Free Republic

Kenton Rowe's fortune as a wildlife photographer would change in less than one second; the amount of time it takes for a shutter to open and close, the light burning a digital image onto a disk. And in that second, the mountain lion and her cub were forever captured, their likenesses then downloaded to a computer, printed to paper and presented to a panel of judges who would sift through 70,000 photographs at this year's National Wildlife Federation photo contest.

SHERIDAN, Wyo. – Retired orthopedic surgeon Chris Smith thought his hunt was over when he bagged a white tail deer with a bow and arrow near Sheridan. Because the light was fading, he decided to return the next day to recover the deer. But when he returned Wednesday morning, the carcass had been covered by grass and bush — which is what mountain lions typically do. Smith, who was unarmed, then saw the big cat about 25 yards away.....

Eagan police issued a warning Monday to alert residents of evidence of cougars in the area. Police said, last month officers found what appeared to be cougar feces at the police gun range located at the west end of Yankee Doodle Road near Fort Snelling State Park. Police said they took two reports from residents who said they saw a cougar in the same area. A third sighting was reported by a city employee. On October 2, he saw what he believed was a cougar laying in some grass in Blackhawk Park off Murphy Parkway. Police warned residents to always...

There have been 14 serious mountain lion attacks in California, three of which ended in death, in the past 23 years. The three people killed were Barbara Schoener, 40, a wife and mother of two children; Iris Kenna, 56, a high school counselor; and Mark Reynolds, 35, a bicycling enthusiast. Among the injured were a 5-year-old girl who lost an eye and was partially paralyzed; Anne Hjelle, 30, a former U.S. Marine and physical fitness instructor; and Jim Hamm, 70, a retiree living in Humboldt County. It’s amazing how folks can distort figures. In researching this column, I went to...

A series of unusual accounts last week show that black panthers and bears are becoming more legend than mystery in the Bay Area. Lynn Reed, a ranch owner, avid hunter and wildlife expert, said he and his wife watched what appeared to be a black mountain lion for more than 10 minutes in the foothills near Dublin in Alameda County. The next day, another one was seen by an engineer in the nearby San Ramon hills. Reed's 10-minute sighting is the longest, eye-witness account of a black mountain lion reported by a wildlife expert in 20 years. It is similar...

BILLINGS, Mont. — Wildlife officials are trying to determine why a mountain lion attacked a Colorado man who says he used a chain saw to fight off the animal during a camping trip with his wife and two toddlers in northwestern Wyoming.

At first Stewart Loew was excited by the sight: a mountain lion on the family's farm near Amado. In 40 years on the Agua Linda Farm, Loew said this was first large cat he had seen when it appeared in the donkey pen about a month ago. But soon, his animals started to turn up mauled or dead. First there were four sheep. Then, on June 15, an awful sight: 16 pygmy and nubian goats — all the mammals in the farm's petting zoo — were killed. Only the geese were spared. Loew and his wife, Laurel, who run the...

A mountain lion was spotted in a hotel parking lot just off of I-25 in Del Camino in Weld County, and four animals were decapitated on a nearby property, authorities said. A six-foot long mountain lion was seen at about 11 p.m. Sunday in the parking lot of a Quality Inn, near the 10000 block of the West I-25 frontage road, according to a media release from the Weld County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff's deputies and officers with the Firestone and Frederick police department's searched for the big cat but did not find it. On Monday a resident in the 9000...

Canadian mother Maureen Lee has fought off a cougar that leapt onto her daughter during a walk in the woods with her bare hands. Seeing her child pinned she dove between the two and threw the large cat off before scooping up her child and running. Her three-year-old daughter, who thought the animal just wanted to play, is recovering nicely from puncture wounds on her head and arm. The cougar fared less well - conservation officers located it and killed it.

A young mountain lion was trapped and relocated by the Colorado Division of Wildlife after eating a house cat Monday ... north Boulder. “He was just too close,” Churchill said. “We wanted to give him a spanking and move him out of town.” Wildlife officials previously tagged the same cougar in February when the kitten was stuck in a tree, Churchill said. He is part of the five-year Front Range Mountain Lion Study, which aims to track mountain lions between Lyons and Evergreen to better understand cougar movement trends and develop a way to mitigate aggressive behavior near human establishments,...

