On February 18, 2006, Roger Cowburn, 77, of Potter County, Pennsylvania, passed away. Cowburn spent decades collecting evidence of the continued presence of the cougar (Felis concolor or Puma concolor) in Pennsylvania and surrounding Eastern states and trying to convince the relevant authorities to recognize and protect the animal.
Mr. Cowburn deserves mention because he's an example of the kind of dedicated amateur that science still needs. That does not mean his theory of Eastern cougar survival was correct (although I rather think that it is), but that science owes a continuing debt to all those people, past and present, who devote their own time to exploring the mysteries, great and small, that still surround us.
I salute you, Roger. I hope you have your answers now.
- Matt Bille
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