Big cats not a tall tale

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | November 2, 2003 | By Eamonn Duff

[winodog]

The Kzin are finally here.

[irv]

The Kzin are finally here.

Are you sure it's not Nastassia Kinsky and Malcolm McDowell?

[jim_trent]

A 108 pound mountain lion was recently captured about 2 blocks from the busiest intersection in a town of 350,000 people. It is now in the zoo. There had been sightings before, which were ignored. There have been other sightings since then. So much for the line about poor wild animals not being able to adapt and not being able to survive in urban sprawl.

[cavtrooper21]

There was a reliable mountian lion spotting here in Lawrence KS.
In the middle of town, about a block west of the University of Kansas.
Here kitty kitty .......

[JRandomFreeper]

So much for the line about poor wild animals not being able to adapt and not being able to survive in urban sprawl.

In 1995, I noted that coyotes (coy-dogs) in N. Central Texas look both ways before crossing I-20. When I was growing up in the '60s, cars hitting dogs or coyotes was a common experience. I can't remember the last time I saw a dog hit by a car.

We watched a hawk sit on a dead rabbit in the middle of a road a couple of days ago. The hawk was keeping the turkey buzzards at a good distance. Everyone was dutifully driving around the hawk/rabbit, and later, either the hawk or base maintenance carried off the rabbit.

It's the cycle of life. Adapting and overcoming.

/john

[DouglasKC]

We watched a hawk sit on a dead rabbit in the middle of a road a couple of days ago. The hawk was keeping the turkey buzzards at a good distance. Everyone was dutifully driving around the hawk/rabbit, and later, either the hawk or base maintenance carried off the rabbit. It's the cycle of life. Adapting and overcoming.

Heck yeah. Around here crows eat the road kill. They see a car coming...lazily fly out of the way just as the car approaches, and then flop back down and keep eating until the next car comes along. Animals learn.

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

"We've watched it stalk wallabies, we've seen it sitting high up in a tree. It roams around like a large family dog that thinks it owns the place."

Did she ever think to try to take a photograph?

[Interesting Times]

The Kzin are finally here.

"Scream, and leap."

[Twinkie]

My mother said there were panthers in the southeastern
U.S. hills & hollers when she was growing up. They were
supposedly all killed off as civilization advanced. She
said they used to make a screaming sound. That was over
60 yrs. ago and in a very isolated area.

[Hugin]

Where's the Crocodile Hunter when you really need him?

"I'm just going to reach over and grab him by the scruff of the neck. Owww! Crikey, he just grabbed my hand. No worrys though I'll just--arghhh!!!"

[Atchafalaya]

Andreas Gallaraga alert!

[Monterrosa-24]

Your mother was right and still is. Our Alabama game guide lists mountain lions with our other animals for which there is no open season. The Wildlife resources folks keep a live puma among the animals in their display of Alabama wildlife. The cat has a breeding population in the area of Bear Creek Lake which is not such a wild part of the state. The catamonts (yet another name for pumas or mountain lions or brown panthers or cougars) are still rare in the rugged mountains around the Smokies in North Carolina but there are a few. 60 years ago deer populations were very low, due in part to the depression where they were viewed as meat on the hoof. But now with seasonal hunting the accepted custom, the deer populations are generally too large so many expect the puma's population to rebound in the SE.

[Monterrosa-24]

You remember that widely circulated article (but fake) quoting American occupation officials and showing their frustration with the German "Werewolves" (Nazi commandos in occupied Germany). In reality, Nazi attacks after the surrender were rare. But on the other hand getting to May 8th, 1945 was pretty costly. Our total losses in Kuwait and Iraq during the last 13 years equals about half of a typical day of January 1945. Only the Democratic leadership could make our situation in Iraq look like a doom and gloom crises.

[Neanderthal]

"The Kzin are finally here."

Speaker to Animals.

[BudgieRamone]

b-b-b-but Kansas doesn't have mountain lions.(sarcasm)

Its a liability issue. The state has been releasing the doggone things and reintroducing them to the Kansas area, however they will deny they are doing so because it opens them up to liability when one attacks say...someones child?
its much easier to say "OoopS! how did that get here?" than to admit to doing it.

Personally, I believe it is being done with the intention of controlling the deer herd here.

JMO

[Swordmaker]

There once was a marsupial tigerlike animal in Australia called the Thylacoleo - it may also be refered to as the Queensland Tiger.

The Thylacoleo (Marsupial Lion) is a carniverous marsupial that lived between 1,6000,000 - 40,000 years ago. It was 1.5 meters long from head to tail and 75cm tall at the shoulders. The Marsupial lion was the largest meat-eating mammal to have lived in Australia, and one of the largest marsupial carnivores the world has ever seen. It would have hunted animals including the giant Diprotodon in the forests, woodlands, shrublands and river valleys.

The Marsupial lion had enormous slicing cheek tooth, large stabbing incisor teeth at the front of the mouth and a huge thumb claw. The claw may have been used to disembowl it's prey or hold down stuggling animals.

Another possibility is the Tasmanian Tiger that has been thought to be extince since 1932. This is the Thylacine which was variously called Tasmanian Tiger and Tasmanian Wolf. It, too, is a marsupial.

Thylacine cyanocephaplus

The Jaws that bite...

The last living pair... now deceased... or are they?

Cryptozoology is such fun!

[Siamese Princess]

The last living pair... now deceased... or are they?

I recently read somewhere that there have been many seemingly reliable reported sightings of the Tasmanian tiger throughout Australia and even New Guinea. Someone is mounting an expedition to look for it.

Regarding mountain lions, a friend of mine spotted one in a park in Jefferson, New Jersey (no more than 50 miles northwest of Manhattan). He's a former big game guide and can tell the difference between a mountain lion and big Labrador Retriever, so I trust him. There are loads of deer even in the suburbs of New Jersey.

[Jonah Hex]

[Rebelbase]

Down Under produces some funky looking critters.