Unexpected Felines

[Orcon]

Big game season is just around the corner in Montana and I've been out doing a fair bit of preseason scouting. There is an area of rather rough country south of the Missouri that looks like it could be harboring a monster mulie or two, so I decided to have a walkabout. The terrain features numerous steep, grassy clay ridges separated by densely vegetated coulees and seasonal drainages. These are the coords. if you want to look at it on a map "48.031955,-104.370141"

I was actually rather surprised at how little fresh deer sign I found in the first few hours of the hike. Until I started seeing bones and scat too big to be from a coyote. I found an old carcass cache not too far from a seep, all bones no hide or flesh to speak of. Then a second much fresher one about an hour and a half later in a choke-cherry grove.

None of the sign seemed terribly fresh, months/weeks vs days/hours, but it was still a bit unnerving knowing there may be a 100 pound cat lurking in the bush. The area in which I live is mostly ranching country, not the kind of place you'd expect to find an apex predator but FWP does have a quota on them for this region so maybe I'll pick up a tag. Have any of you been sucessful call hunting mountain lions?

 

[MCgunner]

They say there's cougar around, but I'm skeptical. Certainly aren't more'n a handful in this area if there's any at all. I have the impression some folks see a big bobcat and it becomes a mountain lion by the time they tell the tale at the local restaurant in Sheridan. ROFL

 

[BigBore44]

Can't speak for Montana. But cats, especially Tom's have a huge range. And just like any other animal, they will go where the food is.

 

[Patocazador]

There's a post on here about a member calling in and killing a cougar in AZ. Do a search.

 

[Speedo66]

A cat was seen in CT a few years ago. DNR guys practically laughed, said it was a cat, a bobcat, etc., but anything but a cougar. Numerous sightings, all laughed at as exaggerations. Until someone hit it on the Merritt Parkway near Greenwich, CT. Oh, we guess it is a cougar.

The DNA was traced to a strain out west. Who knows how it got there, but get there it did.

 

[MCgunner]

I think if I was out back calling coyote and got a mountain lion to come to the call, I'd have to come to the house for new drawers.

My wife's cousin's boy was calling turkey one day when a bobcat practically wound up in his lap. He had to stand up and yell to run it off. Now, I don't know if mountain lions will eat turkeys, but it's a thought.

 

[Patocazador]

The cougars we have in Florida are called Florida panthers. They imported some male Texas cougars a few years ago to increase breeding success. The native ones were all inbred.

The G&F said they only lived south of the Caloosahatchee River near Ft. Myers even though numerous sightings by "ignorant" eye witnesses said otherwise. Then one day a male panther was hit and killed by a car in the Tampa city limits 140 miles north. The G&F changed their tune after that.

 

[.308 Norma]

Have any of you been sucessful call hunting mountain lions?

I've never tried it, but I don't know why it wouldn't work. Years ago, I had a friend (he's gone now) that successfully called in several black bears with a wounded/trapped rabbit coyote call. He took me with him on a bear hunt up near Salmon, Idaho one spring. We didn't do any good, but what he taught me was,when we found some fresh bear sign, we'd find a good place to sit down, then we'd sit back to back. That way, if a bear came in, it couldn't come in from behind. He'd had that happen once when he was alone, and it scared the crap out of him. Besides that, he missed, and the bear got away.
At any rate, it seems to me that if a person was going to try calling cougars, they should do it with a partner unless they have eyes in the back of their head.

 

[ZeroJunk]

I have returned to camp in the snow more than once and see where a mountain lion had followed my tracks a little ways and broken off. Once while bow hunting even had grizzly tracks in my tracks for probably half a mile in the mud on the river trail up the North Fork of the Sun River. Makes your butt pucker up.

 

[Ironicaintit]

I've seen 7 cats, on 5 different occasions, in my wanderings through the mountains. I'd tell the stories, but they sound too far fetched to be believable...
I think that unless that cat is starving to death, and you are the only option they may have...they want nothing to do with man. I'm fairly certain that they recognize us for what we are: a large and dangerous predator. I don't worry about them very much, unless my 5 year old boy is around.

 

[Orcon]

Well, I just bought a tag so I guess I'll find out if calling works. No sense in not trying, I suppose.

 

[entropy]

I'd set up in that small copse at 48 deg 3'20" 104 37'08"; It should give you a nice shot all around with little chance of him sneaking up on you. As .308 suggests a small wounded animal call should work; not so sure if a Quiver Critter or such would work, though. An extra set of eyes would be good-you will NOT hear a puma before you see him, and you won't see him unless he wants you to.

 

[FL-NC]

The cougars we have in Florida are called Florida panthers. They imported some male Texas cougars a few years ago to increase breeding success. The native ones were all inbred.

The G&F said they only lived south of the Caloosahatchee River near Ft. Myers even though numerous sightings by "ignorant" eye witnesses said otherwise. Then one day a male panther was hit and killed by a car in the Tampa city limits 140 miles north. The G&F changed their tune after that.

In the early 80's some friends who owned some property north of Tampa had a horse injured by a "large feline" - no human witnesses. The "decision" by the authorities was that it must have been a bobcat- that lept from the ground and attempted to bite through the neck of a horse.

