Living with mountain lions creates tension...

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dracphelan

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13857057/

EVERGREEN, Colo. - Carrie Ann Warner has repeatedly called authorities about the stalker that has peered into her son’s bedroom window at night, killed the family cat and even chased the family into their home in the wooded hills west of Denver.

The mountain lion has eluded wildlife officers perched on the porch with shotguns, traps baited with roadkill and even a motion-detection camera fastened to a pine tree.

“We’re living in this vale of fear,” said Carrie Ann Warner, whose family has built a steel enclosure around their back porch. “I’ve reached my wit’s end. I don’t know what to do.”
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Maybe someone native to Colorado can answer this for me. Why don't these people just shoot the cat, if it is being such a threat? :cuss:
 
"Maybe someone native to Colorado can answer this for me. Why don't these people just shoot the cat, if it is being such a threat?"

Tell me this, why dont they NOT move to places, where they are at! After all, its probably us driving them out of there habitat, *** do these people expect. There were there long before we were, I'm sure!
 
QUOTE:
Tracey English no longer allows her teenage son to jog by himself in a nearby open space and her dog stays inside unless it’s being walked on a leash. Last month a mountain lion was captured in a trap in her backyard.

“I don’t feel like we’re living in a natural wilderness. Nothing about it is natural,” English said. “I believe the lions need to be managed.”




Now that's funny!!!!!!:D
 
I agree that shooting the mountain lion shouldn't be the first response. But, do something to scare it away at the least. Don't turn your home into a fortress out of fear of an animal (this goes for the 2 legged variety also). Do something to make it stay away. If it returns and is causing damage or is threatening people, put it down. Animals need to maintain their fear of man.
 
I think that shooting the mountain lion is an entirely appropriate response.

Here's why.

We have them here, all over, yet they're almost invisible. I spoke with a State Park Ranger who said that, in 20 years on the job, he's seen plenty of sign and tracks, but he's NEVER seen a lion in the wild. They really are that elusive.

Our state banned hunting of lions, and deadly attacks have gone WAY up. The deadly attacks are probably perpetrated by only a few lions -- a tiny percentage of their total population. The ones that let you get close enough to shoot them are the the lions that pose a threat to humans. Lion tags were very expensive, and all the money went towards conservation.

So, if you do allow hunters to shoot a few, you're automatically shooting the ones that pose a threat, and you're collecting cash to save the rest, as well as other wildlife.

Basically, if you see the lion, it's lost its fear of the human scent. That lion WILL eventually be shot. Better to do it before it kills a human.

See, life in the wild is not Bambi. Life and death are everyday occurrences in the wilderness. Conservation is not best done by pretending nature is static; it's not.

I'm not by any means advocating going out and slaughtering mountain lions! That's not the point.
 
Good post, ArmedBear. You summed up my thoughts on the issue nicely. If you're not taking acting measures to find a cougar, and see it close, then it's a cougar that isn't doing what healthy cougars do.

In all my years of hunting throughout their range here in TX, I've NEVER seen one. Once while backpacking in the high country of northern NM near Cimarron, I stopped to look down into a valley with some deer grazing in it, and I thought that a buff-colored shape working around the edge of the clearing might be a cougar stalking, but it was getting toward dusk, and I was young (15), and I never got to confirm it. I've seen lots of fresh spoor, but no cougars in the wild.
 
You people who say "just shoot it" never lived around mountain lions. They see you, you dont see them.

I lived in a deer migration path for years, had MANY dead deer stashed 200 yds from the house in the willows, and only saw a cat once, a long way off and moving low and fast through the sagebrush.

A good dog is the best defense aganst cats.
 
You people who say "just shoot it" never lived around mountain lions. They see you, you dont see them.
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Uh. That is the point. They did see this mountain lion, and it chased them, which, as ArmedBear points out, means that something is wrong.
 
It does amaze me that people yearn to live in the wilderness then are surprised when they are surrounded by wildlife. But Mr. kitty peering into the children’s window is a bit over the top no matter who's territory you are living in. das028, you live in black bear country, what happens when a black bear gets into some ones back yard in MD? I think I've seen the news clips before. Swat teams, helicopters, screaming women, armed men running around franticly ETC ETC.:D :D

I've got a big tom that runs the wash behind my house. He killed a fork horned deer this spring not 300 yards from my back door. I found the kill very nicely covered with a signature broken neck at the C-2 C-3 junction. The winter before he killed a nice deer not 20 feet from the same spot. It is a nice little shelf that rises over some oak brush. A perfect cat ambush.

