Thanks for putting it in perspective.

These discussions of "dangerous game" must be put into perspective.

For example, where I kicked around in the Congo, crocs were THE pest, killing dogs and on occaision people, too. But it was a story to be told when somebody got the chop which was, statistically, rare.

Malaria, diarrhea and other diseases aggravated by AID's just plain clear house and animal attacks don't come anywhere close to them as killers.

Some years ago before California banned cougar hunting I read a report from a game biologist who suggested that the cougar is in effect a very similar animal to the leopard in habits and, in proximity to humans will, if numbers of them are large enough, seek out and attack humans as well as game. This has turned out to be quite true where the cats are not harrassed and persecuted. Around these parts cougar are a nuisance, attacking dogs, eating cats, etc, even in town. A friend has had to shoot one in self defence and a neighbor had a horse attacked. Cats have moxie. But I don't personally know anybody who has been attacked. What would have happened to my friend is I guess anybody's guess as he was in deep snow and the advantage was all the cat's except for his Model 28 Smith which evened things out a bit. And the rest of us don't get too far from a pistol even if a rifle isn't close at hand and cougars are of course persecuted. I personally have never had an unplanned incident with a cougar though I did get spooked once by one that leapt off a rock ledge not ten yards in front of me as I was grouse hunting but that critter was headed for Montana, not headed for me.

But now since the Feds dumped them on us we have a lot of wolves, and I have had them in my ski tracks, so the felines have competition...