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 ...
Yep, we’ve got a gelded miniature donkey (he’s above breeding size) that is the best watch dog we’ve ever had. We do have two Belgian Malinois, that are great guard dogs, but they keep quiet until you are right on top of them. But the donkey is our early warning system. We even had a small brush fire one night (started by lightning) and he even warned us of that.
In Viet Nam water buffaloes protect livestock from tigers.
I think out of all the critters I see out in the woods that can kill me without breaking a sweat mountain lions are the ones that scare me. Any others chances are I’ll see them and have warning enough to shoot them first....mountain lions probably already be pretty well mauled before you know it’s there.
At the Cabela's in North Reno, they have a taxidermized mountain lion on display that was killed in the Virginia Mountains behind my house. It's bigger than the taxidermized timber wolf mounted on display just below it. I was in shock when I saw it.
I've seen mountain lions in SoCal that were half the size of this Nevada animal and had thought that mountain lions were mountain lions and didn't know that there were several types that can dwarf the SoCal lions I'm more familiar with. That trophy lion on display at Cabela's is damn near African-sized and it just startled the Hell out of me knowing that they could be coming down our road looking for a meal. You're gonna need a lot of gun to take one down.
I carry a Ruger Redhawk in .44 Magnum with Garrett 330-grain +P 'Hammerhead' hard cast loads when I go out in the wilderness behind our property. If that won't drop the biggest mountain lion on the planet, I don't know what will.
Total Urbanite? Kidding right?
You mean you actually never built a fire (without a prepackaged “log” thingy), killed something actually alive to eat it, peeed in the woods etc?
Really? You gotta move before you lose all perspective...
Seriously.
God Bless the poor Urbanites!
Molon Labe
Bummer, this is not what I want to see right now....
5:30 a.m. last Thursday our dog started barking. We shushed her and then, since one of our windows was open, I asked Mr G what was the sound we were hearing. It went on for quite a while and then I opened a window on the other side of the room to listen. What I heard was about 300 feet away, right behind our office. (confirmed by the dog’s hackles going straight up when she and Mr G walked up there later)
There were 2 parts to the sound, one of which I recognized....
you got it, it was a cougar. We have a friend who used to raise them, so I have heard them make a “chuff” sound in greeting. I got on line and searched cougar sounds and found one very like what we heard, combined with the “chuff”.
The next part of the puzzle is that our neighbor down the hill saw one last year in the tall grass next to his house. He was too busy shooing his grandkids into the house to take a picture of it with the camera that was hanging around his neck.
Add to that another neighbor who listened to the sound I sent him and said “Oh yeah, I have heard that before, but it sounded a ways south of us.”
As I said, bummer.
NDOW has finally gotten the message through to the relocated Californians that most all the lion habitat in Nevada is already occupied by a lion. If you re-locate a lion to other suitable habitat in Nevada, there’s going to be a dead lion sooner or later — the newly introduced or the old-timer, take your choice.
I like hound dogs, setters, spaniels and German Shepherds myself.
Mountain lions belong in the woods or in the sights of a good rifle.
OK, lemme give you a tip as a guy who has hunted a LOT in the high mountains of Nevada:
Should you ever be hiking/camping/hunting/fishing/whatever in the high mountains, be VERY aware of what is off to your sides and at your back. Turn around suddenly every 50 to 100 yards or so. Some times, you will see something disappear in a flash behind you - that will likely have been a cat when you’re above 7,500’ on a rocky hillside.
I have neighbors who are big, big men (6’4” and all of 250lbs - big guys) be stalked by cats that weighed less than these guys. As soon as they turn around, the cat freezes and then bolts - but the cat was stalking these guys and got within 20 yards. Cat kill by stealth and surprise - regardless of whether they’re going to win the fight or eat on you.
Something to keep in mind...
Sheep aren’t that big.
Something to think about.
The more intelligent an animal, the more complex its thought processes. The more complex its thought processes, the more difficult it is to predict behavior.
A snail will always act like a snail. A gartersnake will always act like a gartersnake.
But mountain lions, wolves, and people are pretty high up there on the brain chain. Consequently it is harder to predict what they - and we - will do. Think about that the next time time you run into a Mountain Lion. Me, I’d rather have a rifle or pistol with me.
Prey and predators have been multiplying too fast on the Range. There aren’t enough Indians to hunt them these days. :-)
No trappers anymore.
bummer.
Be careful
OK, I'll confess, yes I've done all of those things (I love quail, but not the shot), its just not recent. And when you come right down to it, camping in a campground and hunting on managed fields AIN'T really the full monty. I haven't been in that area of the country so I'd rather say I'm a civie than claim any expertise.
When I think upon what you wrote and consider that any of these Big Cats has 8 claws that I know can do BAD things, it is not surprising that our ancestors gave out bounties on their hides.
It is one thing to see John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart on foot in some beautiful high country scenery and think how idyllic it was, it is another thing to realize how brave / foolish our pioneering ancestors were. It isn't and never has been 'stroll-in-the-park' safe out there and it is those observation habits you talk about that makes it sensible. Thanks for the insight.
Very expensive experience I'm sure. Us city dwellers have little insight into what causes nightmares for those who supply us with our food and clothing.
We have family friends who are ranchers adjacent to Yellowstone and we've heard from them the bitter stories of their fight against the re-introduction of wolves to that park. Trying to ID a specific predator from a mostly gone carcass isn't easy and without proof the Feds just say so sorry.
Dang Grammy,
You all be careful. Several months ago I received an email alert from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service asking anyone with cougar sightings to report these, in fact the USFWS put up a special page online for these reports, since they are receiving so many sightings.
The news release stated the USFWS (and most state wildlife agencies) still don’t believe there are cougars present in the southeastern U.S., except for perhaps some domesticated and released cats.
However, I thought it was odd they went to all that trouble and fanfare to ask folks to report sightings.A few years ago they just ignored them. A state wildlife biologist did find a track (and preserved it) in the Tullahoma/Sewannee area in middle Tennessee several years ago, and he was certain it was a large cat, not a bobcat.
Wayne and I heard a big cat in our woods once. I heard it first, then he said he also heard what was definitely a big cat. I am assuming mine was a bobcat, we have a lot of these on public lands and they are legal to hunt in this state.
On Tndeer.com they have a lot of discussion on this. There are several hunters, who spend a lot of time in large tracts of woods, that claim to have seen them. These are folks who know what a bobcat looks like, and most have harvested bobcats. Some even have trail camera shots that do appear to be big yellow cats.
Keep me informed about your visitor, and be cautious.
There is the another option, that often repeated saying of the 3 S's:
Shoot, Shovel and Shut up.
Cougar Sighting in the West Tennessee
https://www.uu.edu/forms/cougars/sightings.cfm
Mountain Lion Sightings In Northern Kentucky
http://www.cryptomundo.com/bigfoot-report/ky-cougar/
The Delaware Division of Fish & Wildlife ...has confirmed the presence of cougars in the state over a period of several years...
Evidence includes home video footage, pictures, tracks, scat and sightings by DNREC staff & law enforcement personnel.
http://www.easterncougarnet.org/delaware_cougar_confirmations.htm
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