Mountain lions and bobcats

[Pensmaster]

I have a cougar story.
Grade 8.
We had a long driveway. Half a mile, or three quarters. It was middle of the Albertan winter, so the sun didn't rise until 10 AM.
I had to get on the bus at 7:30 AM every morning, and I'd always walk.
For about 2 weeks in a row we had a cougar stalking me every morning to the bus. 15 minutes per day. Every morning.
We saw it in our yard at one am one night. It was dark, heard a growl/scream. Shone a flashlight out and caught a pair of eyes. It stared at us for a solid ten minutes.
We didn't shoot it. We should have.

One will never forget the scream once it’s heard.

 

[Morrigan]

When in lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, it seemed I was always reading and hearing about mountain lion sightings. I think they are attracted to the large deer populations that thrive suburban areas. I recall one cougar was caught after being treed by a labrador retriever not a mile from my house. I used to run or walk on a trail near a big reservoir and I was always paranoid about the mountain lions, as there are deer everyone and warning signs. I would only use the trail on the weekends, or during the summer, when it was crowded with people.

Having moved to the Sierra foothills, I have not yet seen a cougar, but then again, I see far fewer deer than when I was in suburbia. I have seen bears, coyotes and bobcats, so suspect there are cougars out here as well. I would never go hiking alone on a trail because of that.

As I posted at length about, I recently had a bad bobcat experience. One small, juvenile bobcat found a way into the fenced chicken yard and slipped into the coop as the automatic door opened at dawn. Over half my hens killed, and another couple injured. The very next morning I found the bobcat at dawn, laying outside the chicken coop, waiting patiently for the door to open again to it could resume its all-you-can-eat buffet. Luckily it's legal to kill them here, as long as its the right season and you have tags. Husband has tags, it's the right season, so he shot it. I was shocked how bold it was, lying right there in the yard, staring straight at me. It's been over 2 weeks and I haven't seen any more (we have trail cams set up) or scat, and I'm hoping to never see another one.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

It does sound like the bigger concern for our chickens is bobcats, not cougars. It's possible the scat on our property is bobcat. I made a great climbing gym for them with the six foot tall 2x4" welded fencing around the chicken run. The first three feet at the bottom is 1/2" hardware cloth stitch to the fencing with wire. But a running leap will put them above the hardware cloth and it's an easy climb from there.

 

[NikAndHerChicks]

My 12 year old son swears he saw a cougar in our backyard a couple of months ago. At the time we were being extra vigilant because we had lost 3 hens in 4 weeks to unknown predators. Our hens no longer free range (given the excessive cold this winter- even if were to let them out, I don't think they'd go right now!), but we have still been closely monitoring tracks in our yard. I immediately dismissed him because- according to the Michigan DNR- there haven't been any cougars (AKA Mountain Lions) in the Lower Peninsula since 1906. (It doesn't help that my 12 year old also thinks that Jack-elopes exist, and that there is a Swampsquatch that lives in the swamp next door ... or is it .) *sigh* Either way, I had to reassess my snap judgement (of dismissal) when I found tracks & definitely feline scat. I'm not saying it was definitely a cougar, but there have been a rash of recently reported cougar sightings in the area, also an increase in reported bobcat sightings. DNR still denies they are in this part of the state, though!

I really need to get a trail cam.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

One will never forget the scream once it’s heard.

Oh, dang. Now I'm looking up cougar scream videos. Well, it's all in the spirit of education. And to think I'd like to live alone in my own cabin in Idaho, even more rural than I am now. Gah.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

My 12 year old son swears he saw a cougar in our backyard a couple of months ago. At the time we were being extra vigilant because we had lost 3 hens in 4 weeks to unknown predators. Our hens no longer free range (given the excessive cold this winter- even if were to let them out, I don't think they'd go right now!), but we have still been closely monitoring tracks in our yard. I immediately dismissed him because- according to the Michigan DNR- there haven't been any cougars (AKA Mountain Lions) in the Lower Peninsula since 1906. (It doesn't help that my 12 year old also thinks that Jack-elopes exist, and that there is a Swampsquatch that lives in the swamp next door ... or is it .) *sigh* Either way, I had to reassess my snap judgement (of dismissal) when I found tracks & definitely feline scat. I'm not saying it was definitely a cougar, but there have been a rash of recently reported cougar sightings in the area, also an increase in reported bobcat sightings. DNR still denies they are in this part of the state, though!

I really need to get a trail cam.

Too funny! You had me laughing out loud. Well, snorting while sipping chai.

Does anyone know if Swampsquatches are part of the cat family?

 

[Sunshine Flock]

So, for some reason it never occurred to me to listen to the sounds a cougar makes. We just listened to this.

And that's what we heard in our woods last night, not far from where I found the scat. It was less screechy but definitely just like the cougar in the video. They have a large territory, even the females, right?

Could there be a cougar den down there? Do they make dens? Oh, boy.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Cougars can jump straight up eighteen feet and leap thirty feet horizontally.

Great.

The sounds in this video are what we heard last night.

 

[NikAndHerChicks]

Too funny! You had me laughing out loud. Well, snorting while sipping chai.

Does anyone know if Swampsquatches are part of the cat family?

Primate maybe? I guarantee you, if he heard the scream like in the first video, he would swear it was a Swampsquatch, not a cougar! The beginning where she is screaming more, I would never have guessed a cougar if I heard the sound without seeing the video. That definitely does not sound feline to me. Definitely screaming instead of the roaring type of sound you expect! Amazing creatures, but I wouldn't want to run into that in the woods at night.

 

[Pensmaster]

My 12 year old son swears he saw a cougar in our backyard a couple of months ago. At the time we were being extra vigilant because we had lost 3 hens in 4 weeks to unknown predators. Our hens no longer free range (given the excessive cold this winter- even if were to let them out, I don't think they'd go right now!), but we have still been closely monitoring tracks in our yard. I immediately dismissed him because- according to the Michigan DNR- there haven't been any cougars (AKA Mountain Lions) in the Lower Peninsula since 1906. (It doesn't help that my 12 year old also thinks that Jack-elopes exist, and that there is a Swampsquatch that lives in the swamp next door ... or is it .) *sigh* Either way, I had to reassess my snap judgement (of dismissal) when I found tracks & definitely feline scat. I'm not saying it was definitely a cougar, but there have been a rash of recently reported cougar sightings in the area, also an increase in reported bobcat sightings. DNR still denies they are in this part of the state, though!

I really need to get a trail cam.

Wonder what a good trail cam is. We are needing one as well.