Cougar/Puma in Smith County, Texas

[Blackfork]

Tracks in the creek clay bank yesterday when I went to swap deercam cards. No nail marks. Biggish. Several clear prints. Not Bobcats, not dogs, not coyote. One of the lake owners said he heard one scream three times one evening behind the house just before New Years. He said all the dogs and coyotes went off after the third scream. Sounded like a woman.

I was convinced we had one around last year when I had deer on cams start showing up with cuts and marks. Plus the deer were extra-skittish. You would jump a deer and they would run for a mile, wouldn't stop for a last look going into a treeline, et.

There is plenty of cover and game. We don't have any rock ledges so their aren't good denning sites, though the trees have gotten big enough to hold a den, probably.

 

[LeonCarr]

When a cougar/puma/mountain lion/jaguar/panther/whatever the locals call it is spotted, the first thing you should do is call your local Game Warden, and see if there is anybody in the area with dogs trained to hunt the big cats(dogs trained to hunt big cats are more prevalent out west, but you hear of a few all over the country), and get them to the area were the cat was spotted immediately. Big cats can cover large amounts of territory, and travel up to 300 miles from where they were born, compared to 4 miles for the average Whitetail Deer. The faster you can get dogs on the big cat, the sooner you can catch it and stop it from killing wildlife and livestock.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[MCgunner]

I've seen tracks on a day lease in Jackson county and a friend SAW a mountain lion not far from me and another was spotted at Aransas NWR. So, they are around, but hard to find without dogs. I'm bettin' there's more of 'em out there than most folks would realize. Heck, there's TONS of bobcat around and I don't often lay eyes on one. Cats are pretty stealthy.

 

[Art Eatman]

Tracks? Somebody say, "Tracks?"

The tire marks are about six inches wide. The roadway is a creek-crossing road, from my old house on across to the north. The lion came on across the creek, checked out my trash burn-pit and wandered on home to the mountain a half-mile south.

 

[skinewmexico]

We've even had some recent sightings of mountain lions here in the cotton fields of West Texas, go figure.

 

[john paul]

i heard one screaming about three months ago while i was sitting on my front porch. haven't seen one in a while but they are definitely out there. i saw one once in kingwood (upscale yuppie suburb of houston). but tjen again you see a lot of wildlife out there!

 

[Titan6]

Blackfork- Actually I saw one last May in the middle of the day. He was crossing the highway between Tyler and Whitehouse on a calm Saturday afternoon and snuck in behind the Army Reserve Center near Pleasent Hill Court at a high rate of speed. I would say 100-120 pounds... little bigger than a large dog but super quick. This was less than 500 feet from my house in Texas and less than a mile from town.

Must say we were in a total state of shock. I almost called Tiger Creek to find out if they were missing anything. I think the construction there South of town has driven out the remaining wildlife that was sheltering in those woods. Once the bypass comes in and the development moves fruther South, most of Smith County will become suburban wasteland.

 

[retrieverman]

Last spring, there were three deer killed on my neighbors place here in Nacogdoches county that a biologist confirmed were done by a "big cat", and in 2000, a friend and I were spotlighting for hogs in Rusk county and saw one. It was the most beautiful and graceful animal I have ever seen.

My first sighting was in LaSalle county twenty years ago.

 

[LeonCarr]

It is amazing how you can live literally next door to a big cat and never see one, and when you do see on it is totally unexpected.

A good buddy of mine has lived on the same farm in West Texas for over 40 years, and has seen a mountain lion one time. The big cat was running across the road in front of his truck on a Saturday night when he and his wife were driving to town for dinner .

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[austin360]

We had a black one on our property in Brownsboro, Henderson County...