The AM Forum

We had an interesting visitor at work.
I walk around the big parking lot at lunch. I get near the end of my walk and stop in the shade to cool off. Two guys walk up and ask if I saw the lion. I say BS. yup, no lie others saw it too. It had come across the lot and went over the fence and kept going. He came out of the woods at the back of the lot where I walk alone every day about 1/2 mile from the building.
I guess I'll be walking closer to the road around other people. The guard might have a problem with me walking with a weapon.
HMMM where's Frank?????

We have had sightings of mountail lions here in PA. But every report goes with the Game Commision denying any exist. One report has a person hitting a lion with their car. The Game commision was out before the state police. They picked up the carcas and asked the driver "How did you hit that tree?"

Back in 1977 or thereabouts me and a buddy went fishing. Driving down the dirt road about half an hour before sunrise, a deer jumped in front of the car. We were going maybe 10 mph.  Around five or six seconds later, a mountain lion walked in front of the car. Of course, nooo one listened to us, thar aint no cat like that in Central NY. Youse guys were drunk or stoned. There werent no coyoties in New Yok untill that newspaper guy took a few photose of 'em in Central park....

There had been a ban on lion hunting in Washington state for years..A few years ago, they started showing up in the towns and there were some livestock kills so the season was reopened.....You used to be able to use dogs to track and tree a cat but they don't allow the use of dogs anymore...We have seen the sign of a female with a cub at the spring near my place in Tum Tum and My wife has seen a lion while out walking near our place.

GFZ,

About 20 years ago a jogger was killed by a mountain lion in Idaho Springs, Colorado.

That's just a bit west of my house in Colorado. I've seen their tracks along my creek and in the snow by my house in the winter. I've also seen them along or crossing the road when driving at night.

My wife likes to go for walks with me and she told me to buy a Colt 1911M1 .45 pistol.

I love when your XYL tells you to do things like that. (it's like having them say, you know, Marty, you need another 500 lb AM transmitter) I think she is a little PC and didn't like going for a walk with me if I had my 8mm Mauser or my 30-30.

Most people don't notice the .45

So although I seen them several times in the last 20 years driving to my house at night, I haven't come across one while out walking. But I still take the pistol just in case.

Watch out, they tend to be sneaky, and like to snap your neck.

It's what happened to the jogger.

73

Marty WB2RJR

Personally I have not seen one, but many of my neighbors who are hunters claim to have done so.

They too say that reports to the authorities have the same result - denial!

I can hear the Coyotes howl at night... big party out there. We're not invited.

i do not want to see one.... notwithstanding my moniker, I have started to cross paths with black bears locally, reasonably often. This is something new for me, although like the big cats others have reported them for years...

I'm 15mi north of Catskill NY and 15 mi south of Albany NY, fwiw.

                       _-_-

I thought it was very rare for a wildcat to attack humans. I wonder if there are many in the New Mexico desert, I'm going through there all next week and wanted to see the countryside. I'd rather not have a mountain lion drop in on me so to speak. Guns I have, but I don't have the cat's silence and reflexes.

I saw a few cougars around town the other day.

http://www.urbancougar.com/

I don't think the guards at work would be happy if they saw me walking around with my 1911. I took a very different path today. Tonight I heard the guard at our building say to another guy that the State has to get involved if there is a sighting and it costs them some money. That is why they prefer to say it isn't so.
I figure if you turned and ran you might get three steps before it cuffs you to the ground.
I noticed all the people walking were in wide scan mode today

Might be wise to trap that animal in a "humane" trap and then "relocate"...

Dunno who to call, but I would have called a LOT of people if I had personally had the sighting.
All that needs to happen is some small kid to amble along...

Cats are big and need to EAT to live.

Or worse, SHE is with some kittens and out for a stroll when you happen along.


                  _-_-bear

Does that make them higher on the food chain??

In 1994 at my camp near Westport, NY about 30 miles east of Lake Placid, I was out with a buddy early one morning about to sight in our weapons for deer season when about 200 yards north of us, a mountain lion darted out of high grass and in about three leaps it was in the woods. It was watching us for about two minutes before it fled. I though it was a tree stump or some other brown object since it was an old land fill. I asked my friend to turn and train his scope on the object and that is when if fled into the woods. We were all excited to see such a rare animal in these parts and that no one would believe our story. We got back to camp and told his wife about our sighting and she broke out a newspaper published that week from that area where people were talking about sightings in the same area.. Yes, NYS also says they don't exist but they were seen again last year about 15 miles NE of my camp. Back in the 1930's there were apparently large numbers in upstate NY to a point where bounty was paid on them.  

