And, when it gets hot, mum bobcat drinking out of the bird bath -
Posted on 08/08/2014 7:47:16 PM PDT by SolidRedState
So here's a story and you can tell me if I am bat s*** crazy or you can laugh or whatever.
My wife and I walk along a rural paved road in the evening about a half mile and turn around and come back. We have corn and bean fields on each side and nice wide ditches.
One evening about 2 weeks ago on a Monday we were walking back and noticed a dead deer in the ditch on the far side. At first we thought it must have been hut by a car. The strange thing was that it looked like it had its neck broke from the way it was laying and most of the hide was gone from its head. Its rib cage was exposed and a large hole was in its body cavity just ahead of the rib cage. We just figured varmints had been at it already. But realized it wasn't there the evening before and thought it strange it had been so devoured so quickly. So we figured we just must have not noticed it.
The next evening we went further than normal and stopped at the neighbors to drop off something he needed signed and discuss crops. We mentioned it to him and he thought it was odd also.
On our way back we were almost home and realized the deer had disappeared. This aroused our curiosity and we walked back to where we thought the seer should be and it wasn't there.
The next evening we took greater care to search the ditch on our way back to see if we could see signs of where it had been. No luck. We know we did not hallucinate this deer. We are not into drugs or alcohol or any other thing that give us visions.
A week later we were talking to our neighbor again and discussed this with him. He came to the same conclusion I had but my wife is still skeptical.
He and I decided we had never heard of coyotes leaving a kill and then coming back and dragging it off, especially one as large as a deer. This was a good size doe. They would pretty much have to work in concert and besides they usually don't dig out the chest cavity, they just start eating on it.
This morning on the way to work I saw a critter cross the road ahead of me and it was not a dog nor a coyote nor any other critter we are used to seeing. It was about 5 to 6 feet from snout to butt and a tail about as long as its body. It stood about 2 feet at the shoulders or a bit more or less.
Unfortunately it disappeared into the corn before I could get a really good look at it.
So I thought I would post up and see if anyone has an alternate explanation than the one my neighbor and I came up with.
What else could it be?
Take a look at this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL8unjP4r6Q
1. Can you see the cougar as it stalks the driver shooting the video? Hint: It is closer at the 45 - 50 second period?
2. Could YOU shoot the cougar when it was coming that close to you? It was a very, very narrow target! And this mountain lion was not moving/jumping/attacking. Only stalking.
3. Did you see the second cougar approaching from the other side?
Haven’t seen skunks around...haven’t smelled them neither.
The masks are to fool the tigers so they don’t try to sneak up on them from behind.
The vid looked like BC and when I checked to comment, so it was.
cougar or young black bear. Both are territorial, both will come back for a carcass, both are curious. Check around your own barn and house for tracks. If you find tracks, call Fish and Game (might want to call them anyway to report a possible sighting). Stay safe.
No idea. Was looking for something creepily hair-raising for the thread and found that. It’s called a Jersey Devil, for what it’s worth. Don’t know what it’s supposed to have done. Didn’t read the legend... it is kind of creepy though, huh? :-)
wow - I saw the two, but the third one surprised me!
Three years ago I had a cat picking off my sheep. They are very stealthy, see in the dark well, and most always know of your presence long before you catch on that they are around, if you ever do. That dang cat waited for me to leave my hide on night for over 5 hours, when I went inside to drink a cup of coffee. Came back 5 minutes later to catch it dragging another ewe to the edge of the corral!
Then this winter I had a deer problem in the garden. There would be between 15-20 in there eating the cover crop and were very reluctant to leave even with headlights, horns, etc. I’d pretty much resigned myself to having to build an 8’ fence before spring when a cat discovered the easy pickings. It only took the cat killing a couple in the garden and dragging them off before the whole herd decided it wasn’t a safe place to graze anymore.
Like a couple other posters mentioned, I think it would be wise to have a shotgun loaded with 00.
And, when it gets hot, mum bobcat drinking out of the bird bath -
There are no black mountain lion’s.
We’ve taken 3 cats off the ranch over the years, I’ve shot 2 and one of the hands shot the other one. While you may have seen one cross the road the kill you described definitely doesn’t sound like a cat kill. If it’s more than they can eat in one sitting they will do everything they can to cover it up. Coyotes on the other hand dismember and run off with the goodies, I’ve seen them dismember and haul off a 200 lb calf carcass in 1 day. Depending on the time of the year I’ve seen full grown cows taken to bones in 3 days due to Coyotes and Turkey Vultures.
Comments like this amaze me, we have hundreds of millions of cell phone capable of taking picture, trail camera’s, regular camera’s and to this day not one person has ever gotten a picture of a black Mountain Lion, they do not exist!
We saw one in Connecticut three years ago. There were several reported sightings in a four or five day period in the area. They will live where there’s game and cover and we have both.
Back here in Maryland/Virginia we have had a bunch of sightings but the Fish and Game people won’t admit to it
The Allegheny mountains are like a highway for bears cats etc and they can travel from Maine to South Carolina pretty much as they wish
We had the same problem in North Dakota for years.
No PhD in Wildlife Management and the sightings were treated (almost sneeringly) as "anecdotal evidence" and ignored.
Then someone backed up to the Fish and Game Office, dropped the tailgate and rolled out their 'anecdotal evidence'.
That was the end of the official denial. Not long after that a bowhunter bagged one in the river bottoms outside Williston, and 3 more were imaged by game cameras, not three miles from town (15000 pop. then, now 45000 after 6 years).
Numerous others have been bagged in the badlands since.
I remember seeing one on our ranch in Texas near Bastrop in the 60s. Call it a puma or mountain lion, it was a large cat under a mercury vapor street light near our barn.
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