Obviously it wasn’t a mountain lion. That’s just stupid. It was a bigfoot. He put the deer over his shoulder and walked off with it.
They’re pretty much everywhere in North America.
I’m assuming you’re in North America. :-)
I probably would not be taking walks down that road without carrying. Especially, at dusk. Better safe than sorry.
To be sure, go out in the cornfield holding a piece of raw meat and cry “her kitty, kitty, kitty” and take pictures if anything happens.
Sounds like you have a big cat in your area. My sister in law has a summer house in Montana in a rural area. She has a mountain lion come through her property occasionally. the game warden told her that they will range in a 70 mile area so she doesn’t see it often.
The only live mountain lion I have ever seen was during a deer hunting trip in Sonora Mexico. The cat crossed the road very fast and it was kind of crouching down close to the ground so it was a little confusing trying to figure out what I had just seen. It was a long low tan streak!
My neighbor caught a glimpse of a long tailed cat about 3 months ago in northern Henderson county (NC). 2 days later he saw it run up a bank. He has a 130 lb Burneese mountain dog and said the cat was larger than his dog. I photoed tracks in my freshly tilled garden that week that measured more than 3 and 1/2 inches long. They were cat prints. BTW my neighbor has my complete trust.
I saw a news item of a confirmed mountain lion sighting near Alliance, Nebraska. Is that anywhere near you?
Sure sounds like a cougar from your description. Probably not quite as long bodied as you describe though. They just look long. I’ve seen a few around here and had one tear up my horse a few years back. The horse recovered.
They can drag a deer carcass even though they are not very large cats (100 lbs or so)
I came here from New Mexico... once we had a drought there and a Mountain Lion came into town in nearby El Paso looking for water and was at a local car wash drinking from the puddles...caused quite a stir :-)
H and H car wash in El Paso
I don’t know where you are located, but I can tell you that in mid-Missouri there were reports of a mountain lion last year. Never had any around here before in my memory.
I would say it’s a big cat too. They do drag their kill off and usually cover it so they can come back to it later.
I have a short-barreled Smith 686 on my belt on the property and especially after dark. I'll be perfectly happy if it stays in the holster. If not, I'll be perfectly happy it's there.
If you keep walking this road, you had better get some rear view mirrors. These big cats are famous for attacking from behind. Most human victims never see it coming.
Where in Nebraska are you?
Short vid of the cat at the car wash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHmEM6txwRY
Nobody believed me so I stopped talking about it. All the experts back then said it was impossible 'cause no big cats are around here any more.....
First look at these tracks then... https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1920&bih=845&q=mountain+lion+tracks&oq=Mountain+lion+&gs_l=img.1.1.0l10.1425.4436.0.7318.14.10.0.4.4.0.145.817.8j2.10.0....0...1ac.1.51.img..0.14.841.SVZqDfiIbxs
You need to be careful, if you are passing through that area, they watch game trails.... what you may call foot paths. Mountain lions tend to be shy but will often make a kill then come back for it later. If it was in a ditch and the ground was soft or there was sandy material around, those are called track traps. Take a look where the cat would likely have walked and any ground that would be favorable to leave a mark. Do not look at noon, go out with a flash light just after dusk (be careful as this is hunting time) and point your flash light level with the ground in areas you think may be tracks, then sweep the beam back and forth and you should see the shadows fall into the tracks distinguishing patterns from the noise of regular ground features... of course post picts if you see something.
Your description sounds like a mountain lion. They will split rib cage to get at the lungs and will also bury the remains for later. They tend to become active at dusk and dawn and can have a range of 500 miles.