European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 22, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                I april a Hgt of a a a cornered Mountain lion snarls defiantly before being fitted with a transmitter. Humans track Mountain Lions invisible return Nittori geographic Mercer Cross he Mountain lion is nowhere to be seen but the signal from its radio transmitter is loud and Clear. Kerry Murphy Parks his pickup truck atop a Windy Ridge eight Miles from Yellowstone National Parks Northern Boundary in Wyoming. Holding a directional Antenna High overhead he turns slowly to pick up the strongest beeps. A there she is a says Murphy a biologist for the Hamocker wildlife research Institute at the University of Daho. He Points toward a craggy Ravine a half mile away. Still the 4-year-old Mountain lion a or Cougar Puma Panther or Catamount As it is also known a remains invisible. Mountain Lions usually Are it is the reason they have survived. The radio signal fades As the cat apparently crawls behind a Rock or dips into a Ravine. Murphy mutters something about a uncooperative Kitty a and gives up for the Day. But he will be out Early the next morning tramping up and Down Steep wooded hillsides to learn More about what this Cougar has been doing. A people Are tremendously interested in big carnivorous animals a says Maurice g. Hamocker director of the research Institute and a leading authority on Mountain Lions. A and its High time. When you look around the world at the Fate of such animals Over the last decade their numbers have decreased markedly. We be literally killed them off. So its wonderful seeing an animal that can exist in close proximity to Man by staying out of sight and keeping its Mouth shut and can live in varied habitats a from deserts to swamps from Snow capped mountains to rain forests a and  Prosperity has been a Long time coming. From the earliest Days of . Settlement cougars were considered vermin hunted and poisoned nearly to extinction. So were wolves which share honors with Mountain Lions As the most efficient North american carnivores. While much attention has focused on wolves a proposed Federal legislation would reintroduce a few Wolf pairs to Yellowstone a Mountain Lions have had to quietly come Back on their own without human help. Researchers Are trying to find out How and what can be done to help the Mountain lion continue to survive. In 2.2 million acre Yellowstone All resident cougars had been destroyed by the 1920s, and except for a few transients passing through no Lions lived there for about 50 years. But Hamocker and his team know that the Park is now Home to 14 resident Mountain hons 10 females and four males. Each animal wears a Collar with a radio transmitter put on it by researchers who first captured then tranquil fixed the animals. Not until the mid-�?T60s, with Colorado taking the Lead did Western states Start reclassifying the Mountain lion As a game animal with a regular Hunting season rather than As vermin. The reevaluation was due partly to Public education spearheaded by Hamocker partly to improved game management and partly to increased populations of Deer and Elk the chief natural prey of cougars. Today All but one Western Mountain state California has a Cougar Hunting season. The muscular Quick moving cats a adult males May weigh 160 pounds or More a have the widest geographical distribution of any land mammal in the Western hemisphere ranging from Patagonia on the Southern tip of South America to Northern Canada. Indiana is the Only state in the lower 48 that has had no records of cougars. Except for an endangered subspecies called Florida panthers they re thought to be extinct East of the Mississippi River a although unverified sightings have raised the possibility that even there the quiet predator exists. Cougars in the wild pose Little danger to adult humans. A was a threat to hikers or people using the Back country or wherever Lions live they Arentt really a big threat a Hornocker says. A but the potential is there because they Are a powerful predatory  National geographic secrets found scientists have suspected for years that a wide variety of fruits and vegetables May help the human body fight cancer. Members of ethnic groups who consume targe amounts of garlic onions scallions and Leeks for example have lower stomach cancer rates than those who cat smaller amounts of those foods. But what the critical anti cancer components in these foods Are and How they act to protect the body has largely been unknown. In a recent Issue of the journal of the National cancer Institute two scientists from the Institute for hormone research in new York appear to have found the chemical clue that explains Why cabbage eaters have lower than Normal cancer risks. According to Leon Brastow and Jon Mich Novice cruciferous vegetables such As cabbage Broccoli Brussels sprouts and Calif now or contain a chemical known As indole-3-Carbinol. The chemical reduces breast cancer risk by speeding up a particular process by which the body metabolizes the female hormone Cstro Gen. In a second As yet unpublished study the two scientists demonstrated that feeding in-Dole-3-Carbrno to tumor prone mice markedly reduced their cancer risk. Consider two identical plants. One is struggling in poor soil the other is luxuriating in Rich soil. Pollen a the Plant equivalent of male sperm a is taken from each and used to pollinate Flowers. Should there be any difference Between the offspring of the two males classical genetics would say no. The genetic a a fitness of the pollen should be equal. While the females environment often affects the Success of her offspring the male s contribution has been thought to be strictly genetic. But in a report in a recent Issue of the journal science researchers from the University of California at Davis and Barnard College in new York present evidence that the pollens environment docs matter a research that could be significant to Plant breeders. Using radishes they showed that pollen from the poorer environment could not compete Well against pollen from the Richer environment. When pollen from both sources was placed on the same Flower the pollen from the Good environment sired More seeds. A you can t ignore the role of the environment a said Maureen Stanton the Davis Bot Antist who did the research with Barnardo a Helen j. Young. A the environment in this Case significantly affects  Stanton said that her findings will be useful to Plant breeders. They have Long known that the conditions under which pollen is stored affect its viability. Breeders she says May also need to control the conditions under which the pollen is produced. July 22, 1990 sunday