Myths abound about the extent of the danger the lions pose to humans and pets when they wander down from the hills. As a result, a small colony of the lions have survived in the Dakota Hills, but powerful ranchers still agitate for their complete extermination. In the 1960s, conservationists succeeded in eliminating bounties, and hunting seasons were established. This lion, writes Stolzenburg, had been one of a decreasing number of survivors “as hunters' quarry, public enemy, and roadkill candidate, dodging the armed sportsmen and police and the vehicular predators.” In 1914, Congress appropriated money at the behest of cattle raisers and sheep farmers to provide bounties for mercenary hunters, who had the mandate to rid the country of predators. His journey-most likely in search of a mate-provides the scaffolding for the author's broader story of how mountain lions have been driven to the verge of extinction by misguided, selfish policies and groundless fears that promote their extermination. The 3-year-old, approximately 140-pound big cat had traveled more than 2,000 miles before his untimely death in 2011 on a heavily trafficked highway. Veteran science writer Stolzenburg ( Rat Island: Predators in Paradise-and the World's Greatest Wildlife Rescue, 2011, etc.) tracks the two-year journey of a mountain lion from his home in South Dakota's Black Hills to a Connecticut parkway only 70 miles from New York City.
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