Three winters ago he killed my neighbors Aussi puppy. I had a couple of weeks where I went to see if I could "find" him for scientific purposes. The problem was that we live in a semi rural area. Lots of 10-60 acre tracts with more and more thunder yuppies moving in every day. So I really couldn't go "find" him the way one needs to "find" a cat when effectively "looking" for one.

I can promise you this if that had been back home in NM I would have had a pack of Plot redbone crosses on the track within 1 hour and we'd have had Mr. Kitty up a tree by early morning.

But could you imagine what the reaction from the "I just moved here from U NAME IT BIG CITY" and I think hunting, especially with those evil demon hounds, is worse than pedophilia crowd.

Do I worry about my kids when they are out back in the wash playing. Not really, as they are always accompanied by at least two and usually three dogs. One big old red heeler/ aussie cross bitch (and I do mean a BITCH.) She bites me if I am getting too rough with the kids in her opinion. :D One tri colored collie and sometimes one of my German hunting terriers. For those of you who don't know there isn't a cat on the planet that'll fight a pair of good dogs for very long before they take "The High Road." I am just waiting for the day when here them bay up and find a tawny surprise up a tree.

I just hope I don't get a ticket for unlawfully baiting a big game animal. :evil:

PS

This bruiser of a tom was young healthy and inn his prime. He also decided that dogs were better food than deer. I started him off of a partially eaten golden reviver carcass under a back porch. He is the biggest cat I've ever killed. 7' 10" and just under 170lbs. Can you imagine what a 200lb tom looks like?:uhoh: To give you an idea of how big that cat is. I am 6'4" and 245LBs.

This cat is no longer eating dogs on peoples back porches. And we haven't had a problem in that area since Mr. putty went up a tree.

0bedd2d9.jpg
I have no problem with a cat making a living. They can eat all the deer they want but when they start coming over peoples fences to eat a puppy it's time to educate Mr. Kitty about his manners.
 
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Cats

I have only seen four dead cats in my life. One mangy, obviously sick. Two that were average sized (about 150 lbs).

Last, was huge! Full size Ford pickup, regular cab, with a topper. Cat was on top. Head just draped over the windshield and the tail hung over the back about a foot. YOU do the math.....that was a big one!!
 
The very biggest Mountain lions are about 8' nose to tail. Some may be an inch or two longer than that if they are an absolute mutant.


What size truck was that? :scrutiny:


To give you an idea. A huge adult male Siberian Tiger the largest cat on the planet can be as long as 12' a monster can be 13' +.

Very few African lions will go over 11'.


They must have put that cat on one of those cat'o'matic kitty extenders before placing him on the roof !
 
Ya never can tell where Big Putty will show up. I see tracks around my garbage burn pit sorta halfway regular.

Some years back, some guys decided to go coyote hunting. Crew-cab PU, warm weather, all windows open including the rear split window. Four guys.

They parked where the headlights would light up a shallow valley, and used hand-helds to look off to the sides.

So, one guy's squalling away happily, veritably like unto a 400-pound jackrabbit, when they felt the truck lurch a bit.

And then, and then, well, this great hairy paw comes in the rear window, trying to grab the rabbit.

The ensuing pandemonium is left to the imagination...

:D, Art
 
All right Art,

Now I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight. Talk about the bogey man in real life..Geezzzzzz oh manny!!....

:what:
 
“I don’t feel like we’re living in a natural wilderness. Nothing about it is natural,” English said. “I believe the lions need to be managed.”
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"English said" - and all in english too! "Managed" equals "natural".

Now that is amusing. She ought to run for public office.

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Lak,

Good point. I wonder what "Natural" is in her opinion. Because I consider a mountain lion living and acting like a mountain lion in it's home range to be pretty darn natural.

Besides that you are allowed to manage lions in Colorado. You can use dogs, calls or whatever else to legally pursue Mt lions.

What I can't figure about this state is that the "Just moved here from u-name it big city" crowd in Denver and Boulder successfully got hound hunting shut down for bears but they didn't get the cats....Yet.

Colorado is getting to be like many rural states with a large centralized urban populations. The big cities on the front range can out vote the rest of the state as this is where the major population base is.
 
H&HHunter,

They have many wolves in Colorado yet? :D

The growing population concentrations in cities in States like CO are definately going to result in a potentially bad political map. If you look at the most unlikely place in the U.S. - Alaska - there is an alarming number of rabbit people in places like Anchorage and Fairbanks. Never been to Juneau but I would imagine it is similar and growing.

-----------------------------------------------

http://ussliberty.org
http://ssunitedstates.org
 
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