Famous wildlife researcher to be celebrated

This story has been updated from its original version to correct when the event will happen.

The University of Idaho will lionize one of its most famous wildlife researchers this week in a three-day celebration.

The Moscow-based school will honor Maurice Hornocker, a world-renowned cougar expert and former leader of the university’s Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, starting Wednesday.

As a graduate student in the early 1960s, Hornocker, now 92, led what would become a 10-year, groundbreaking study on mountain lions in the Big Creek drainage of what is now the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. He teamed up with Wilbur Wiles, a respected cougar hunter from the state’s wild center, to carry out the study, which included treeing cougars, sedating them and then fitting them with identifying collars and ear tags.

The work helped change the negative perception of the big cats that were considered vermin at the time. Hornocker showed that adult males establish defined territories. During the study, cougar numbers remained steady and deer and elk herds were stable or expanded. Hornocker said the presence of lions kept the ungulates on the move and prevented overgrazing and degradation of important winter habitat.

“In other words, deer and elk were good for mountain lions and mountain lions were good for deer and elk,” he wrote in his recently published memoir, “Cougars on the Cliff: One Man’s Pioneering Quest to Understand the Mythical Mountain Lion.”

The book was co-authored by retired Tribune reporter David Johnson of Moscow.

Hornocker went on to lead the Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit and in that role was instrumental in the University purchasing Taylor Ranch, where his mountain lion study was headquartered. The ranch now serves as a wilderness research center.

He went on to establish the Hornocker Wildlife Institute at Moscow, which later moved to Bozeman, Mont. Hornocker and his colleagues studied big cats and other carnivores and animals across North America and around the world.

Titled “Where the Wild Things Roam: A Tribute to Dr. Maurice Hornocker,” the celebration kicks off Wednesday evening with a free public showing of the National Geographic Society documentary “Tracking the North American Mountain Lion.” The film starts at 5 p.m. at the Kenworthy Theater on Main Street in downtown Moscow.

At 6:15 p.m., Hornocker, who lives at Bellevue in Idaho’s Wood River Valley, will read from his memoir and sign copies of it at the Moscow Contemporary Gallery, also on Main Street. “Cougars on the Cliff,” which was recently awarded a Starred Review by Booklist, will be available for purchase at the gallery.

Hornocker will participate in invitation-only events with researchers and students at the university Thursday. Starting at 6:30 p.m. Friday, the public is invited to watch two documentary films — “American Ocelot,” and “Tigers of the Snow” at the Kenworthy.

Barker may be contacted at ebarker@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2273. Follow him on Twitter @ezebarker.