There have been fairly regular reports of sightings of mountain lions (cougars) in Kansas since I was a little kid - a looooong time ago; but no confirmable "physical evidence" and no acceptably credible witnesses. State Fish and Game zoologists have generally accepted the possibility that they might have returned to the area; but there has been a persistent "zero" confirmation.

A recent "rash" of sightings got a local zoologist out to search, and within the past few weeks turned up one scat that was submitted to DNA analysis that confirmed it was from a cougar - on the campus of the University of Kansas in the northeast part of the state.

According to news reports, the sample will be used for more detailed tests to attempt to determine the "race" of the cougar, since those in the wild are from a different ancestry than the majority of zoo speciments; but for the present - it's unconfirmed that we have a wild cougar, but we have captured a cougar turd.

[Anything found on a college campus has to be treated with some skepticism, but the KU kids are not known for elaborate hoaxes. A few of their traditional "rival" schools have some reputation for such things, though.]

I don't have the book at hand, but I may go watch the movie again in a little while.

John