Red Bull Breeder":34qd8fx0 said:
When a cougar is seen around here it is often moving threw and may hang out for a while. There has been a few more sightings in the last few years. CB your TPWD man wouldn't tell you if he had seen a dozen. I know how they operate cause I work around the ones in Arkansas a lot. Getting information out of them is like pulling teeth unless it is some thing they want you to know.
Mine would and have had long talks about the biodiversity of the area.
We discussed deer predication in depth last month when he was at the house.
My State Rep, Biologist and I have been in discussions and meetings for the last couple of months
about game management. Even ask if I would consider a Commissioner job on the board if he appointed me
I declined.
He would not tell me the county or location in the counties he covers as he can't.
I have seen pictures of the tracks of a verified sighting.
Verified sighting or evidence is extremely rare.
Are there cats that come through from time to time of coarse there are the Thicket is to big not
to support a small population.
These cats in this area have a huge feeding territory.
The hilarious part is 99 out of a 100 hillbillies in these woods have seen one and most are black panthers.
There has never been a verified kill or capture of a black variation of a mountain lion.
The pine plantations actually make it more difficult for the cats preferred hunting method.
"Although the mountain lion may have more names and nicknames than any other animal, the following are not names for lions and represent completely different species: bobcat, lynx, ocelot, jaguar, leopard, cheetah, Asiatic lion, African lion, and tiger. Many people have heard the term "black panther," but these are actually melanistic jaguars or leopards: a genetic trait that makes an individual cat's fur appear much darker than the usual coloration.
To date there has never been a confirmed case of a melanistic (black) mountain lion.
HOW MANY MOUNTAIN LIONS ARE THERE?
The solitary and elusive nature of mountain lions makes them difficult to research and practically impossible to count. Population estimation models are based on numerous long-term studies of lion populations, their prey, and habitat mapping. Based on the best available data at this time, the Mountain Lion Foundation believes the mountain lion population in the United States is unlikely to exceed 30,000.
And, many of those lions depend upon severely fragmented and degraded habitat, are in severe danger of over-hunting and road kill, are imperiled by intolerance of their presence on the landscape, and are so few and unconnected they are on the edge of genetic viability. People are responsible for the death of more than 3,000 mountain lions in the U.S. each and every year. "
http://mountainlion.org/publications/Te ... rkshop.pdf
