Any guesses at to what critter is lurking around my chickens?

[cwhit590]

When you say ' the big cats' that travel thru, do you mean mountain lions?

 

[Benelli]

They're a cousin to mountain lions. They call them panthers or FL panthers here. They pulled two out of a park 30 miles from here last year that had tracker collars on them from Penscola, FL. A good 200 plus mile trek. I've had one here on the property three times, that has been seen by the previous owners and neighbors. They've also gotten one off Ft. Benning in the last year and one north of here. There's more than DNR will admit, but we know they're here despite what they want to tell everyone. The DNR guys tell due to work connections but deny it to the public. Go figure.

Needless to say, when I went out about an hour ago I was armed since the dog was plain scared.

 

[Julie_A]

People around here swear they've seen them... I'm an hour, due north, of Pensacola.

 

[CedarRidgeChicks]

Yep..I forgot about the "big cats"..we had one/two that went through the Pines in the LB area (Fl) a couple times a year..saw it once heard it often..the dogs would go nuts when it screamed..didn't have a horse then...but..would it pull the hay down and bed on it?..How about spreading some lime, flour etc around and see if you can get a print..??

(big cats in N.Fl and I would think So.Ga? are refered to as panthers..several killed on I-10 a couple years ago)

 

[Julie_A]

Benelli, you don't live in "Swamp Gravy" territory, do you? Met a darling woman from Colquitt at economic development training in Auburn in '07.

 

[TwinMommy2009]

hhmmm.... do you hunt?? Maybe you have a night vision camera laying around to attach to a tree? I'd be curious to know what it was. Im in south FL, and have a resident bobcat who always lays out in the open... maybe bobcat?? But i find it unlikely that a cat would pull out hay for bedding... have you thought maybe raccoon??

 

[Julie_A]

Quote:
Game camera! That's a great idea!!!

 

[cwhit590]

Interesting. Well maybe it was a panther...? but I don't know if they make beds. Could you tell from looking at the bale how high the animal reached to pull the hay to make the bed?

Do yall have black bears in your area? er...I dunno, bears are probably hibernating now anyway?

 

[LizFM]

I'm trying to imagine what would scare a 90 lb American Bulldog...and coyotes and foxes are not cutting it. Neither are bobcats (they're not that big). I can see having that reaction about a big cat (they're everywhere...3 of them, at different times, came down Into central Omaha the year we moved out of there...).

Do you have bears?

 

[Benelli]

DNR tells me because we have reason to cross paths due to work. Otherwise, if you ask DNR and they don't know you...... they'll deny, deny, deny. The two they pulled out in Providence Canyon State Park(Little Grand Canyon, Lumpkin, GA) were confirmed from FL.

I like the idea about flour to see if I get any prints. Too bad I messed it's bed up first. I'll try tomorrow anyway and see if it comes back.

My trail camera broke and I haven't sent it to get fixed. Guess I'll be doing that soon and have it ready, if needed again.

I'm just thrown with the dog. He chases everything unless told otherwise. Guess he's a little smarter than I thought if he's afraid of whatever it is. I would think he'd chase a bobcat.