Pyrs are great dogs, but Rhodesian Ridgebacks were bred expressly to deal with the big cats. They're not my favorite breed but you have to admit, they are fearless...
Posted on 05/12/2008 1:18:00 PM PDT by george76
The video shot in Jack Foerschler’s barn shows his flock of sheep lying quietly in the dark...
The flock seems peaceful, until the animals are suddenly startled. A nanosecond later, a blur leaps into the screen and tackles one of the sheep. The ewe is able to escape momentarily, jumping up from the creature’s clutches, running to the viewer’s left. But the invader is faster. It bounds to its feet and extends a claw toward its fleeing prey.
The viewer can see its massive claws, slender muscular body and distinctively long tail.
The culprit that killed four ewes, a ram and seven lambs ...
“I’ve never had a mountain lion kill sheep,” Foerschler said this week, relieved that his suspicion that someone had shot his animals was wrong. “I’ve lost one to a coyote, lots to dogs, but never to a lion or a bullet. I can say now, never a bullet.”
Kevin Lansford, predator biologist and staff specialist with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, said there are an estimated 2,500 mountain lions statewide. Solitary creatures, the females weigh between 85 and 100 pounds. Males weigh between 130 to 170 pounds. From nose to tip of tail they can be anywhere from six to seven feet long, said Lansford.
And their behavior when going after prey mimics no other animal.
“Their power and prowess and their ability to stalk and hunt large animals is amazing,” .
It’s not uncommon for someone to confuse a lion kill with a gunshot wound,
(Excerpt) Read more at nevadaappeal.com ...
What’s up with florida panthers?
The case I recall was similar. A burglar broke into a house that contained a very territorial house cat. The guy was apparently skulking around the house when the cat launched himself at the guy’s head and did the fuzzy buzzsaw routine. Same thing - cat ripped out the guy’s carotids, idiot bled out. Owner comes back to find a dead body with a happy cat sitting on top of it.
This was back in the 90s and was reported in (IIRC) the Orange County Register or the LA Times. I haven’t found any online links to it.
Well, some of them *are* friendly, but cougars as a species aren’t known for being very trainable or friendly. That said, he probably went a little nuts because he was originally used to being able to roam the house and now he had to live in this cage.
There are friendly big cats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kozVBG308Gs
But don’t ever expect one in the wild to be one of those.
Ok, as an avid hunter and conservationist, I gotta say the pic of the cat looking in the door is cool.
When I go into cat country, I carry my .45 with HP’s loaded up to the energy of a .357 magnum load and I really don’t think that is quite adequate enough for the job. I had an aquaintance empty a magazine of .45 ball into a cat before it was killed with the last shot as the cat was at her feet.
It is unbelievable what kind of power nature can produce in an “average” cat.
Well, after humans/primates, the top land predator type is the cat, so that’s hardly surprising. They’re fast, they’re very strong, some are extremely smart (there is at least one case documented in Roman times of a tiger tracking a guy across an entire continent to get him), and they’re very, very, very good hunters.
You got me there. What have you heard? Are they losing again?
Well....they were hunted/loss of territory down to almost extinction. I heard there’s about 20 left.
Thanks for the story. I can certainly image one of my cats doing this. (The others would show the burglar where the jewelry and good silverware were if he gave them kitty treats.)
My guess would be that they share habitat with two major apex predators other than man. Crocs and Gators both are thriving and no pet is safe in south florida. I imagine they help thin panther numbers when the cats go for a drink—cubs would be especially vulnerable when mom is out hunting.
“A long time ago panthers could be found all over the eastern United States. However, they were overhunted because people thought these shy cats were dangerous. Now only 30 to 50 panthers can be found in south Florida.”
First of all, they are very dangerous, shy or not. Make no mistake about it.
Second, "panther", "cougar" and "mountain lion" are essentially the same animal with regional names that have adapted to the local environment. As for only 30-50 panthers, I would bet there are more than that. Its pretty tough to track animals in Florida's glades. Environmentalists always under-estimate the populations of species they feel are threatened.
