed by a shaman, soaked in VX gas, and for good measure dipped them into the accelerator at CERN to suck up some good ol' Higgs bosons, hence collapsing the metastable vacuum and the aforementioned universe-destroying.
   
   
5. Salt Point State Park: do you know that there are scum bags who steal hundreds of dudleya plants at one go from these places? If you see them, let them know you're watching, and follow them to their car (often don't look like outdoor types and not enjoying their hike, carrying plastic bags, taking pictures of the plants.)
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Annadel State Park
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Austin Creek State Park. Run cut short because it was damn hot that day.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Mountain Lion Overpopulation in the East Bay?

Aww. From Wildlife Hotline.

There are a bunch of mountain lions in Ohlone Wilderness. This is a bit nerve-wracking. Last time I was there I saw a bobcat chase down and kill a ground squirrel and I'm fine with those guys because they can't chase down and kill people. There was a story a few years ago that I now can't find that a few years ago a camera caught five mountain lions simultaneously feeding on a deer carcass in Palo Alto. That was more than enough to make me think twice.

Yesterday I was running on the part of the Western States trail where someone lost her life 21 years ago to a lion attack (see 1994, near Green Gate - I think). This sobering history is a large part of why these animals are interesting, and a little anxiety-inducing. And I also had the realization that no one is going to take me up on my bet that mountain lions will return to my home state of Pennsylvania by 2025. I mean they're already in Connecticut again for crying out loud, with tracking information showing that it walked from South Dakota (it wasn't captured and released by some wise guy).

(Note: if every mountain lion sighting by someone's brother-in-law while he was hunting or aunt on her patio was genuine, PA and many other states would be bursting at the seams with them. Verifiable photograph or DNA evidence, or no dice.)

Detect Black Mountain Lions Through Genetics of Tawny Mountain Lions

The existence of black (melanistic) has been a controversial topic for decades. They have never been documented; it's a misconception that Florida's panthers are black, but this is not the case. But there are black great cats in the Americas - jaguars. And reputable people have claimed to see them in California for many years. An unnamed source told me that in the 1960s there were credible reports from multiple sources of one living in Tecolote Canyon in San Diego in the 1960s; Point Reyes near San Francisco produces regular reports today. Despite this no one has produced a single good photograph of a black mountain lion, and the longer they go undocumented, the stronger the evidence should be to make us believe it. To make my point: it's up to the reader to decide if this black feline is a mountain lion or a house cat (scale is difficult) and this was the most viable photo that can be found on Google.

From michigancougar.com
But here's a trick. It turns out humans are the outgroup in terms of fur coloration. That is to say, in us, black is a phenotypically dominant trait. This is not the case in most mammals, where it's actually recessive - you have to get a gene from both parents to have black fur. This possibly explains why it's a relatively rare trait, but certainly not why it's never been clearly documented. A quick search does not reveal that the mountain lion genome has been completely sequenced; however we do have extensive samples, and coat color genes should not be difficult to pick out based on our knowledge of other cats. So, now we can see if among our samples there are variants, especially ones similar to the melanistic gene in jaguars. Those melanistic genes, if they exist and dark coat color is recessive, must also be hiding in the genomes of tawny heterozygous cats. In fact, given population genetics, you should expect MORE tawny cats to have those genes than black ones! (Unless your claimed mechanism of melanism is that all black mountain lions have fallen Pepe Le Pew-style into black paint, and much to their chagrin have to constantly refuse the unwanted advances of hot-to-trot melanistic jaguars.)


Here's a mom jaguar and her cub. To really illustrate the recessiveness of melanism I should have posted two spotted jaguars with a black cub, but this is damn cute, so look at it anyway.

The strength of this approach is that once you detect a variant or especially a similar gene to the melanistic jaguar gene, you can put together male and female heterozygotes in captivity and wait for 25% of their offspring to be black, and there's your proof. On the other hand, if no such variant exists, based on the number of animals you've analyzed, we'll be able to say "If melanism exists, it's less than 1 in x cats". (Probably some people wouldn't be satisfied until every mountain lion is sequenced, and after that they'll find another reason to keep believing.) I expect we must have hundreds or even thousands of cats' DNA at this point. My suspicion is that there are no black mountain lions, but of course it would be more interesting if I were wrong.

As a reminder, I have a wager offer to anyone that wants to take it about my home state of Pennsylvania, where mountain lions were extirpated by the 1870s. To be blunt, most of the claims of mountain lions in PA are urban-myth-type photos which have been circulating for years and can be found on Snopes, or excitable people not used to seeing wildlife. That said, because there are no lions there now, does not mean there won't be lions there again soon, since the PA Appalachians offer outstanding mountain lion habitat. My prediction is that by 2025, lions will be re-established in the state, as documented by physical evidence of *TWO* separate non-sibling or parent-offspring-related animals. Physical evidence can be DNA-verified tissue, spoor or fur, or of course the animal itself. (This helps keep smartasses from bringing their own.) In the last few years, lions are verified in Indiana and now Connecticut.