HEMET, Calif. (CBS) ― Size really doesn't matter, as a trio of Chihuahuas proved by cornering a full-grown, adult mountain lion in their owner's garage. Ana Lee Spray of Sage, near Hemet, heard her three Chihuahuas barking in her garage and went to check out commotion. Spray was surprised to see the massive, angry cat hissing at her and her dogs and immediately took her pets inside. Spray called 911 and officers from the Department of Fish and Game tranquilized the mountain lion. The big cat had to be tranquilized again after running from the garage.

HOLLISTER The county agriculture commissioner supports reinstatement of a long-absent mountain lion count and plans to request that supervisors endorse a letter to the state fish and game department encouraging California leaders to reconsider it. San Benito County Agriculture Commissioner Paul Matulich believes the state should reestablish a count because "nothing's been done since 1988" and there are concerns related to public safety, livestock security and a declining deer population. He plans to present the county board with a letter requesting a reinstatement to the lion count at its meeting May 26. Fish and game stopped conducting official cougar counts...

When a Corvallis teen came upon a cougar mauling a house cat on Northwest Sundance Circle last month, he probably didn't think, "Well, here's an Oregon success story." Once hunted nearly to extinction in Oregon, the big cats, which inspire awe in some and fear in others, are thriving today. And that presents its own problems. As their numbers increase, so do the chances for encounters such as the one at Sundance Circle. The state has responded by increasing the killing of cougars to reduce the threat, whether real or perceived, to livestock, game herds, people and their pets....

Dog owner William Morse, his wife Kandy and their dog Hogie were out for a walk along a trail in the Cleveland National Forest Tuesday when "out of nowhere a mountain lion just charged us, attacked us, and my dog saved our life, saved me and my wife's life." The black shepherd-mix dog, named Hogie, was severely injured in Tuesday's noon incident but was expected to recover following surgery at a Riverside County veterinary hospital. On Wednesday, state officials with the California Department of Fish and Game released statements that contradicted Morse’s accounts. In the new scenarios, Hogie was the...

    When a local couple heard their cats outside crying at about 2 o'clock on Tuesday morning, they thought it was probably a dog bothering their cats, but it wasn't. They were completely shocked at what they found in their yard. A huge mountain lion had made its way into the enclosure in which their cats were kept. The three cats didn’t stand a chance. The couple, who live near Crestline Video, asked not to be identified. They are heartbroken and in shock. “The mountain lion was probably 3-and-a-half to four feet long,” the woman said. “It looked...

A mountain lion attacked and nearly killed a dog that defended its owners Tuesday on a trail in the Santa Ana Mountains. The dog was severely mauled in the stomach area and rushed to a veterinary hospital for surgery, according to Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. The 5-year-old black Labrador mix named Hoagie underwent a four-hour operation and was expected to survive, he said. William Morse was hiking with his wife near a campground in the Cleveland National Forest, about 10 miles from Lake Elsinore, when a 120-pound mountain lion approached. "Out of nowhere, a mountain lion just charged...

A cougar lounging in the courtyard of a rural Santa Fe-area home ... Game warden Desi Ortiz says the animal showed no fear... He hit the 100-pound female mountain lion in the hind leg with a tranquilizer, and she jumped over the courtyard wall and disappeared. He got a call a short time later about a cougar staggering into the courtyard of another nearby home.

A mountain lion was tranquilized and relocated by the state Division of Wildlife after killing a small dog in Boulder's Highland Park ... The lion killed a "white, fluffy dog" ... Division of Wildlife spokeswoman Jennifer Churchill said the lion, a 10-month-old male, was moved to a remote location. She said the lion had previously been tagged ... On Sunday, part of a Chautauqua Park trail was closed after hikers spotted a mountain lion in the trees...

A couple from Montana were riding the range, he with his rifle and she (fortunately) with her camera. Their dogs always followed them, but on this occasion, a Mountain Lion decided he wanted to stalk the dogs (you'll see the dogs in the background watching). Very, very bad decision. The hunter got off the mule with his rifle and decided to shoot in the air to scare away the lion, but before he could get off a shot, the lion charged in and decided he wanted a piece of those dogs. With that, the mule took off and decided HE...

SPOONER (AP) - There's been no sign of the mountain lion that game managers in northwestern Wisconsin tried to capture and collar last week. The mountain lion was photographed in a tree in the area of Washburn and Burnett counties west of Spooner before it crawled down and ran away. Jim Bishop of the state Department of Natural Resources said the animal is believed to be alive but may have left the area, or even headed to Minnesota. DNR personnel used some fresh snow to search for signs of the big cat on March 11. But wildlife biologist supervisor Ken...