There are a lot of Cougars around here. Their range is incredible, a radio tagged one had a turf of maybe 100x50 miles. Their main food source is deer in these parts. My son and I saw one last year, it leaped over an 8 foot fence like it was nothing. Because they wander so far, it wouldn't surprise me that they are coming back to many areas. The Chicago cops killed one last year that they DNA traced back to the Black Hills of S. Dak, some 900 miles away.

Where there's food, the big cats will come. Maybe KYV could use a few around his place.

I will tell you, Marty, don't bet on that .45 saving you from a determined Gato Grande although human attacks are exceedingly rare. Every now and then, a local rancher hires a guy to thin out the lions on his place, he told me that he had to hit one several times with a 30-06 before it finally went down. They are such magnificent creatures, the hunter told me that felt bad about taking it down.

There was a bear and a cud in the lot a couple days ago so we figured it wanted some cub meat.
7 FMJs would likely change its mind about attacking you.

Black bears on my folks' porch a couple weeks ago, they left some of the paw prints on the white side trim for visitors to see.

Vermont was in the same denial until a few years ago when someone spotted some scat along with three sets of tracks in the snow near Craftsbury. The wildlife folks had to admit it was a mother and two cubs, but said they were sure it was a 'pet' someone had dropped off. Guess the previous owner's catamount breeding business wasn't working out for them. Then again, they denied the existence of coyotes for years too, insisting they were, at most 'coydogs' which are a cross breed. Which is basically an admission, I guess? Now with folks claiming they've seen wolves, the standard line is 'no, those are coyotes'.

Good to see some of the bigger predators making a comeback. I like your wife's attitude, Marty. Live with 'em, but be prepared to deal with 'em too. The '03-A3 would be a good choice, just not practical for jogging etc. The .45 should work if she squeezes the trigger fast enough.

I worked for a company based in Rancho Cordova CA on the outskirts of Sacramento. The office and plant was located on the the back lot of AeroJet General property. Thousands of acres of flat grass land, some of it used to test the Saturn rocket engines, and others. All fenced off and deserted.

Our plant had a green space on the side we used for picnics and volleyball. I noticed several times LARGE muddy paw prints on the white plastic picnic tables. Once I saw a clear outline of a really big cat footprint. The sprinkler water would pool and turn the hard pan clay in a few spots to mush. The cat, or cats had stepped in it on the way to the picnic table perches. My good friend Bill took care of maintenance in the plant and grounds. I told him about the find and he didn't say much. I forgot about it.

I had to come in on a weekend very early. The rear parking lot was also hard pan clay covered with stone. With the lot empty I noticed piles of rock scratched from the clay leaving the clay bare in a circle with a pile in the center, maybe 4 or 5 piles. Most of the piles had been spread out a bit from parking cars but a few still well formed.

As a cat owner I recognized the pattern. I went over to a few and kicked off the top of the pile and sure enough. This I thought was proof. I found Bill the following Monday and dragged him out to see what I found. Turned out, he knew all about it as did the boss and owner. I was told to keep it quiet and something was being done to keep everyone safe.

That back lot had lots of wildlife. Turkey, Pheasant, Coyote and lots more. Humans weren't on the menu for the Cougars.

I lived for about 20 years in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Yosemite NP. I saw only one cougar in that time. She was a nursing female and just 'glided' up the slope, across the road and up the cut on the other side about 50' in front of my Jeep. Looked to be about eight feet long from nose to tail. What a magnificent animal!

I've seen one that appeared to be a yearling here in the 15 years I've been in Texas. Year before last a friend of mine and I were waiting for another ham at a job site and saw the critter about 100 yards away. He (or she) had spotted us and didn't hang around. That was over near Zephyr, Texas.

Last year, at the Hamilton (TX) Bike Race that our club provides comms for, two of our guys saw a black one at one of the rest stops before the folks who were staffing the stop got there.

They're around, but in the rural areas, they tend to avoid humans. Once our 'civilization' starts overlapping their old habitat, I guess we (and our pets) start looking like tasty morsels.

They're beautiful critters. Everyone should have a chance to see them in the wild.

ldb
K5WLF

Hmm if they are in VT they may be in NH too.  I wonder....

We have bear sightings frequently here, and I am in a small city, but with a lot of open land around.

A friend of mine uses a game camera in his back woods to capture stills of the wildlife. Dear were becoming too tame for him so he started leaving meat scraps and road kill deer.   Now he's getting bear, fox, Fishercat, racoons etc.  He did get a shot of a big cat, and it looked like a young puma (puma-cougar, mountain lion is there a difference?), but after we zoomed up it was a bobcat. Still cool though.

