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 ...
Back in 78-79, I was in the coastal mountains in Santa Cruz and was headed up into a canyon where I used to practice with my black powder .44 revolver. A big cat jumped down onto the trail about 15-20 feet in front of me and sat there in a crouch looking me up and down.
I stood bone still wondering if I could skin leather in time if it attacked (the revolver was loaded and holstered). Fortunately, I did not have to find out. The cat leaped off the downhill side of trail and disappeared after about a minute stare down. Back then no one would believe that I actually saw one.
I was in high school at the time and hiked in that area all the time. I had seen plenty of tracks that I identified as mountain lion, but was told by all types of "experts" (including my biology teacher) that there simply were no mountain lions left in the Santa Cruz mountains.
That animal scared the hell out of me and I have no doubt he could have taken me out in a single leap. I would have had no chance to get my gun out of its holster in time.
Naughty-kitty ping
I work at night in the Santa Cruz Mountains. In three years I have had three mountain lion sightings. The other day we had some sheriffs up there who had a daytime sighting of two mountain lions together resting in the shade. It was surprising to hear of a daytime sighting like that. On another occasion there is an area I walk through at night and I used to make animal-like loud growlings until one night something cat-like growled back at me from behind a fenced-off area—and I have not done that since. I used to do this with the notion in mind of intimidating just this particular type of animal.
I’m up there unarmed, and generally not been cowed by the prospect of mountain lions. A few weeks ago someone at work got an amazing daytime picture of a mountain lion resting in the shade with a camera with a telescopic lense.
There are some people at the local university that want to tag and track these animals behavior—of which I am resistant to the idea. As they are such damnable fools, and don’t want them annoying our lions. These animals don’t like being seen. I saw one at dusk once skulking in an area where some people across the way and myself could see her. She skulked off in a manner that suggested to me she did not like the scrutiny at all of being seen when it was still daylight by people at a distance.
The line of discussion on this thread is getting me to look at the situation with a weary, and paranoid outlook. Not that there is anything wrong with paranoia, it being the contrary of complacency. Maybe I ought to take some extra measures of precaution. Hmm...
Thanks for the links. I will send it to the people who are involved in the discussion. One of those people was on his way into Nashville last week and had a really good look at a bobcat sitting on a hill close by.
... Wow. You growled in an attempt to scare off one of the big cats?
That’s a REALLY dumb idea. They think that’s a challenge to fight from another cat.
The good news: We’re bigger than they are.
The bad news: They’re faster and almost as smart. And they remember how to play the “Man, The Hunted” game; most of us have forgotten that one...
Last year a mountain lion screamed at me as I walked out of my house. I nearly soiled myself. Nastiest sound I've ever heard.
Not me in pic - from http://sandusky.comicgenesis.com/artist.html
reminds me of when Kim on 24 was accosted by a mountain lion. I remember yelling “GO MOUNTAIN LION!!”
“Wow. You growled in an attempt to scare off one of the big cats?
That’s a REALLY dumb idea. They think that’s a challenge to fight from another cat.”
Actually, what I do is honk the horn on the truck, turn the music on the radio as loud as I can to try to intimidate
the cats in the area. When I would go through this area I would make loud roaring sounds as loudly and savagely as I could. And then one night I got the distinctively cat-like, freaky, growl or roar from behind a fenced-off area. The cat was not visible to me, and I was not accessible to her. Although with a little change of locations on both our parts it could have been a different configuration much less favorable.
It was a damned memorable roar or growl though. It sent chills up my spine.
A growl is a challenge to fight from another cat? Is it now?
I thought it was better than being meekly and quietly passive.
What is really dumb is I have an apartment full of guns and am up there at night unarmed. Sometimes I think in terms of fighting them off with the metal rod I use to kill rattlesnakes if need be. Hell, what do I know, I am a purposefully displaced urbanite.
Well, generally it’s a bad idea to imitate another cat, as that might set off the “oh, you think this is YOUR territory???” reaction. Making lots of noise, good. Making noises like big cat (except with a friendly one), not good.
“For me, a total urbanite, it seems to be strange behavior in that the lion killed far beyond what one would think for hunger needs.”
Such killing is called a “killing frenzy”
Animal rights whackos, predator apologists, and bureau-scientists depending on Endangered Species Act related funding all want to substitute the innocuous sounding “surplus kill” for the historic “killing frenzy”.
The recent attack, fittingly enough, was on a hiking trail on the road up the mountain behind Boulder, CO.
Dad was hiking with his little boy, along with several adults when Kitty decided to yank Junior out of Dad’s hand. Kitty’s meal was disrupted when the others rushed to the boy’s defense.
However, it was Boulder, and thus they were all unarmed. Fortunately, Kitty bluffed. Otherwise, it would have had food for the rest of the season.
Liberals, the new yellow meat.
“Bummer” h*ll!
Leave some anti-freeze out and the problem will be solved.
Since the cat belongs to the state, afterwards, make ‘the bureaucratic bachelors children replace the antifreeze their pampered panther stole.
;-)
Is that your place Spktyr? That’s a creepy picture - he looks hungry.
“It isn’t and never has been ‘stroll-in-the-park’ safe out there - - “
Sorry, but that simply is not true. For much of America’s history, beasts knew that man was the pinnacle predator.
“When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen” - once true in America but not since the advent of enviro-socialism in the guise of the Endangered Species Act.
Lady walking her dog was attacked by a bobcat in Tallahassee today. I think she's going to be ok, bobcat was euthanized.
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