This discussion is a great examlpe of the old saying "figures lie and liars figure". I live in Alligator country, and while Alligator attacks are extremely rare nationally, if I went swimming in a 1 acre pond with an 8 foot Alligator I don't think of the national averarages of me getting attacked, me thinks; 1 foolish man in 1 BIG Alligator's small habitat. While my 3 granddaughters are in school right now the chances are slim they will be attacked by a cougar but if there was a cougar hunting prey in their backyard national averages go out the window. If the DNR could//would not do anything I would, end of discussion.

PS- In my part of the country several years ago it was illegal to kill an Alligator because they were endangered, they recovered so fast it became a serious problem, they now issue permits to hunt them.

I saw a great TV show about Grizzly bears. It was interesting because I was sitting in my living room with a zero chance of being eaten by a bear. One of the people they talked to made a great point. Everyone loves bears and likes to see them at a distance. But some people live in an area where the bears are making a comeback. The bears are breaking into houses because they have learned houses have food. It is easy to say the people live in the wrong area. It is a bit different if you own a house and several acres of land for the last 30 years and have everything you own invested in the place.

bears? well let me tell you about yellowstone last august. see the grande canon(grand canyon) and jellystone are run by XTERRA(sp) concessions. its ALL about da money and i mean BIG MONEY!


if a bear attack is run in the media..................headcount goes down in jellystone. every damn ranger there and park employee will ONLY SAY "dont fergit yer bells and bear spray!"


what a damn crock of crap. i asked the campground host about bears "oh havent seen any." well guy behind me overheard conversation, saw me back at my camp pad and told me 2 days prior mommy bear and 2 babies came strolling right thru campground.


literally while i was watching ol faithful and taking mega pics, 1.5 miles north a guy was mauled to DEATH, while we were there. we hung out in park for at least 5 days longer fishing etc. not ONCE in any of the other campgrounds or our wanderings did anybody tell us of this.

a week later down in colorado north of telluride, we spoke to ranger blah blah. she asked what we have been doing, and we told her all about jellystone. she asked "did ya hear about the bear attack?" and we replied "NO!"


so....................if ya think you are getting the real picture of whats going on..........well let me tell you.............i aint ever going into jellystone or any back country NOT ARMED TO THE TEETH!

i aint gonna be bear poo nor mtn kitty poo! just aint happening EVAR!


thank gawd you can now carry concealed(with ccw license) or open in our national parks.


its your classic "dont worry about it until it happens and when it does happen dont tell anybody because park visitor numbers will go down resulting in less revenue."


so in reply to this mtn kitty problemo, if it were me, i would be proactive as all hell , bugging the hell out of this kat with non lethal methods and be ready as all hell for a "worst case" intimate moment with a very sneaky creature.


firecrackers

"wham" cranked at mega volume

"cher" cranked at mega volume

more firecrackers

air horns

cheap azz trail cams.


and best of all...................snag some freeking hunting hounds(beagle bastids) and have them run the damn thing into a tree then call game and fish and MAKE IT THEIR PROBLEM!


because ya damn well know, if ya shoot it...............YOU WILL MAKE THE 10PM NEWS! and if ya do shoot it.............ya better have a hunting license and mtn lion tag to CYA.


"and thats my final words on the matter." tom horne.

futuresoptions,

I hear ya about not wanting to kill it. All cougars are cool. Especially the ones in their 50's! :D The problem is if something isn't done and done soon, someone is going to get hurt or worse. Per your comments, that cougar stopped and gazed at your wife for a few seconds. Guessing the relative proximity between the cougar and your wife (that is back yard distance), the fact that it simply didn't keep moving is an indicator that it is becoming accustomed to it's environment. Not a good thing. Just like gators or bears that don't immediately flee in the presence of humans, this cougar is getting (too) comfortable.

Perhaps you've already considered it, but in the even you haven't, why not give someone like: Texas Mountain Lion Conservation Project a call to see what can be done. I've not affiliation, I just found it online. There may even be other groups/organizations that you can call that may be interested in catching and relocating it.

