Big Cat

[Caustic Burno]

We had a guy say one attacked him, a couple years ago around Union Grove, around the Guntersville Dam. Then everyone in the county joined in,saying they saw one. My grand daddy my uncle and myself coon hunted around the Guntersvilleville dam, all our lives and never treed one or never heard one. Never saw one.We hunted by boat,on foot,pop paw on a mule. Now we did tree several Bobcats down there. When you would shine the light on them they would get nervous and jump out. Dogs would take off and tree him again. Would go in and not shine the lights on the cat and get dogs and leave it up there. There are hundreds of acres up there and hundreds of all kinds of hunters, Deer, turkey, duck, rabbit, squirrel,and coon hunters. Now you would think someone would shoot one. If they were here.

Nailed it most people that see these cat's you could run them to death after dark in the woods with a flashlight and duck call. You would think a car would hit one of the many thousands seen. I live in the Big Thicket and have coon hunted it all my life we never treed one much less seen one. Cat hunting was our second choice bayed a lot of bobcats over the years, your right about getting one to stay treed.

 

[dun]

Now you would think someone would shoot one. If they were here.

Kind o flike Bigfoot

 

[highgrit]

You can't afford to shoot one it's a federal offense here in Ga. and Fl. If you run the woods at night and haven't heard one you probably don't have any. The ones I have seen didn't really pay me much attention. Had a big male climb the pinetree next to me while deer hunting in Fl. A few folks thaught I was crazy till I showed them the claw marks and a half eating 4pt. buck covered up with leaves and sand cypress.

 

[Beefy]

the one i saw here on the farm was a black one. now i wasnt close enough to tell you what species it was but i do know that it was larger than a labrador and that it twernt no Felis domestica. probably a once in a lifetime deal but i would love to see it again. the cows were on edge around that time period, and i have heard big cats since.

 

[ga.prime]

I'm reading a book written in 1933 set in the interior flatwoods of pre-Civil War Georgia in which the big cats are called "painters".

 

[Caustic Burno]

I'm reading a book written in 1933 set in the interior flatwoods of pre-Civil War Georgia in which the big cats are called "painters".

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wi ... ies/mlion/

 

[Caustic Burno]

The Mountain Lion is a large, slender cat with a smallish head and noticeably long tail. Its fur is a light, tawny brown color which can appear gray or almost black, depending on light conditions. Contrary to popular belief, there are no black panthers in North America; no one has ever captured or killed a black Mountain Lion. Mountain Lions are also called cougars, pumas, panthers, painters, and catamounts.

From the TPWD website.

 

[ga.prime]

Good info, CB.

 

[dun]

I found this interesting:


July 26, 2011
Written by
Stephen Dockery
The Associated Press


HARTFORD, Conn. — A mountain lion killed on a Connecticut highway last month had apparently walked halfway across the country from South Dakota, according to Connecticut environmental officials who said Tuesday that the journey of roughly 2,000 miles was one of the longest ever recorded for a land mammal.

The animal originated in the Black Hills region of South Dakota and was tracked by DNA from its hair and droppings as it passed through Minnesota and Wisconsin in 2009 and 2010, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Daniel Esty said at a news conference.
Biologists estimate the size of the mountain lion population at about 100,000 in North America, mostly living in western regions and seldom traveling more than 100 miles. It was the first confirmed wild mountain lion in Connecticut in more than 100 years.
"It is a testament to the adaptability of the species that it can travel so far from its original home in South Dakota to Connecticut," Esty said.
The lean, 140-pound male was killed June 11 when it was hit by a sport utility vehicle at night on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in the New Haven suburb of Milford.
Authorities initially believed it was a captive animal that escaped, but tests showed that it was not neutered or declawed and it had no implanted microchips, which are commonly used in domestic animals.
Tests also determined it was likely the same one that had been seen earlier in Greenwich, Conn. Government experts say no native mountain lions are believed to live in Connecticut.

 

[Gale Seddon]

I'm reading a book written in 1933 set in the interior flatwoods of pre-Civil War Georgia in which the big cats are called "painters".

ga.prime, may I ask the title? Sounds interesting!

 

[Isomade]

The Mountain Lion has the widest distribution of any wild cat, from Canada to South America. Formerly distributed throughout North America, the Mountain Lion is now found mostly in the remote areas of the western U.S., as well as western Canada and much of Mexico. A small population still exists in southern Florida, where the species is considered endangered.

