Cougar sighting

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Predators are everywhere. Bryant Park, behind the famous 5th Ave library in Manhattan, had a rat problem.

They use that park for fashion shows and other social events, so the rats had to go. Poison couldn’t be used because of all the dog walkers there, so they hired a falconer.

Worked well until a raptor decided a chihuahua looked like a meal. Luckily, they were able to save it.

Was watching my granddaughter play T-ball some years back when a red shouldered hawk caught a squirrel and landed with it on top of the tall baseball backstop. He started to tear apart the poor, still living, thing there while the kids watched.

Their screams were deafening.
 
Was watching my granddaughter play T-ball some years back when a red shouldered hawk caught a squirrel and landed with it on top of the tall baseball backstop. He started to tear apart the poor, still living, thing there while the kids watched.

Their screams were deafening.

I don't know why, but the mental image of that scene playing out really has me laughing!
 
...Or moose. They maintained for years that the drastic decline in the moose population in northeast MN was due to - global warming...

Then, around 2012, they finally got around to doing a GPS collar survey of moose calves and they found out the same thing that every hunter in that part of the state already knew. Wolves were killing a large percentage of moose calves with black bears killing another big chunk. Gee, who knew... If you have a very low calf survival rate will the overall population drop? Well, it appears so. But I'm sure global warming still figures in there somewhere...

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/moose/calf.html
The global warming thing plays out pretty much on political lines.
In my view the decline in deer, elk, moose and other game spieces decline a lot when the predator population increases.
 
Hawks, had them in TX. I open my garage door and see two doves flying across it at about 4 feet off the ground. In back of them is a hawk, hauling butt. It catches up to one and goes straight up into the sky like a fighter, leaving a burst of feathers. The other dove keeps on trucking.

It explained to me why on other days, I found piles of feathers around the yard.
 
Predators are everywhere. Bryant Park, behind the famous 5th Ave library in Manhattan, had a rat problem.

They use that park for fashion shows and other social events, so the rats had to go. Poison couldn’t be used because of all the dog walkers there, so they hired a falconer.

Worked well until a raptor decided a chihuahua looked like a meal. Luckily, they were able to save it.

Was watching my granddaughter play T-ball some years back when a red shouldered hawk caught a squirrel and landed with it on top of the tall baseball backstop. He started to tear apart the poor, still living, thing there while the kids watched.

Their screams were deafening.
There are hawks in NYC that nest on the tall buildings and swoop to take pigeons while in flight; quite a spectacle to watch
 
Not only lots of mountain lions here in NM, there have been jaguar sights in southern NM.

A hunting guide once told me they have found dead mountain lions on the horns of Oryx in NM, apparently in Africa lions there attack from the front/throat and have been killed by Oryx. North American mountain lions attack from the back where the Oryx just throw their heads back and spear them with their long horns.
 
Same for Texas. Why the denial? I don’t get it.

Up until just a couple of years ago the Texas Parks and Wildlife said the same thing. No cougars.

And they remained unconvinced for decades despite fact that someone would shoot one about every other year or so, plus all the trail cam pics and photos.

Don't know why that is
Their answer is almost always " You were just mistaken. You only saw a bobcat "
Well the hunters I know spend a lot of time out in the woods as opposed to many that depend on game cameras and sitting in a truck, so I know we see what we see and not what somebody thinks we see.
I've heard pretty much the same thing about different animals and birds that
people have seen or harvested. The black bears finally made it in here, and despite a neighbor having one on his game cam I still hear the same thing. " You probably saw a big black feral hog "
 
Up until just a couple of years ago the Texas Parks and Wildlife said the same thing. No cougars.
That doesn't sound right at all. Here's some TPWD material published in 2008 (13 years ago) with a good deal of information about cougar activity in TX during the period from 1983 through 2005. They record 67 killed in TX during that timeframe which doesn't seem at all the same as denying that they are present in the state.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_br_w7000_0232.pdf

Here's more TPWD information showing a statewide map with confirmed sightings from 2009 to 2019. Note that one county has over 100 confirmed sightings during that 10 year period.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/nuisance/mountain_lion/
 
Earlier this year one got hit by a train and got cut in half about thirty miles north of our house up in Bow Washington.

View attachment 943503

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I’ve been seeing that photo on various social media sites for at least 5 years. I couldn’t find anything about it in the news for “Bow Washington” train hits Mt lion. I did find an article about train hitting a Mt lion in Oklahoma but it wasn’t that photo.

I can’t say for sure but it looks photo shopped.
 
