While I was in the library at the local college, I overheard a guy talking about a friend of his who was bowhunting here in WV and was stalked by a mountain lion. This was only about 3 miles from Grafton, along the Tygart Valley River. He got so scared he jumped into the lake to escape. A few days later, he showed me a picture that a friend of his had captured on one of those cameras that hunters put on game trails to see what kind of animals (mainly deer) come by. He had a picture of a mountain lion stalking a deer, on a trail right close to his house. This was about 15 miles down river from where the other encounter had been. (Gulp! I just realized it was where my brother and I had ridden our mountain bikes.) I was talking to the assessor of that county, and she told me that the Superintendant of Valley Falls State Park told her that he had seen black panthers in that area.

I sent an e-mail to a friend of mine in Boulder, Colorado, and he said the son of a guy he worked with was bowhunting when a mountain lion started stalking him. He waved his arms, shouted, and threw rocks at it, but it kept coming and he finally shot it and killed it.

My dad saw a mountain lion up in the mountains in Tucker Co. about 40 years ago. The people down here didn't really believe him (thought he was mistaken, not lying), but he talked to several people up there who had seen it.

My sister lives out in the country in Va., close to Blacksburg and she and her husband had one jump across the road in front of them one night. The local game warden said that they didn't know of any mountain lions around there, but that there used to be several small zoos in shopping centers and the like around there that had closed. He thought that maybe they had just been let loose. There is also speculation that the State has secretly imported them to control the deer population, but they deny it.

What are your experiences? Brady

 

Cougars (Mountain Lions) in Western Canada.


http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=...e+Search&meta=

 

We have quite a few around here (Northern Utah). They seem to be getting a little more bold in the last few years. So far I haven't had any encounters.
Mike

 

The communities in CA that are on the outskirts of civilization seem to run across pumas every so often. This is especially common in SoCal where they're developing so quickly that nature just can't seem to retreat quickly enough.

I live in the SF Bay Area...in 1990, I found a strange animal track in my back yard. I took a Polaroid down to the local chapter of the Audubon Society, borrowed a tracking book and discovered that we'd been visited by a puma. That was my closest personal encounter.

Most pumas aren't that big...100 lbs is considered quite large...but are still a threat to children, livestock and pets in some areas.

 

In theory, we don't have any as next-door neighbors, but there've been some credible sightings within a mile or two of our house. Since we have just about every other critter walking or flying around, it wouldn't surprise me.

The Northwest Chapter of FTE
we don't get lost,
we just get found
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Cougars (Mountain Lions) in Western Canada."

Wasn't there a cougar attack on Vancouver Island last summer? I remember a friend of mine sending me down the story, but I didn't save it on the computer.

 

California mountain lions are becoming a real problem since the tree huggers out here got them protected from ALL hunting, before you can even get a special depredation permit if you have lions taking stock or pets or even threatening your immediate household area you have to prove which lion you're after- they have license plates?

Just south of here in Orange County, CA they had one kill and partially consume a mountain biker in an urban county park, the guy had stopped to put his chain back on the sprocket, then the same lion went after another biker, a woman and tore her up real bad-she was saved by some passers by actually having a tug of war with the cat, the cat pulling by the gal's head and the people holding on to here legs. By the way the ones here in our mountains consistently go well over 100 lbs, as heavy as 175 to 180.
Oak Creek Canyon, CA

 

My dad works at the LLNL, and one day a few months back, there was a protest at one of the gates, and the people were really rude about what they were protesting. Anyways, that same day, there are reports of a Mountain Lion in the area. Guess where they found it?? They ended up tranqiulizing it, and too bad it didnt get to any of the moron protestors.

 

here (NE Texas) there aren't spose to be any either. but one night two women from our church were out looking at starts and claimed to have seen one on Joe's land. then Lee, and Eric said they saw one. we wrote them all off as crazy. then the neighbors out there have (had) two big german sheperds, and one night one didn't come back and the other was a little banged up and scratched. then another neighbor found one of his calves (plural of calf?) 18ft up in a tree. and since it's been seen a few times by some hunters, including one I know.
and now there's rumors of a second

 

There were four cougars killed in my back woods. My sister saw one in a tree right above her a few years ago and a little kid just up the mountain from me was mauled by a big male. They are everywhere around here and are so prevelent that cougar licenses are given to dear hunters for free. We are even allowed to shoot multiple cougars per year. The cougar population is exploding and so is the wolf population in the northern Idaho panhandle and western montana. There have been more and more sightings by cattle farmers and hunters every year.

