Yellowstone Cougars: Ecology Before and During Wolf Restoration

Author Biography

Toni K. Ruth is Executive Director of Salmon Valley Stewardship in Salmon, Idaho. She worked as a Wildlife Research Scientist with the Selway Institute, Hornocker Wildlife Institute, and the Wildlife Conservation Society, which supported the fifteen-year Yellowstone cougar work. During a twenty-eight-year research career, she studied cougar populations in Texas, New Mexico, Montana, and Idaho.   Polly C. Buotte is currently a research ecologist at Oregon State University, working to improve ecosystem models to assess the influence of climate change on the carbon cycle. She previously worked with the Selway Institute, Hornocker Wildlife Institute, and Wildlife Conservation Society, studying cougars in Yellowstone.   Maurice G. Hornocker is a wildlife biologist and founder of the Hornocker Wildlife Institute in 1985 and the Selway Institute in 2005. Throughout his 50-plus-year career he has studied big mammalian carnivores, beginning with his experience with the Craighead brothers and grizzlies in Yellowstone. He has since initiated and directed original research on the big cats on several continents, authored and coauthored more than 100 scientific publications, and received numerous awards for his work, including the Wildlife Society’s 2010 Book of the Year award for Cougar: Ecology and Conservation.