That doesn't sound right at all. Here's some TPWD material published in 2008 (13 years ago) with a good deal of information about cougar activity in TX during the period from 1983 through 2005. They record 67 killed in TX during that timeframe which doesn't seem at all the same as denying that they are present in the state.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_br_w7000_0232.pdf

Here's more TPWD information showing a statewide map with confirmed sightings from 2009 to 2019. Note that one county has over 100 confirmed sightings during that 10 year period.
https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/nuisance/mountain_lion/

I spotted a Mt Lion in Northwest Texas in 2008 with a Texas State Trooper and game manager on a big ranch. They were fully aware of Mt Lions in that part of the state.
 
Just wanted to add the first time I /really/ got that the big cats are everywhere, and super sneaky: Hiking with a group (long ago) in the Paria river canyon (UT / AZ border), deep in it where there's no easy way out, I had to go up our backtrail to see if I can find something that got left behind at the last rest stop.

Within a hundred yards of us, find cougar prints. Looking at the tracks (river canyon, lots of wet dirt, sand) it was apparently following us, then went up a side canyon I pointedly did not go down myself. Kept an eye out the next few days and in a hallway of rock with essentially no plants: nothing. Never saw a hint of anything. Sneaky as they want to be.
 
I spotted a Mt Lion in Northwest Texas in 2008 with a Texas State Trooper and game manager on a big ranch. They were fully aware of Mt Lions in that part of the state.

I agree. I grew up in Throckmorton County and own land in Haskell. In 1982, my brother-in-law and I were building fence ten miles south of Throckmorton and saw one about three hundred yards away. He was sitting on a hill just watching us. Pretty cool. In 1984, we found very, very fresh tracks of one near of the Wichita River bridge on FM 369 in Wichita County. On Christmas Day in 2007 we found another set just south of Dorchester in Grayson County. However, that is my total experience with the big cats.
 
Same for Texas. Why the denial? I don’t get it.

Up until just a couple of years ago the Texas Parks and Wildlife said the same thing. No cougars.

And they remained unconvinced for decades despite fact that someone would shoot one about every other year or so, plus all the trail cam pics and photos.

It is strange. I showed cougar tracks that we found in Wichita County to Game Warden Butch Shoops. That was in 1984.
 
Same for Texas. Why the denial? I don’t get it.
I was pretty surprised to hear one scream behind me just before dawn while sitting in a ground blind in Bandera County, Texas in the mid 80's. That thing couldn't have been more than 15 yards away. Nothing like a cougar scream near your ear to break the monotony when you are alone out there in the dark.
 
Alamosa Colorado is a small rural community in the San Luis Valley. South central CO, ~30 mi. north of the NM border. The hiking trails around the Rio Grande levees have lion warning signs posted.
Last week a lion treed in town, right next to a preschool playground. It was euthanized.

The city is annually invaded by Mule deer that have the run of the place, destroying landscaping and interacting with vehicular traffic. Amazingly, the tree huggers have not settled on an answer to the problem. Golly gee whiz, Batman, I wonder what that that lion was doing in town?

-jb, smh at "the deer are sooo cute"
 
According to AGFC we have no cougars in Arkansas. I guess the picture of a cat with a looong tail on a neighboring farm's trail camera was something else. Sure, it may have been a 100 pound house cat.

That's funny. AGFC actually does say they are in Arkansas.
https://www.agfc.com/en/news/2018/05/27/agfc-confirms-mountain-lion-sighting-near-mammoth-spring/
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/feb/04/cougar-comeback-will-aid-ecosystem-2018/

Myth Busted.

They say here in Florida there are NO cougars outside of the Everglades; yet they get hit all the time up here in North Florida..............

They DO occur outside of the Everglades according to FWC...
https://public.myfwc.com/hsc/panthersightings/Home/Locations

Myth Busted

DNR has denied them being here and claimed they were something else. A few have been shot, several on game camera's and last week one got hit on a major freeway in the metro area, and caught on camera. Yup they are here along with Black Bear wolves and coyotes all over.

Minnesota DNR says they are in Minnesota.
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mammals/cougar/index.html

Here is an article from 2010, saying they are rare ... https://www.mprnews.org/story/2010/11/12/mountain-lions
2007...https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/2367901-picture-proves-mountain-lions-prowl-northland
2002... https://www.cougarnet.org/sites/ori... threat to public, Bloomington police say.htm

Myth Busted.
 
10 Years ago son and I were down on the lower 10 of our Shingle Springs ranch. We were searching for property marks in thick scotch broom bushes. Cougar screamed about 10 feet behind us, Pulled son behind me and was preparing to bop it on the head with my Brunton Compass on staff . Decided to bang it loudly on my metal clipboard and cougar took off. Never went down there unarmed again. Son didn't know what happened till i told him years later. About a week later Friend up in Georgetown said he killed one that was stalking him on his ranch. Said he shot it 10 times+ with his 20 gauge BPS. Warden signed off and legal kill.
 
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