 

We have a ton of Mountain Lions here. So many that the mothers run the young ones off and they come into town or the outskirts looking for food. Numerous young cats getting shot, underweight because of a lack of territory and food to hunt. I have seen more than my share of all of the "nearly extinct" threatened species. Anyone want some? I'd sure be happy to send some back east for ya.... a few Mtn Lions, wolves, grizz ... share the wealth of all these innocent lil predators.

 

About 10 years ago when I was living in southeast Idaho, a tree-hugger snuck onto a neighbor of mine's land and set free his pet cougar. It was loose about 30 minutes before it was shot by another neighbor who saw it stalking his kids. Bad karma....set it free so it could die immediately.

At about the same time, a bunch of ligers (tiger/lion hybrids) got loose near Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. They were crammed into a compound next to the highway. It was a big eyesore since it was mostly baling wire and pallets surrounding a mobile home. This couple had 57 big cats on about a 1/4 acre, and somebody called in a siteing of a liger. The cops found the couple sitting on the roof of the mobile home, and about 14 cats got loose in the countryside. I think they found and shot MOST of them?

I never saw a cougar while I was living there, but I found a couple of half-eaten fawns in the woods next to our house. I never told my wife since I didn't want her never to set foot outside the house again.

 

If it's the same pic, it's been making the e-mail rounds. I heard that it was photo-enhanced.

It's becoming a serious problem in the west due to laws passed that don't allow the use of dogs to hunt them. We've had several in town over the years. There was a sighting of one running behind the high school chasing a deer in August just before school started. Road workers just out of town and hunters have been stalked. One road crew guy, in the mtns. working, was stalked in the road. He chased it off just to have it come back and stalk him again.

Just this last elk season a friend had one come into camp during the night and ravaged an old deer hide right outside his trailer. And this was 3 days after another hunter just down the road killed one. They are very territorial and will run off their young once they no longer need mom. This creates the danger in local communities as the young seek their own territroy.

Sadly this won't change until a politicians kid, family member, close friend gets attacked.

 

Yeah, we have plenty of them. You just learn to live around them. Any trip to the woods includes a firearm. One of my boys raises Black and Tan hounds to hunt them. Just last Monday they treed a 90# female. Quota's are filled in that area so they just pulled the dogs off the tree. Fish and Wildlife is about 5 years behind current conditions for most of their quotas. Way it works: a given number of cats are allowed to be harvested in a given geographical area. Hunters have to report their kills. When the quota is filled, that area is chase only for the rest of the season.

I live in the middle of a major deer wintering area - and the cats follow the deer herd down out of the mountains. They are opportunists - prey on whatever's easiest - deer, dogs, housecats, kids, joggers/hikers, etc. If you meet one be agressive (just the opposite for bear) and have adequate firepower for backup.

 

We've had multiple incidents in last few years of unprovoked attacks on hikers, joggers and bikers. The latest was a 5 year child snatched away while on a hike with a church group. The scary part was no one saw it happen. The cat was obviously stalking and waited until the child was out of the line of sight for a moment. They are becoming more aggressive each year and one of the schools near the foothills has twice been under lock down due to mountain lion sightings on the school grounds. Now there is talk of reintroducing wolves to the area.

 

I've lived in Northern Ca. almost all my life, most of it in some fairly remote areas. Having cougars for neighbors is just a fact of life. Saw my first one when I was in the 2nd grade in Trinity county. Our whole school took an impromptu field trip one day to where a hunter had one treed in a huge fir, we all stood around and looked at it for a while till he shot it down. I, of course, ran right over to it for a closer look, my teacher freaked and yelled at me that it might still be alive...it wasn't. The next year a neighbor lady brought her El Camino over to show us the dead cougar that was in the back, her husband had shot it out of a tree in their yard that morning. Still got a picture of it somewhere. Seen a few live ones over the years as well, they're pretty common around here. When I first moved to this county we lived on a large piece of property, and were cautioned by our neighbors to keep our cats indoors at night, or they would end up cougar bait. Had two sightings of a young cub within a few months, the second time it was in our closest neighbors yard up in tree. -TD