Nice kitty.

[Mule]

I always thought this was the best looking wild cat

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally Posted by Mule

I always thought this was the best looking wild cat...

Margay? Looks kinda big for a Margay, but there's no reference to determine size...? Asian Spotted Leopard? No...head is too small.

Whatizit? I have the dappled part correct, but...can't put a finger on it.

One more guess...Clouded Leopard!

[Danny_Ocean]

"Cougar"? I thought you meant one of these:

[Mothy]

They are very aloof..... she will be lucky to see one. Also in the area are wolf, argali, siberian ibex and wolverine.

The main thing they are doing are observations of scats, tracks and markings to get a feel for the size of the Snow Leopard population in various areas they are known to habitat.

[Mule]

Originally Posted by Danny_Ocean

Margay? Looks kinda big for a Margay, but there's no reference to determine size...? Asian Spotted Leopard? No...head is too small.

Whatizit? I have the dappled part correct, but...can't put a finger on it.

One more guess...Clouded Leopard!

Gold Star, clouded leopard it is! About 50lbs if I remember correctly. I had a first and a second generation hybrid from an Asian Leopard cat.

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally Posted by Mule

I had a first and a second generation hybrid from an Asian Leopard cat.

Bengals are cool. Current is my 3rd (left the last two with ex-girlfriends ) .

My "dog" friends don't understand that I'm really not a "cat person" until they meet my Bengal. More dog-like than some dogs...

[slodave]

Originally Posted by procon

Worked for a surveyor back in the early 90's & did a boundary survey for a guy who at the time owned the worlds largest Jeep dealership.
We pull up to his "mountain house" & it's my turn to knock on the door to announce our presence. Start to open the door of the work rig & there's a ******* Cougar looking at me.
He owns/owned the Cougar from the Mercury commercials.
Although declawed it still had an impressive set of teeth. They treated it as a house cat, even had a culvert that it used to access the house. After the survey, he enclosed the entire property with 16' tall chain link fence & released Deer so it would have "something to do".

This isn't aimed at you procon.

Um, the thing is declawed, then the owner releases deer for the cats pleasure? Something wrong with that. Maimed deer and a pissed off cat.

[WolfeMacleod]

Originally Posted by masraum

Well, not a cat story exactly... My sister-in-law had a dog that was supposedly 3/4 or maybe 1/2 wolf and the rest German Shepherd. I've had lots of dogs, and seen them look back at me. I've ridden horses. And noticed that when a horse looks at you, it's different. It seems like they are thinking about you. But the dog that was part wolf, was really cool and creepy at the same time. When it looked at me I got a very weird feeling. It was awesome, but scary at the same time. I can easily understand why the indians saw something ancient and powerful in their eyes. I did too.

When a wolf looks at you, he's thinkign "Go ahead. Run, I dare you"


My parent's old neighbor had a full blood wolf that was hit by a car and lost a leg. Partically domesticated, I suppose. Nice enough that she wouldn't kill you, but not nice enough to play with the other animals.
When I lived with my parents, I turned a camper trailer into a bedroom and moved out of the house into the backyard. Shadow used to stay in the trailer with me at night.
In '93 or 94 Shadow has pups with another local, a half-breed Husky or Malamute mix. When they were old enough, we took one and named him Szhardek.
He became the Szhardekian War Dog, and got freakin' huge. He ate baseball gloves and logs, and every bit of food in the fridge when we moved...
So we had two Bengals and a mostly-wolf in the house.
They got along famously, believe it or not.

[RoninLB]

question about cougars


when at a Ranger Station in Oregon the guy said a full grown male is around 125#

when I was bs'ing with a ranger painting an entrance fence in N Dakota he said the population is few and a full grown male is around 175#


that's a big difference.

any comments ?

[RoninLB]

When in Kenya I watched a pack make a kill from close by... my pics

A few days later in town I saw a man with one on a leash.

