![800px-Florida_Panther](http://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/800px-florida_panther.jpg)
I’m getting up soon — I have a black jack game at midnight. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.)
Very early on a recent morning, a cougar was found waiting outside a Harrah’s casino in Reno, Nev. That’s not particularly unusual, except in this case we mean “cougar” as in the large wildcat also known as a puma, panther, or mountain lion.
This is of concern for a number of reasons:
- When cougars leave their habitat and make their way to civilization it is generally because they are lacking resources like food, water, and space.
- Cougars can be very dangerous — a cougar recently mauled a boy in British Columbia.
- Generally people only go to Harrah’s if they are trying to get points for free tickets on Southwest. Forget about the dangers of cougars in airports — what about cougars with drink coupons?
The cougar has been returned to the wild, where he will continue to work on his unbeatable card-counting system.
![](https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ob-ui582_0829ar_h_20120828170333.jpeg?quality=75&strip=all&w=659)