What Readers Are Saying
“Based on the journals and field notes that the author and his partners kept during the study, this memoir documents the immediacy and excitement of pioneering research, ideas formed from following tracks and discovering kills, reencounters with tagged cougars, and the camaraderie formed during difficult fieldwork. Spiced with photographs of Hornocker and his crew with the cats, as well as maps, this reads like an adventure novel.”
— Booklist, starred review
“Maurice Hornocker is the embodiment of ‘boots on the ground’ conservation in remote, forbidding places. He is recognized as the world's premier mountain lion expert, and his professional history coincides with the recovery of this great wild cat from near-extinction. Dr. Hornocker has mentored a number of colleagues who promise to carry on his invaluable legacy. His personal chronicle is an inviting look into a Western icon of conservation practice.”
— Steven E. Sanderson, PhD, President Emeritus, former Chief Executive Officer, The Wildlife Conservation Society
“Breakthroughs are rare in field biology. Paradigm shifts are the stuff of physics and cosmology. Maurice Hornocker's Idaho study was a true breakthrough that opened the way to sixty years of research. He mentored the best and brightest young biologists in career-long studies of wild pumas and their prey. When he started, many thought the puma was too cryptic to study. Because of his lead, we now understand it as well as we know any wild species.”
— Harley G. Shaw, Wildlife Research Biologist, retired Arizona Game and Fish Department and author of Soul Among Lions: The Cougar as Peaceful Adversary
“It takes a rare collection of virtues – courage, confidence and essentially grit – to hike into a vast, daunting wilderness of snow-covered mountains, only to chase, catch and release wild mountain lions on foot. Maurice Hornocker was the first, and he did it in an era of little technology and a lot of peril. He was a pioneer laying the foundation of modern carnivore research. Through toil and vision, he transformed mountain lions from vermin to venerable carnivores. His story – a story of passion – will inspire future generations to help preserve the vast natural areas essential to ensuring the future of these amazing predators.”
— Mike Tewes, PhD, The Frank Yturria Endowed Chair in Wild Cat Studies and Regents Professor, Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Institute
“Dr. Maurice Hornocker stands among a handful of esteemed ecologists notable for their contribution to the understanding and crafting of conservation strategies for the world's carnivores. His path began in the 1960s with his pioneering studies of mountain lions in one of North America's pristine wild places: the Idaho Primitive Area (now designated under the federal Wilderness Act as the Frank Church – River of No Return Wilderness.) Revelations of large cat ecology from this wilderness stage led to his investigations and conservation of Siberian tigers in the Soviet Union, wolverines in Montana, and a variety of smaller elusive carnivores throughout North America.”
— Gary M. Koehler, PhD, Carnivore Research Scientist and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, retired
“Conversational and often humorous, the book is filled with rousing descriptions of what field research used to be like. Hornocker, admitting that technology has made studying elusive species much easier, nonetheless declares that no technology will ever be able to match the primal thrill of locking eyes with a cougar, armed only with a dart gun and tranquilizer. And Hornocker was also challenged by ranchers’ beliefs that cougars engaged in savage killing sprees, leaving countless carcasses of livestock and trophy game behind....Cougars on the Cliff is a gripping memoir about a scientist’s work to end a state’s war on cougars and bring the species back from the brink of extinction.”
— Foreword Reviews
“I have known Maurice Hornocker and his cougar work for several decades. As one who has also specialized in large-carnivore research for my career, primarily wolves, I always considered Maurice as ‘The Cougar Guy.’ He certainly pioneered cougar studies and he and his students and associates have produced most of the basic information science knows about the big cats. I know of no one else who has come close in the amount of information Maurice has turned up about cougars.”
— L. David Mech, Senior Research Scientist, United States Geological Survey (USGS)
“Many animals that have been studied have a great number of people that pioneered the way. For cougars, it is mostly just one person: Maurice Hornocker. Early on in the 1960s, when virtually nothing was known about these mysterious phantoms, he went into the wilderness – using the old, tried and true methods of walking and snowshoeing the rugged mountains. What he found was ground-breaking and has stood the test of time as his hard-won knowledge is still used and referred to today. Few have had such a contribution or impact on one animal as Maurice Hornocker has had on cougars. His story needs to be told for all to know. It is remarkable.”
— Douglas W. Smith, Senior Wildlife Biologist, Yellowstone National Park, Leader for Yellowstone Wolf Project
“Maurice Hornocker changed the face of mountain lion management and conservation almost single-handedly. His determination, fortitude and vision, plus his quick understanding of the science when he attended the University of Montana and began working with the Craighead brothers, set him on a path to take his can-do attitude into producing perhaps the biggest change in large carnivore species' management and conservation ever. His story is about giant leaps forward for the conservation of mountain lions through science and basic field-based accomplishments that many people will assess as super-human.”
— Howard Quigley, PhD, Executive Director, Conservation Science and Director, Jaguar Program Panthera
“Maurice Hornocker was a graduate student of my father, Dr. John Craighead, at the University of Montana. Maurice's career has been devoted to a better understanding of the Rocky Mountain cougar. His field research has revealed the intimate life of this elusive and mysterious wilderness cat and provided the influential, authoritative and scientific basis for the conservation and management of this beautiful animal. Hornocker speaks for the cougar. His life's work warrants the title GOAT (greatest of all time) cat expert.”
— Derek Craighead, PhD, Wildlife Ecologist, Founder, Director / Chairman of Craighead Beringer South
“This a very straightforward account of the pioneering study of cougars which happened in the 1960s in a remote mountainous area in Idaho, after the author had spent time working with the Craigheads and grizzlies in Yellowstone. This was before radio collars were used, so the study took place only in winters when tracks could be followed in the snow by travelling many miles on foot, and hounds were used instead of helicopters. Acknowledging the technological advances which have since occurred, the author hopes today’s scientists will still get out to experience being in the wild. Hornocker is in his 90s now, and reading this in my 60s with a lifelong interest in wildlife, I often thought how great it would be to have these memories to look back on.
The politics and divisiveness of wildlife issues in the Northern Rockies haven’t changed much (maybe it’s even worse now) and the history of dealings with people opposed to the study is included also, as well as some mistakes which were made. The book also covers his family life and the deep friendship which developed with the cougar hunter he hired to work with him during the years of the study.
If the subject interests you, you’ll absolutely want to read this book. Lots of photos too!”
— Dennis M., 5-Star NetGalley Review
“I really enjoyed this nature memoir; it does everything that I was looking for!”
— Kathryn M., 5-Star NetGalley Review