Mountain Lion Shot in Self-Defense

But it is something that is so ridiculously rare that worrying about it seems a little silly. Sure, pack your heat when you are out in the wilderness. Nothing wrong with being prepared. But if you are expecting a wolf attack then you might as well expect to be abducted by a UFO as well.

 

For real?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_attacks_on_humans

More detailed info.

 

Completely ridiculous statement found earlier in this thread. Though both are rare, cougars are much more likely to see humans as prey than wolves are. Cougars are generally not afraid of humans and can be curious about their presence. But wolves generally try their best to avoid humans.

 

This whole thread saddens me that so many people with the means to kill them have such apparent need to fear/hate mountain lions.

 

No knowledge of the many tales told, but eight miles from
town, and a growing population, they are very common
place in and around where I live. Black bear also at times
a common pest. A full grown mature lion average size
180 to 200# in this part of the country. Mostly seen at night
day time sighting happens once in a while. Deer, small dogs
house cats are like candy to them. Although not tough to kill
I would use enough gun when you squeeze the trigger

 

I live in Durango Co and if I recall correctly, we have had two mountain lions put down by CDOW in town just this summer. They are around.

 

Me too woof. I would love to see one in the wild.

It seems that these animals are often misunderstood. Not only with mt. lions but with bear and wolves also, their behavior is often interpreted as aggressive when in reality they are just curious or after something else.

One post here told the story of 3 mt lions walking around a camp site. Seems to me the obvious explanation was they were interested in what the scents coming from what the campers cooked for dinner, NOT the campers.

I while back there was a thread about "what cal for wolves" when they attack

I questioned if any one has really been attacked by a wolf......and yes I got flamed for that.

However the evidence presented was less than convincing to me. Most "attacks" were wolfs biting and pulling on clothing or a single bite to a limb then running away.

I don't see that as a wolf trying kill a person.

 

How did they arrive to that.

This is true but when you run into a creature that has the capability to kill you it was be best to err on the side of caution and have low ready.

That IS an attack, and legally justifiable to shoot.

 

By observation. When humans come into contact with cougars the cougar will almost always not attack. Attacks are the exception, not the norm. That is not so with animals they associate with prey. Aside from special circumstances such as disease and starvation, a normal size human being should be able to easily scare away a cougar. That's not the case with their prey. I still carry when out in the wilderness. Exceptions do happen, albeit rare. There's no penalty for being prepared. But when people start throwing around blatantly false information about wildlife then I feel the need to point it out. The outdoors has always been a big part of my life. I find it silly how some people disregard logic and truth in order to demonize certain animals. Things should always be kept in perspective and not blown out of proportion by sensationalism.

 

An acquaintance of mine was recently stalked by a wolf in a northern state. He backtracked it to prove it -- and he is an experienced tracker and hunter with fish&game experience.

A Canadian relative of mine shot one last year that had stalked him and attacked him.

I can agree that wolves tend to be skittish around humans and tend to prefer to avoid them, just like mountain lions and bears, but the incidents do occur.

 

When walking around in cougar country, keep turning around and looking behind you

 

I call BS on anyone who says they were stalked and attacked by a wolf.

 

i call bs on your bs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGXWy3htXgQ

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/14/HOGCRGL75U1.DTL

Bad news.

A story reached my desk yesterday about the death of Kenton Carnegie, 22, a geology student. Carnegie was attacked and killed by wolves while hiking in remote Northern Saskatchewan. Carnegie is the first human known to have been killed by healthy, wild wolves in North America.


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The incident took place in early November, but yesterday's story was the first I'd heard of the unfortunate tragedy.

Those of us who stand a few feet back from the impassioned wolf watchers have wondered when a person would fall victim to wolves. Wolves are wild animals. They have a long track record of killing people in Europe and elsewhere, about which I will offer a bit of perspective in a moment. But, before this, death by wolf was unknown in North America.

I have been able to find 27 recorded wolf attacks on humans in North America. Some have resulted in serious injury, but all of the people attacked by wolves here have survived.

Now, before everyone runs off in a panic nattering that we have to stop wolf reintroductions, let's put Carnegie's untimely death in perspective. Canadian wildlife officials have launched a thorough investigation and have already issued some preliminary findings.

The officials noted that the local people had fed the wolves -- both intentionally and unintentionally -- in the area where Carnegie was attacked. The wolves had grown used to being around people and seeing them as a source of food. The term wildlife managers use for this is habituation. Contrary to popular belief, habituated wildlife is always more dangerous to humans than wildlife that is naturally wary of humans.

I am not the best person to make this point because I have done it myself, but feeding wildlife, except in situations authorized by local wildlife officials, is dumb, harms the animals, and may harm you. The best example is deer. Deer are everywhere because we feed them our garden plants and even put out food for them. Where there are deer, there are mountain lions. Enough said.

Humans have a very weird news gene that causes us to panic over unlikely events, such as great white shark attacks, a far bigger risk than wolf attacks even if you're not a surfer, and ignore or trivialize more immediate dangers such as domestic dogs.

I see this all the time in Yellowstone. Visitors go on and on about bear attacks (12 people injured since 1978) and pay no attention to the bison (56 people attacked in the same time frame). Or how about this statistic: 29,000 people injured and 200 killed each year in the United States in automobile collisions with deer.

An exhaustive Norwegian study surveyed all wolf attacks throughout the world for the last several hundred years. Wolf attacks on humans have been growing in frequency. The Norwegians wanted to assess the threat.

The most prevalent cause of wolf attacks? Rabies. During the period when wolf attacks were more common in Europe, the majority were made by rabid wolves. At the same historical time, wolves and larger domestic dogs interbred. Some of the "killing sprees" by wolves documented in France (one rabid wolf/dog cross bit more than 30 people) were by domestic dog/wolf crosses.

Just thinking about a rabid wolf is scary, but there is almost no chance of rabies getting into a wolf population today. Because of inoculation, Europe is almost rabies-free and so is North America. Rabid wolves are unlikely in the extreme.

 

http://www.wildsentry.org/WolfAttack.html

long article

 

I don't care how rare lion attacks are. I know they usually stay away from humans, but if they are hungry, who knows what they will do. I carry when inthe CO mountains and not just because of lions. Any animal can be aggressive at times. Mule Deer, Moose, Bears, whatever have been known to hurt people. I would HATE to shoot a lion as I think they are beautiful animals, but if one attacked my dog or myself its dead.

 

I had a cougar roast once. It cooked up in the crock pot just like a good pork roast.

That's the only way I like cats.

Biker

 

I'm guessing you have never seen one up close in the wild.

 

I've seen one in our NM yard a couple of years ago. She was getting a drink of water very early in the morning. Fortunately the cougars have plenty of easy game here to eat and I've heard of no adverse human interaction but they deserve plenty of respect.

Found this fairly fresh paw print near water where many animals take turns drinking.

 

I was stalked by a wolf once. He threatened to huff and puff and blow my house down.

 

For years the Nebraska Game & Parks Commision denied there were any Mountain Lions in the state. Never mind my dad saw HUGE cat tracks in the sand, and numerous other people saw the actual cats.

Now, in the past 5 years there have been several captured or shot, including one in the middle of Omaha and another outside of a small town school. Some people think they've been released by Game & Parks in an effort to reintroduce the species. There's obviously something wrong if they're showing up in metropolitan areas. A mountain lion in his natural habitat isn't going to go anywhere near humans, especially in a large city unless he's REALLY hungry. To me, that says someone is releasing them and they're either too domesticated to hunt on their own, or there are too many of them and they're being forced into populated areas.