Please do keep us apprised and if you can get pictures of this cougar, that would be cool too!

What happened to Joe Bob's pic of the guy with his cougar? Was gonna show the wife that one today... Me and the wife spoke some more about this and made a few more observations. We noticed that we no longer see the 2-3 stray dogs a day coming out of the brush and that the 5-6 wild domestic cats that lived in the brush and would come out everyday have not been seen. We also noticed that usually we would see 4-5 large road runners in our yard and in the field next to our yard on a daily basis and haven't seen them for weeks.

I have decided that I will take OJ's approach for the next week and use sound as a deterrent. I will leave the radio on in the shop and I will hang up a handful of homemade pie tin/soda can wind chimes around the area of my shop.

I ordered a rabbit pelt and a rabbit distress cd today and it will take about a week for them to come in. If the sound deterrent does not phase the cat then I will lure it out and shoot it. Will keep you informed of the progress...

This beast sounds like a blessing. If you do happen to trap it send it over my way.SmileWavy

The stray dogs I could do without, but we were happy about the cats and the roadrunners as they keep the snake population in check...

That cat looks a few seconds away from eating his face off.

as i mentioned the other day we had a bobkat vs harris hawk war of the worlds unfold right in front of wifey, in our driveway.


here at aeropuerto we have a mtn kitty and a mommy bobkitty with bobkitty-ettes(babies).


with this drought on, lots of game comes into areas with food and water.


but since this is YOUR YARD/YOUR KIDS/YOUR WIFEY/YOUR AZZ...............well its time to GO ON A WARTIME FOOTING!


PSY-OPS as suggested with "WHAM" and "CHER" at mega decibles.

YOU MUST DENY THE ENEMY FOOD WATER SLEEP SEX!


and i will bet for a case of PEARL BEER.................you can get a PACK OF BEAGLE BASTIDS to go run him up a tree, then as mentioned call game and fish and make it THEIR PROBLEM! or not and have a nice full size mount in living room.



mtn katz HATE BEAGLE BASTID HOUNDS with a passion. once that damn truck full of BEAGLE BASTIDS rounds the corner to yer house, that damn kat will be heading for the hills TOOT SWEET! and i mean it. if you have ever heard a truck full of BEAGLE BASTIDS you will know what i mean.


guys who hunt katz by themselves rarely get to see one let alone shoot one.



guys with BEAGLE BASTIDS..................its damn near a 99.99999999999999% chance they will tree it and nail it in the tree. anywhere here. if there is a katz............those damn BEAGLE BASTID HOUNDS WILL FIND IT or DIE TRYING!

Just get a mule!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1336162795.jpg

They like to whup up on kitties.

Funny thing, about an hour after the game warden left (he said that he would pass his report on to a state biologist), a state biologist called and stated that he hadn't heard of any attacks in our area (even though I know of a boy scout camp leader that was supposedly attacked a here at the state park a few months after I had made my original cougar encounter post) he just gave advice as not to run from it if we encounter it and to stand our ground.

I spoke to my friend this morning that I had gone camping with when I had my original encounter and he told me about this story and I found the video and thought I would share:

<a href="http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/texas/mountain-lion-attacks-boy-in-big-bend">Mountain lion attacks boy in Big Bend: kxan.com</a></p>

Video won't embed for some reason.

a pet wolf pack will clear the area of cougars

This reminds me of when we moved from the midwest to VA and got a home alarm installed. The guy programmed the buttons and told her the police no was for non-emergencies like "if a bear comes into the yard from the woods." She called me at work crying like where the f*** did you move us? and told him she'd be calling 911 in a second. Still cracks me up when I think about it. No bears yet, maybe they're afraid of mini schnauzers.

I had a mini schnauzer. Loved that dog but have to admit I was a bit intimidated by him. Tenacious little beasts.