It's an oddity of consumer culture that nature is appropriated
with little thought of the symbols being used. If Apple had
named its latest operating system update after, say, the English
longbow, the internet would be flush with stories about the
Battle of Agincourt -- yet barely a mention is made of actual
mountain lions. This just isn't right. Mountain lions, or Puma
concolor, aren't just a branding device. They're a reality, an
evolutionary sculpture, an exquisite creature meriting the basic
acknowledgement given the average Creative Commons copylefter.
"They're the most successful land animal in the western
hemisphere. They seem from an evolutionary standpoint to adapt
to almost any situation, whether it's the Amazon rainforest or
the alpine habitats of the northern Rocky Mountains," said
Howard Quigley, director of the Teton Cougar Project at
conservation group Panthera. "They must be doing something
right." In that spirit, Wired presents some of the latest
scientific developments in mountain lion resea