[slodave]

Not so big of a difference. Different parts of the country. The lucky ones can get well over 200#s.

[RoninLB]

different parts of the country cause different growth size or it's just a resident population thing?

I have a campground site on a river where they come for water only on the other side... usually


thx

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally Posted by RoninLB

question about cougars...when at a Ranger Station in Oregon the guy said a full grown male is around 125#...when I was bs'ing with a ranger painting an entrance fence in N Dakota he said the population is few and a full grown male is around 175#...that's a big difference.

Any comments ?

Cougars (aka pumas, mountain lions & panthers) are slender and agile cats. Adults stand about 60 to 80 cm (2.0 to 2.7 ft) tall at the shoulders. The length of adult males is around 2.4 m (8 ft) long nose to tail, with overall ranges between 1.5 and 2.75 meters (5 and 9 ft) nose to tail suggested for the species in general.

Males have an average weight of about 53 to 72 kilograms (115 to 160 pounds). In rare cases, some may reach over 120 kg (260 lb). Female average weight is between 34 and 48 kg (75 and 105 lb). Cougar size is smallest close to the equator, and larger towards the poles.

Some cougar "fun facts":

Did you know?

Next to man, cougars are the most widely distributed land mammal in the Western hemisphere.
Cougars are the 2nd largest cat in the Western hemisphere (Jaguar is bigger).
A cougar can jump upward 18 feet from a sitting position. They can leap up to 40 feet horizontally.
Cougars cannot roar like a lion, but they can make calls like a human scream.
Generally, adult cougars are solitary animals and come together only for mating.
It is more closely related to the common house cat than to the four "big cats": the tiger, lion, jaguar and leopard.
Natives of Puget Sound called cougars "fire cats" and believed that each fall the cat carried fire from the Olympic mountains to Mt. Rainier, starting a forest fire along the way.

[slodave]

There have been reports of male cougars being over 250# in Canada. That can't be fun.

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally Posted by slodave

There have been reports of male cougars being over 250# in Canada. That can't be fun.

They put one (living) on display here during the big cat show (CFA) every year. You can walk right up to the pen and practically feel its' breath on your face. This sucker is about 100 ~ 120 lbs. and let me tell you...you wouldn't want him on you. Pure muscle and fast as lightning. The upper canines are at least 2".

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by Danny_Ocean

Before starting the tour, they advised us not to rest against, or put our fingers through, the chain-link fencing. To demonstrate, a handler put a piece of chicken through the fence of a run containing a panther (black mountain lion) who had a balance issue (he wobbled around like a drunk sailor). This cat, as f-ed up as he was physically, made it from one end of the run to the other (about 30') before you could freakin' blink, and snatched the chicken out of the handlers grip. The handler barely had time to pull his hand back before that thing hit the fence.

After seeing that demonstration, you start wondering what a healthy cat could do. Nonetheless, no-one stuck their fingers through the chain-link the rest of the day.

My friend did some work up in the local mountains for a couple of months. They were working way back in the sticks and regularly saw mountain lions so he wore his .357.
One day got out of his truck left the gun in the truck and walked about twenty feet then saw a mountain lion about thirty feet away. As he is telling me the story he says "but my gun was right there."
I told him "If that lion wanted you you wouldn't be here right now."

I had a eight pound Siamese that from standing still would leap to the top of my refrigerator, she would freak people out.

[creaturecat]

[Danny_Ocean]

That's surreal... and to think, they're up-in-arms about pitbulls in the US.

Originally Posted by creaturecat

[Mule]

Originally Posted by Danny_Ocean

That's surreal... and to think, they're up-in-arms about pitbulls in the US.

That's Mike Vick's African cousins!

PS My money's on the baboon.

[WolfeMacleod]

I have a correction to my statement about Bob Sapp owning an Ocelot.
My wife tells me it was a Serval. What can I say? It was a good 5-6 years ago...



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