In Texas, the Mountain Lion is found throughout the Trans-Pecos, as well as the brushlands of south Texas and portions of the Hill Country. Sighting and kill reports indicate that Mountain Lions now occur in more counties than they did 10 years ago and appear to be expanding their range into central Texas.

The above is from the website CB posted. Looks like they are expanding their territory.

 

[Dave]

the Mountain Lion is now found mostly in the remote areas of the western U.S

I am not too sure about that remote areas anymore. They caught one is a park in Seattle last year. They see them fairly regularly on the edge of Olympia. As in the suburbs. One of my co-workers had a big male cross the road in front of him a couple weeks ago in broad daylight. That was in a pretty well populated area.

Last year my son set up a game camera. It got a picture of a big cat. The date/time stamp on the picture showed that the cat was there 23 minutes after he set it up. You don't suppose that cat watched him set up the camera.

There is a trail I hike up daily while elk hunting along with about 12-15 other hunters. This year one of the guy was going back down the trail in the afternoon and found fresh cat tracks in the trail. The cats tracks were on top of the human foot prints made that morning. That does make a person wonder. I walk that trail in the dark going up in the morning and down in the evening.

Since they outlawed cat hunting with hounds we have been getting over ran with them. There is no problem finding cat tracks after a fresh snow. The deer population is beginning to show the results of this too.

 

[JSCATTLE]

Cb seems like about 25 or so years ago there was a guy around our area that had one in a cage on wheels .. kinda like the one lsu ' s mascot is in .. we saw it in silsbee at Gibson' s sporting goods.. my dad and I used to rabbit hunt at night a lot when I was little.. 7 years old or so .. we used to hear one around village creek. Off of 418 . But I've never seen one in the wild and ive been all over the national forest. Places you have to ride a horse to get to .. a few years ago my neighbor in newton county found a set of tracks out side his calf pen. We made a mold of it and it was bigger than my hand .. no claw marks. Never saw the animal that it belonged to ..

 

[Caustic Burno]

Cb seems like about 25 or so years ago there was a guy around our area that had one in a cage on wheels .. kinda like the one lsu ' s mascot is in .. we saw it in silsbee at Gibson' s sporting goods.. my dad and I used to rabbit hunt at night a lot when I was little.. 7 years old or so .. we used to hear one around village creek. Off of 418 . But I've never seen one in the wild and ive been all over the national forest. Places you have to ride a horse to get to .. a few years ago my neighbor in newton county found a set of tracks out side his calf pen. We made a mold of it and it was bigger than my hand .. no claw marks. Never saw the animal that it belonged to ..

I am not so naive to think there may not be a few cat's in the Big Thicket, they are not abundant with one behind every other tree. The black ones are like those talking M&M's they don't exsist. If there were as many cat's as sightings somebody would kill one or it would get hit by a car. Most of these cat's are seen by scared people that have seen to many scary movies.
Now it would not surprise me one bit to see a Siberian tiger or African Lion that one of these hillbillies bought and it got to big to feed and turned it out. Woods were full of emu's a few years back, they ain't good eating trust me on that one. But they can make you look for a tall pine to get up. The first one I ran into was in my bottom after dark made the a scarest noise I had ever heard in these wood's. I thought I was in Jurasic Park till I got a light on the critter.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Cb seems like about 25 or so years ago there was a guy around our area that had one in a cage on wheels .. kinda like the one lsu ' s mascot is in .. we saw it in silsbee at Gibson' s sporting goods.. my dad and I used to rabbit hunt at night a lot when I was little.. 7 years old or so .. we used to hear one around village creek. Off of 418 . But I've never seen one in the wild and ive been all over the national forest. Places you have to ride a horse to get to .. a few years ago my neighbor in newton county found a set of tracks out side his calf pen. We made a mold of it and it was bigger than my hand .. no claw marks. Never saw the animal that it belonged to ..

I am not so naive to think there may not be a few cat's in the Big Thicket, they are not abundant with one behind every other tree. The black ones are like those talking M&M's they don't exsist. If there were as many cat's as sightings somebody would kill one or it would get hit by a car. Most of these cat's are seen by scared people that have seen to many scary movies.
Now it would not surprise me one bit to see a Siberian tiger or African Lion that one of these hillbillies bought and it got to big to feed and turned it out. Woods were full of emu's a few years back, they ain't good eating trust me on that one. But they can make you look for a tall pine to get up. The first one I ran into was in my bottom after dark made the a scarest noise I had ever heard in these wood's. I thought I was in Jurasic Park till I got a light on the critter.

