Minnesota Mountain Lions!

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Here in west central michigan we are hearing storys of sighting cougars. The DNR confims some of them.
And they are also confirming wolf sightings and people are already shooting them. And I guess if the damm thing threatens you, you had better take care of your self.
However I can think of nothing I would rather hear than wolfs calling on a winters night.
We have salmon in our rivers now, too many deer and bobcat. All those critters I never thought I would see or hear in this state, why not a bit more of what Michigan was like in the 1800s?
I think those critters will have a hard enough time of it, and not need me punching holes in them.

 

[ScorpioVI]

And I guess if the damm thing threatens you, you had better take care of your self.

Exactly! If the damn thing is fixin' to pounce on you, your pets, and your kids, then by all means, kill it. But this idea of a bunch of us taking up arms against a cat that "may" be in our neck of the woods because it "may" attack and kill one of us (an average of once a year) is just ridiculous!

Think about it. It's the same kind of mentality the gun-banners have. It's illogical. You're better than that! WE'RE better than that.

We'd have a much better time hanging on to our rights if some of us could quit propagating this image of being a redneck, "shoot anything that moves!" kind of gun-owners.

 

[Byron Quick]

ScorpioVI,
When I go into the woods I'm armed with a handgun that will handle a cougar. When I'm not in the woods I'm armed with a handgun that will handle a man. Same gun. Carried for the same reason.

Wonder what the number of attacks were from 1995 to 2005? I do believe that Art Eatman has mentioned two in Big Bend National Park in Texas in just the past 3 years or so.

There's been reports of sightings here in Georgia for decades. Except for one that was part of the release in the Everglades that wandered all the way up into central Georgia, I'm not aware of any that are confirmed.

In west Texas they are overpopulated for the habitat if anything. I'd hunt them there. I wouldn't shoot one here even if it was eating my pet. I'd rather see the species get re-established.

That being said...it's a mistake not to hunt large predators where they have a sustainable population that is in close contact with humans. When I was a kid, that deal about mountain lions avoiding people was true. There hadn't been a verified attack on a human in almost a century. Even where the cats were common. Why? Because they were scared of people. Why? Because they were close kin with a rug and had little interest in becoming another.

I'll sacrifice a pet to a cat until they have a sustainable population hereabouts. I won't sacrifice someone's child. And I'll stay prepared to prevent it. Just as I stayed prepared to defend myself and others against human predators. No difference in practice, my friend, just a difference in species.

If I walk into the woods; I'll take no special precautions as I'm armed well enough when I walk out of the house.

Folks, if you decide to shoot one where they are protected...please be sure of your facts as to what you're defending. About twenty years ago, a yearling bear wandered into a neighborhood about a mile from here. It was a fearsome terror to the garbage cans. A resident decided to defend the neighborhood's garbage cans. Shot the bear nineteen times IIRC with a semi-automatic .22 rifle. Thousands of dollars in legal fees and fines later, he did barely manage to avoid prison. But I think he was convicted of a felony.

 

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I have a neighbor who is a tree hugger, especially if it has any knot holes in it!

 

[pete f]

father in law had a farm down near lonsdale between new prague and northfield. We routinely saw a cougar there for about a year while out riding the horses, DNR kept saying highly doubtful till a local shot it while carrying a piglet out of the barn. Hard to deny it when it is hanging from a front bucket of a tractor. We also have seen wolves in DT minneapolis by DeLaSalle High School on the river bank as well as by the large rec area underneath the airport on the river bottom. Wolves were reported on the ice on white bear lake in January

Minnesota has allowed such a decrease in wild space by allowing so many cabins to be built in places where people rarely went, that many of the formerly wary species are no longer concerned with human contact.

 

[jdege]

The big problem is leashes.

We used to have pre-teen boys crawling through every patch of scrub within miles of any town with their guns and their dogs.

We've leashed the dogs and we've leashed the boys, and the result is that those patches of scrub are now safe habitat for wildlife.

 

[Byron Quick]

Link to mountain lion attacks and deaths with sources cited linked here:

http://users.frii.com/mytymyk/lions/attackso.html

No information for 2004 and 2005.

Except for the darn tough guy that killed one with his pocket knife...want to make me bets on how many of the other victims, their relatives, or their other companions wish they had been armed?

And I'm willing to bet $100 that Ol' Hickory Knot will tell us to our faces that he sure wishes that he had had a heavy caliber handgun on him that day.

Personally, that's one fellow I don't want to get crosswise with.

 

[Andrew Rothman]

I suppose these police officers are lying about a big putty tat too?
http://www.startribune.com/stories/468/5370810.html

NORTH MANKATO, Minn. (AP) - Julie Jacobs usually doesn't mind that a cougar hangs out near her home. But when a confrontation between the animal and a wild turkey got noisy, she decided to call police.

Three police officers and a deputy were dispatched to Jacobs' neighborhood Sunday night. The animals were on the hillside, screeching.

According to a news release, an officer was able to shine his flashlight on the cougar.

"When they approached the cougar, it ran away," Police Chief Mike Pulis said. "So it was clear he was after small game" and not a threat to humans.

Jacobs is glad the officers didn't have to shoot the cougar.

"I would rather not see it killed because there's plenty of food here for it," she said. "They're going to come around no matter what. We can't shoot all of them."

 

[walking arsenal]

BAH, mountain kitties, puma, cougar, gully cat, whatever. These things have been livign up north here forever as far as i know. Heck i KNOW there is one on my grandfathers farm, i heard the dang thing screech one deer season, needles to say i went home early that morning.

I hope it eats some yuppies, mmmmmmmm, yuppies, they are far more dangerous than mountain kitties. Maybe the mountain kitty will keep the yuppies out of "greater" minnesota and in Minneapolis (aka snake pit) were they belong.

 

[Nickotym]

Our Game & Fish dept reported that there were several mtn lions in ND last summer and fall. One had a radio collar and had been released in the Black Hills of SD. http://www.state.nd.us/gnf/news/2004/0412.html (scroll down - two stories)

They are here in limited numbers, but those numbers will probably increase as there are not any higher predators to go after them unless hunting is allowed. Someone in NW ND shot one with a bow while bowhunting for deer last fall too. http://www.state.nd.us/gnf/news/2004/0409.html (scroll down near bottom)

 

[Daniel T]

I suppose these police officers are liying about a big putty tat too?

Why would you expect random police officers to know the breed of a big cat that they saw for a few seconds at night?

The cop that blasted the housecat with an AR in...Kali?...was pretty sure it was a cougar too.

...the result is that those patches of scrub are now safe habitat for wildlife.

Not sure why that's a bad thing. It's not like there are many patches of scrub left in plenty of states.

 

[Andrew Rothman]

Why would you expect random police officers to know the breed of a big cat that they saw for a few seconds at night?

I would expect that they would say "a large feline of some type," had they not established that it was a specific breed.