These animals were widely hunted all over the US to near extinction. They have rebounded in the west, where there are still large habitats isolated from urban areas. These areas still exist in Florida, with the caveat I pointed out concerning other predators.
As for the remainder of the eastern US, there are far fewer places for them to rebuild their populations in isolation from urban areas. Human population density is much higher in the east than in the west. But there are probably some still there. As I stated in post #61 I had an encounter in Santa Cruz, CA., and had everyone tell me it was impossible, "there were no more mountain lions in these mountains".
And don't get me wrong, if their populations do not warrant hunting in a particular region, leave them alone. But when they are taking down joggers and day-hikers in CA or Denver, and running through Chicago neighborhoods, then you might want to revisit the issue.
Pyrs are great dogs, but Rhodesian Ridgebacks were bred expressly to deal with the big cats. They're not my favorite breed but you have to admit, they are fearless...
Fawn,
May I suggest your trying to control your anthropomorphic tendencies - your post seems to indicate they have temporarily overwhelmed your intellect.
Consider the difficulty of proving that the antifreeze was left out with the intent of poisoning a cougar. The setting of poison to control rats, and other undesirable animals, IS legal on ones own property.
Legally, morally, and ethically, the poisoning of moles and rats is not different from the poisoning of a cougar. In both cases, the human has caused the death of an animal.
The only significant difference is whether the cougar, to use the instant case, was a deliberate act.
That would be impossible, or very unlikely, to prove because of the nexus of events occurring between the Law of Unintended Consequences and the Endangered Species Act.
Since the Fifth Amendment is still in effect, unless the owner of the antifreeze (legal owner, not the thieving cougar who illegally took the antifreeze) decided to claim he did in the cougar deliberately, the benefit of the doubt (look up “presumption of innocence”) would make a conviction impossible to sustain.
What you have probably unwittingly raised is the issue of ‘mens rea’ - not a simple issue according to law school and the courts.
Ain't enviro-socialism and an activist judiciary wunnerful?
“Oh THAT makes sense...not. Hunting them will extinguish the population completely.”
Fawn,
I’ll fix your minor typo for you:
Oh THAT makes sense. Hunting them will extinguish the population completely...not.
Hunting does not completely extinguish the population, unless you are discussing a small population in a very limited area where in migration from other areas is possible.
THERE ARE SOME 32,000 COUGAR ! ! ! !
They are not in danger. Only in the twisted minds of enviro-socialists and their lawyer “fellow travelers” are cougar “endangered”.
When agenda fails you, try facts. Try ‘em, you might just like ‘em.
;-)
“Well....they were hunted/loss of territory down to almost extinction. I heard there’s about 20 left.”
Go to www.EvergladesInstitute.org, then look up the article titles Genomic Ancestry Of The American Puma.
The important parts are color high lighted, unless you are a DNA researcher, in which case you would not be parroting PETA pseudo-”facts”.
There are some 32,000 such cats.
Facts are our friends, Fawn. Try ‘em, you’ll like ‘em.
;-)
They are moving back into moderately densely populated areas, like the Naples Botanical Gardens area, and California city areas, and most appropriately, Boulder, Colorado.
There is a recorded case of a puma living in Everglades National Park who sent himself to the Great Cat Box In The Sky because he learned to eat alligators.
Puma are evolved to eat deer, which are herbivores.
Alligators are carnivores.
Carnivores concentrate in their bodies, the mercury found in the body of their prey.
Deer have little mercury since they are one step above plants.
Alligators eat fish and small mammals, hence they are two steps up the chain and therefore have the mercury of their food incorporated in their bodies.
Along come a gator-eating puma and further concentrates the mercury.
We have all heard “a bridge too far” - well, this was”a concentration too far”.
If anyone know of any other instances of alligators eating puma, I would very much appreciate hearing from them.
The mountain lions are part of nature. Here in Wyoming we have a season on them and keeps the numbers down.
They are a beautiful animal.
The number of humans killed by mountain lions is very small.
The number of humans killed by all wild animals are less than those killed by domestic dogs.
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