Do you have them in your area? We allegedly don't have them in Maine but a couple weeks ago a bear hunter lost his beagles and all the signs point to a big cat. There's been sightings of them over the past few years but none confirmed. I watched an animal planet special on them last week and was just curious about them I guess. Do they ever bother your stock? Ever see them?
Cougars/Pumas/Mountain Lions
- Thread starter LoveMoo11
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A trail cam about 10 miles form here had one showup. People claim they
re around here but have never seen or heard on here. In CA there is a real problem with them, but they're protected there. After all, they;re just big over grown house pets.
re around here but have never seen or heard on here. In CA there is a real problem with them, but they're protected there. After all, they;re just big over grown house pets.
ga. prime
Well-known member
Lot of black panther sightings around here. Never saw one myself.
Lots around here also, a few years ago the state of Oregon banned the use of dogs to hunt them, since then their population has exploded. Don't hear to much about taken livestock if they are a problem they usually take pets, dog, cats. The ones that cause the problems are usually young cats that got run out of a territory looking for a new one or old cats that don't hunt so well any more. We have reported sightings around us once or twice a year...who knows if there true or not? I'm pretty sure I heard one about 9 years ago ??? and have seen one in the wild once many years ago.
Alan
Alan
Watertondifter
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My friend had a couple of them living under her house for a while. She started missing her barn cats and then found out why. Fish and feathers trapped them and relocated. Her father also shot one that had followed her to a grain shed 4 or 5 years ago, she was lucky. The couger was about 30 feet from her when it was shot and it was stocking. :cowboy:
ga. prime
Well-known member
You must live nearby. Same thing going on here.Watertondifter":3ib6mnkx said:
Calman
Well-known member
Saw a cougar about 3 yrs ago,and buddy got one on trail cam.I've seen several tracks along the creek.
Have been told by the game warden what with little pigs on their menu and the expanding population of hogs there has been more sightings lately. But have not heard or seen the evidence of them bothering farm animals. Mostly deer and pigs.
My concern is the fact that the hogs have gotten more aggressive. I was charged by a bore last spring,at about 10am. I don't leave my truck while in the fields without my handgun.Just makes sense,you can't out run one of those long legged wild hogs.
Cal
Have been told by the game warden what with little pigs on their menu and the expanding population of hogs there has been more sightings lately. But have not heard or seen the evidence of them bothering farm animals. Mostly deer and pigs.
My concern is the fact that the hogs have gotten more aggressive. I was charged by a bore last spring,at about 10am. I don't leave my truck while in the fields without my handgun.Just makes sense,you can't out run one of those long legged wild hogs.
Cal
novaman
Well-known member
We've got mountain lions around here. There was no such problems maybe 5 years ago but they blew onto the scene. Some locals are speculationg that Game & Fish brought some in to control deer populations. It has become a headache. Lots of people with horses being attacked. Haven't heard much in the way of cattle being attacked. Had a local sportsman doing some scouting around the area and he found several deer less than a mile from the yard that had been killed and eaten by what he suspects were mountain lions. This same guy also claims there are a couple wolf packs living in the area. Man I hate the thought of these critters being in my backyard.
Jogeephus
Well-known member
We have a few florida panthers in our area. Old folks call them catamounts.
MO_cows
Well-known member
There aren't supposed to be any around here, but a couple years ago a lady hit one with her car on I-35 well inside city limits. She had a heck of a time convincing the authorities she had hit a cougar at first but she must have been persistant so they searched and found it nearby badly wounded and put it down. They were supposed to DNA test it and see if it was South American, in which case it was likely an escaped "pet", or North American. They never published any results that I saw but I "heard" it was North American. There are a lot of deer hit in that same area so it could have gotten by pretty well, hunting deer in the patches of undeveloped woodlands between the developed tracts.
TexasBred
Well-known member
Jogeephus":1h23tf9j said:
Saw what appeared to be a couple or three black panthers in Waco the other day. They didn't appear to be on the prowl...just standing around holding their crotch. :lol2: :lol2:
jedstivers
Well-known member
That's a sub- species that is on the protected list by the US Gov. They have even been seen standing around polling places during elections holding their nightsticks.TexasBred":2aytsmea said:
Angus Cowman
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I think they call them their magic wands not their nightsticksjedstivers":giya5r4x said:
hayray
Well-known member
For as long as I remember people say they see them in our state but no bear or bobcat hunters have ever treed a single cat with their hounds. Then this fall a picture was confirmed of a cougar on a trail cam in the Upper Penninsula, most likely a dispersing cat from out West since the last confirmed catamount in Michigan was taken in 1939 in the Huron Mountains. A young radio collared male from the Black Hills was found in Minnesota, another dispersing male was found in downtown Chicago a couple years ago. We even had a Michigan wolf that after a 700 mile road trip was shot in Missouri being mistaken for a coyote, so strange things do happen. But most sightings of big cats are nothing more then someone seeing a house cat at 300 yards away.
Caustic Burno
Well-known member
Every year here a pile of deer hunters see them but dang none can ever get a shot at one. They can hit a possum at three hundred yards with a cannon they just all lock up on the cats. All you have to do is start telling them some tales of the Big thicket, you could run ever one of them back to Houston after dark with a flashlight and a duck call.
I saw a calico one that weighed about fifteen pounds up by the barn.
I saw a calico one that weighed about fifteen pounds up by the barn.
backhoeboogie
Well-known member
In '79, on the Brazos, we heard one scream. There were four of us coon hunting. No one else believed it when we told them. We were in very close proximity to the cat. Never saw it. The scream will send chills all through you.
A few years back a video cam was set up at Glen Rose HS football field for surveilance. They got one on video which went all the way to national news on some public television show. No one can argue with pictures. The long tail is absolute. This is much larger than a large bobcat and has a huge tail - maybe 2 foot long.
Here is a link to the story for the non believers. http://www.topix.com/forum/city/glen-ro ... 9#comments
A few years back a video cam was set up at Glen Rose HS football field for surveilance. They got one on video which went all the way to national news on some public television show. No one can argue with pictures. The long tail is absolute. This is much larger than a large bobcat and has a huge tail - maybe 2 foot long.
Here is a link to the story for the non believers. http://www.topix.com/forum/city/glen-ro ... 9#comments
Red Bull Breeder
Well-known member
Most exciting kitty cat story we have had around here is when a Bengal Tiger got loose and roamed the country for about a week.
Kingfisher
Well-known member
Yes we have them here. I have never seen one. I have seen lots of " cat" tracks. I have picked up " scat" and even had some analyzed once. I had a customer who was a biology teacher at Austin Community College and she told me that without a doubt it was from a " Big Cat" They were real exited about the opportunity to compare it to known Bobcat scat. What ever it was had a big butth. 
The tracks are pretty obvious. I sure wish I had plaster cast them. Thanks for your post.
The tracks are pretty obvious. I sure wish I had plaster cast them. Thanks for your post.Dave
Well-known member
We have no shortage of them here. About 15 years ago they outlawed hunting them with hounds and since then the population has exploded. My son got a picture of one this fall with a trail camera at an elk wallow. The timer showed that the cat was there 15 minutes after he was there. You don't suppose that cat was watching him, do you?
some of these stories give me the heebie jeebies!
