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 ...
“I wonder if having a donkey or 2 onsite would have prevented a mountain lion from getting into the pen area like it did.”
....you really almost need dogs to handle a cat...say a couple of Great Pyranees that will stand and fight...hounds can do the job but are bad to run off if they’re not penned up in a kennel.
Animals go on killing rampages from time to time. Think about it: If you’ve ever owned a male cat, there will be periods where he inexplicably got pissy and attcked things at random. This is leftover programming from being a wild animal. Reference the story of The Ghost & The Darkness - two man-eating lions kill dozens of people for God only knows what reason. They just felt like it.
“The lion trapped near Foerschler’s farm was a male and weighed about 130 pounds. Because the Nevada Department of Wildlife does not allow for the relocation of mountain lions, the animal was killed.
“If that lion has already keyed in on livestock, there’s not really any place to take it where it won’t be a disruption,” Lansford said.”
WRONG. Ship it to a PETA convention!!!!
Try wrasslin’ one, pilgrim!!
How do they know the Chicago mtn lion was a wild one who wandered there, and not a captive one released there?
If it was a Mexican lion, probably so.
True.
Most idiots who keep Mountain Lions as “pets” have them defanged and declawed.
Some idiots are more idiotic than others, for example someone for whom a pit bull just isn’t macho enough.
About 20 years ago I talked to a rancher and his wife that had both cattle and sheep. They had been the last of the ranchers in the area near Medicine Bow, Wyoming that raised sheep.
One night they lost 27 sheep out of 200 to a group of coyotes.
Only a small number of the sleep had been killed for food, the rest were part of a killing spree.
The remaining sheep were shipped to market the next day.
That marked the end of their flock of sheep.
Pfft. I’ve scared away lions bigger than that by screaming at them. That one is pretty small, unless the sheep are 5 feet tall at the shoulder.
“That one is pretty small, unless the sheep are 5 feet tall at the shoulder.”
Maybe the sheep were registered Democrats. Average height of a Democrat voter is what? 5’ 8”? At least for the Democrats that are not six feet under.
Scientists say South Dakota is a likely source for a mountain lion that was killed this week in Chicago after what would be a record 900-mile journey from the Black Hills.
More concrete evidence of the lion’s travels may lie in a piece of its muscle that Illinois officials will send to a DNA lab in Montana.
The Chicago Tribune estimated a 1,000-mile trek counting a swing through Wisconsin... beats the standing record of 663 miles a Black Hills lion wandered before a train struck and killed it in Oklahoma
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2001669/posts?page=40#40
[Insert giggling like a schoolgirl here]
...they sent the DNA out to the Black Hills to run it thru their lab and data base....same thing with the lion hit by a train last year in Oklahoma....that one had traveled 700 miles....lot of strange things are happening with wild life these days...there are confirmed populations of wild turkeys in every county in North Carolina....I couldn’t say that just 25 years ago...
No sheep dog?
Yummmm... Baby Lamb-chops.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.