On the lam for two days, cougar captured in Springfield has a befitting new name, "Capone"
The cougar captured in Springfield last fall following a voyage from Nebraska has a new name at his new home: "Capone."
The mob-inspired name was chosen from six nominations in an online vote sponsored by the Exotic Feline Rescue Center of Center Point, Indiana, where the cougar was taken after being captured in Springfield last fall. The name, of course, is a reference to Al Capone, the infamous Prohibition-era boss of the Chicago Outfit. While not a Springfield-related name, it does have a link to Illinois.
Among the names "Capone" beat out were some with additional links to his background, such as "Abe" and "Springfield" – references to the place where he was captured – "Omaha," reflecting where he originated, and "Neil" – an amalgamation of the abbreviations of both Nebraska and Illinois.
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Joe Taft, director of the EFRC, said that people had shown interest in giving the cat a name after his arrival at the facility. After they got six names they liked, they asked people to pick their favorite for a $5 fee.
"Capone" was the choice, originally coming from a member of the organization's board who claimed to know of connections between the mobster and Springfield. While stories have persisted that Capone traveled to central Illinois whenever he needed a break from Chicago, any visits to Springfield have been unconfirmed to date.
"Neil or Omaha was my preference, but I'm not going to deny the vote," Taft said.
The newly-christened cougar has been at his new home in Indiana since Oct. 28, when he was sedated by local law enforcement after roaming the west side of Springfield for two days. He had originated in Nebraska, where the state's Game and Parks Commission had put a GPS tracker on him to monitor his movements.
When he arrived in Springfield, officials at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources asked people to keep their distance. When it became apparent that the cat could threaten people and property, IDNR, Illinois Conservation Police, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Springfield Police Department prepared to sedate him and contacted EFRC to provide a safe place for him to be treated.
After a transition period, the cougar has adjusted nicely to his new home, with EFRC in the process of building an enclosure for him. Taft said that he's fairly comfortable for now, eating venison, beef and goat, batting a couple of balls around and taking plenty of time to lay on his perch 15 feet off the ground.
"It's the same behavior you would expect from a wild cougar," Taft said. "When they are approached, they will go up into a tree and stay in that tree."
The new enclosure is nearly complete, with the third side of the cage almost ready to be put up. Once the cat gets used to life in his new home, Taft thinks he will find food a bit easier, with a large concentration of rabbits within the confines of the enclosure.
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"It's a really big cage," Taft said. "Once he gets in the cage and the vegetation in the spring grows up, I suspect we probably won't see him for a long time. It's big enough (and) it's heavily populated with rabbits, so I suspect he'll go a long way towards feeding himself."
Despite living in relative comfort in Indiana, Taft said it's unfortunate for the cougar not to have lived the remainder of his life out in the wild. Taft's team will do what it can to make sure that he lives the kind of life similar to one he would have had he remained in the wild.
"He will be here for the rest of his life," Taft said. "It's sad that he's not still in the wild, but we're going to do everything that we can to provide him with a high-quality life and to make up for some of the things that he's lost."
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Capone wins online naming contest for cougar captured in Springfield