 

[FL-NC]

I've never tried it, but I don't know why it wouldn't work. Years ago, I had a friend (he's gone now) that successfully called in several black bears with a wounded/trapped rabbit coyote call. He took me with him on a bear hunt up near Salmon, Idaho one spring. We didn't do any good, but what he taught me was,when we found some fresh bear sign, we'd find a good place to sit down, then we'd sit back to back. That way, if a bear came in, it couldn't come in from behind. He'd had that happen once when he was alone, and it scared the crap out of him. Besides that, he missed, and the bear got away.
At any rate, it seems to me that if a person was going to try calling cougars, they should do it with a partner unless they have eyes in the back of their head.

I saw on TV the natives in the woods in India wear plastic halloween masks on the back of their heads to confuse tigers sneaking up on them from behind. Maybe it works, but I wouldn't want to test it.

 

[MidRoad]

Catnip and the meowmix theme song should do the trick!

Good luck, something about big cats roaming around and not know they are their till they are on you has always made me feel uneasy. Especially when you see videos of them leaping 40 ft......

 

[dh1633pm]

I checked out your map coordinates and found a nice link to Mongolia. Must be my google skills. I am with Bones741 on this one. Something very uneasy about hunting something that is superior at hunting than I am. Something that is a killing machine with ultra quiet movements.

I had a cat once who liked to hunt. I put a bell on his collar. It made him a better hunter because he had to learn how to hunt without making the bell go off. Good luck with it and let us know the results.

 

[Patocazador]

Here's the link to the mountain lion that was called in:

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/az-lion-down.773191/

 

[MCgunner]

Buddy of mine was hiking up McKitrick canyon in the Guadalupe NP. He's a photographer and really likes wildlife photography. He said he felt uneasy, looked back, and there was a mountain lion following him. He froze, took a tripod and charged the lion swinging it and the lion ran off. He tells me, "He was just a young lion and probably wanted to play." at which I told him I'd seen my barn cats play with a mouse and I wouldn't wanna be the mouse.

Here's his link if you wanna see some good shots of wildlife...

http://jhersey.zenfolio.com/

 

[Art Eatman]

Calling worked for a guy I know who did predator control for some west Texas ranchers. Baiting also works, as a friend and I found out. We set out a bunch of leftover meat/bone scraps, a fresh-killed jackrabbit and a handful of catnip. This was in an area where I had seen tracks. We did the set-out about 2PM. About an hour before sundown, say 8PM, here came putty-tat.

My buddy missed him three times. A month later, telling the story at a gathering of buddies, he got so excited that he missed that lion three more times.

From radio-collar tracking, it is known that they'll travel as much as 25 miles in a day's hunting circle or in traveling. It is also fairly well established that they will kill a deer (if available) every week to ten days. They are also opportunists, for quail, rabbits, cats, dogs, javelina, young feral hogs. Plus goats and colts. I guess calves and maybe sheep, as well.

 

[MCgunner]

If I set out catnip here, I'm sure I could kill a hundred feral cats in a night.

 

[Officers'Wife]

Too close to the story of the bowhunter here in Indiana that was just getting ready to hang an nice little doe he had brought down when the resident bobcat made his presence known. The hunter is reported to have said - I figured if that cat wanted it that bad I'd just let him have it."

A local wag claims that changed the bobcat into a Democrat as it taught him that using the threat of violence would cause others to give him anything he wants.

 

[Art Eatman]

A fair number of the big cats in Jeff Davis and Brewster Counties, Texas. I was nearing home late one night after a dance party and had a cougar trot across the road with a jackrabbit in its mouth. One neighbor lost a dozen goats, one night. Another neighbor had two instances of a cougar by his house, attracted to the chicken pen.

I had a deer lease up in the Davis Mountains for a few years. One year, I saw more cat tracks than deer tracks. And no deer.

Lots of argument about cougars in south Georgia. My wife saw one cross the road on her way into Thomasville, one morning. Some guy poo-pooed her story, sorta sarcastically. Her syrupy response was, "Well, it looked just like the one we have draped over the couch in the living room."

 

[.308 Norma]

Her syrupy response was, "Well, it looked just like the one we have draped over the couch in the living room."

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Kinda reminds me of the time my wife and son-in-law were deer hunting up in the hills 3 or 4 miles east of here. They spotted a couple of wolves. This was several years before wolves were re-introduced in Yellowstone, let alone re-introduced in Idaho.
We reported the sighting to the Idaho Fish & Game Department, but like you said, they kind of "poo-pooed" it, saying my wife and son-in-law had probably just seen a couple of large coyotes.
I wonder if the IDF&G thought back on what they said a couple of years later when it was discovered there was a place called "Ligertown" over near Lava Hot Springs (about 10 miles east of here) that had a couple of dozen wolves that were going in and out of their cages at will. Not only wolves, but it was pretty much the same situation with Ligertown's African lions and Indian tigers. People in Lava Hot Springs were seeing African lions, and wolves, in their back yards for heaven sakes!
Large coyotes! Yeah, you bet!
The authorities shut Ligertown down and did the best they could to disperse the malnourished and sickly animals to different zoos around the nation. I don't know what ever became of the owners, but I'm pretty sure we county taxpayers paid for cleaning up the mess. You can read about "Ligertown" Lava Hot Springs, Idaho with a Google search.

 

[JeffG]

Well, I just bought a tag so I guess I'll find out if calling works. No sense in not trying, I suppose.

If that doesn't work try dogs. Most people prefer using a dog crew, to keep the cat in front of you...

 

[Orcon]

If that doesn't work try dogs. Most people prefer using a dog crew, to keep the cat in front of you...

Nah, I like dogs almost less than I like horses, ships and people. I've a propensity to take chances and live dangerously. It's been my experience with cats (thus far) that if you make eye contact, the cats will bolt.