I heard one scream back in '79. Made the hair stick up on my back and there aint no hair there. Guess that is what is referred to as, "Making your skin crawl." I'll never forget it. Never saw that one - just had it screaming at me in the middle of the night. It was on the Brazos. All I had with me was a 22 LR. Didn't take me long to evacuate that area.

A few years back they captured one on video cams at the Glen Rose football field. Probably only about 5 miles from where I had heard that one way back when. Nay sayers can no longer say nay when you have them captured on video.

 

[HOSS]

I'm reading a book written in 1933 set in the interior flatwoods of pre-Civil War Georgia in which the big cats are called "painters".

ga.prime, my grandfather killed one here in Tennessee back in the late 1920's. The local doctor saw it at dusk in a big tree while making his rounds via horse and buggy. It had his horses all worked up. He stopped at the next house which happened to be my grandfathers to calm the horses. My grandfather, who was a late teen then, took his gun and a miners lamp down the road and the cat was still in the tree so he shot it. He also called it a "painter". He said they were around but fairly rare back then. He said it was a big cat. He carried it home with the hind legs over his shoulder and the head would scrape the ground and he was 6' 2" or so. He took it to town the next morning and it was the talk of the town for awhile. He said it was also a tawny tan color.

Back when I was a younker my Grandmother tamed a big bobcat. Well it was young when she got it but grew big. My grandfather found it in the woods while squirrel hunting. He brought it home and she bottle fed it. It grew very large for a bobcat and stayed out in the woods but would come up to the back of the garden and wait on her to bring it table scraps every evening. She would never let us get near it and we had to watch from the porch. She figured keeping it fed was better than it eating her chickens. It would brush up next to her but avoided anybody else. It just dissapeared one day after it was a few years old and never came back.

 

[Gale Seddon]

Woods were full of emu's a few years back, they ain't good eating trust me on that one.

Oh my, this gave me a good laugh, thanks Caustic! :lol:

 

[cow pollinater]

Deep pit is the only way to cook emu... it's outstanding that way. :nod:

Dave, you're likely getting the leftovers from California's ban on killing lions about ten years ago. They won't ever over-populate an area, instead they keep pushing the youngsters out into newer, unpopulated territory. The result is problem animals that don't belong in that area while a booming population covers their natural habitat.

 

[Alan]

Deep pit is the only way to cook emu... it's outstanding that way. :nod:

Dave, you're likely getting the leftovers from California's ban on killing lions about ten years ago. They won't ever over-populate an area, instead they keep pushing the youngsters out into newer, unpopulated territory. The result is problem animals that don't belong in that area while a booming population covers their natural habitat.

I think in our area of the northwest it has little to do with cats from no. Cal. There may be some cats drifting up but not enough to come close to the effect we are having. Dave is 100% right, Oregon and Washington elected to ban using dogs to hunt cougar a few, or many now, years ago and since then the sightings and problems with cats have gone insane. While I have never had a problem with them (knock on wood) in the last ten years or so I have seen two cats and heard one scream...... Late night walking up from the barn without a dog or gun, I'll never forget that, you hear it you'll always remember it.

Alan

 

[dun]

Deep pit is the only way to cook emu... it's outstanding that way. :nod:

Dave, you're likely getting the leftovers from California's ban on killing lions about ten years ago. They won't ever over-populate an area, instead they keep pushing the youngsters out into newer, unpopulated territory. The result is problem animals that don't belong in that area while a booming population covers their natural habitat.

I think in our area of the northwest it has little to do with cats from no. Cal. There may be some cats drifting up but not enough to come close to the effect we are having. Dave is 100% right, Oregon and Washington elected to ban using dogs to hunt cougar a few, or many now, years ago and since then the sightings and problems with cats have gone insane. While I have never had a problem with them (knock on wood) in the last ten years or so I have seen two cats and heard one scream...... Late night walking up from the barn without a dog or gun, I'll never forget that, you hear it you'll always remember it.

Alan

It was longer ago then 10 years ago that they banned hunting them in califironia. We went from healthy deer herds on the ranches we hunted to hardly any deer and lots of cats to no deer and no cats because there wasn;t enough to eat. Moved to MO before they could get things balanced out, but I shot a lot of cats on some of those ranches the last couple of years I hunted them. They had by then started working over the calves pretty well.