As I understand it, Ed, the difference in nomenclature is a regional thing. Just depends where you are as to what folks call 'em. Far as I can tell, it's all the same critter.

ldb
K5WLF

Probably, unless the prospective food is armed. Then it might be even.

Are you saying the parking lot was his litter box?

Cool that the big predators/carnivores  are making a comeback. 

Just remember that humans are made of meat...  all to often people think of wild animals as something from a Disney movie and they get into trouble when the animal behaves is a natural/normal way.   Hell we even get into trouble with Dogs at times because we think they think like people. 

Can you imagine if the big cats were as successful in there comeback as Coyotes?  :o

18-20 years ago I sighted what at first I thought was a medium sized dog up on RT 113 in in Maine. I realized that it was a catamount (mountain lion, lynx) When I contacted Maine Wildlife, I was assured that I was mistaken.  About 5 years later there was a story in the papers, that they had been tracking the return of these big cats for the previous 10 years in the North Western region of Maine..  My Sighting was about 15 due East of MT. Washington,  on the Maine NH Sate Line. - Steve

Frank,
When I was living in Farmington I would hike and walk the trails in the reservoir system there.  There were sign postings through out that area warning people to be cognizant of their surroundings due to sightings of those cats.  I never saw one but was always leery.

Connecticut's Dept. of Environmental Protection states there are no grey wolves in CT. Last year, I saw what I believe was a grey wolf chasing after a white tail deer in one of the open fields near here and couldn't believe my eyes how fast this animal was runnning.  The deer was running as fast as it could and this huge grey canine was gaining on it.  Never saw it catch it though.  I tell people this and they say it probably was a coyote.  I know coyotes when I see them. They're plentiful around here plus they're smaller and have different coloring than this animal that was going after the deer. Others across the state have stated that they've seen wolves as well. 

I posted this last year..It's an automatic trail cam picture of mountain lions taken by a nearby resident. They're finishing off the remains of a deer. Those cats are solid muscle.

dead deer walking.......from the trail cam

An excerpt from Wikipedia:

"The cougar (Puma concolor), also known as puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount or panther, depending on the region, is a mammal of the family Felidae, native to the Americas. This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere,[3] extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America. An adaptable, generalist species, the cougar is found in every major American habitat type. It is the second heaviest cat in the American continents after the jaguar. "

Wow, Steve! What a shot! Thanks.

That deer doesn't seem to be aware or even running, not that it would matter much.
Nice Kitty!

I let our cat out Friday and it took about 5 seconds to snag a little tree rat. Got me thinking. Now way could you draw a bead on a cat in motion about to take you down.
I'll be walking by the road and hope gato likes tender young meat.
Our chain link fence has 3 strands of barb wire on an angle

About the only thing a person could do if we were allowed to have hand grenades is, strap them all around the chest and neck area. When the cat malls or bites you, they all go off. It won't save your live but you get the picture ::) ::) ::)

That sounds like something out of the early Monty Python skits. Right right, good good.


Pound for pound, neuron for neuron, "big cats" must be a nightmare if your on the receiving end of an attack.
A domestic cat can wreak havoc on someone if it must. Imagine scaling that up and adding gray matter to boot. It's an order of magnitude leap in speed, power and cunning.
I'm sure it's a product of domestication but I wonder if there is as much variation in personality in the big cats as in the house / yard variety?
I respect all cats but some are just characters and grow on you.

* please don't tell my hound, she just wouldn't have it... ::)

                                                             D.

Hmmmmm.................... sounds like a good excuse to fire up some charcoal  ;D  ;D

I wonder if they are eedibible? ? ? ? ? ? ?  ???  ???

Frank,
I think I would be kind of chewie and tuff

Consult your local Chinese Food Restaurant.   :P

I predict that within 25-50 years, the genetics geeks will have created a hybrid "Cat-Dog"..Maybe a trainable cat with a dog's personality, or a dog that can leap 10 times it's height, maybe a dog that purrs or uses a box...I don't think the world will be any better off for it, though.

My friends have a couple of rescued Maine Coon Cats, (Barnum & Bailey).
They are very dog like and LARGE.
They also have "thumbs" from inbreeding, a (recessive) gene trait I think.

Funny, but the paleo folks say that canines and felines had a common ancestor a few million years back.  So would that be "Retro-evolution"?

Ain't nuthin new under the sun.

LOL

Doberman X Feline?

They could create a dog that could climb or leap 25 feet.. with a real bad attitude and razor-sharp claws.. (Pit Bull x Feline)..Perfect for guard duty in 2090. Or future Hollywood starlets?

Sounds like a Divorce Attorney......... :-\