Mountain lions and bobcats

[Pensmaster]

None of the above. Claw marks in the track disqualify. Those are more canine based tracks. Think dog/coyote/wolf. Likely coyote.

There are quite a few coyotes here but their numbers are dwindling.

 

[PirateGirl]

Stories, I don't know where to begin. I have seen much scat. I have seen fresh tracks in the snow, so one was still around when I was around. I have seen many carcasses. I have encountered a mountain lion twice and a bobcat twice. My husband has also seen a mountain lion and my friends saw one right out their living room window as well.I guess here are just a few things to keep in mind. as well.

Dawn and dusk are the most likely time to see them both.

They are both solitary animals (unless they have one or two young with them).

Scat, especially older, will just look like a coil of hair and will be the same size as a dog or human.

Mountain lions (I'm not sure about bobcats) will have a home range. If there are signs of it in the area, as long as there is a food source that lives there, they will remain in the area, until there is reason to move on (such as mating season, or seasonal migration of deer/elk herds)

Carcasses tend to be hidden and guarded. They return to their kill and may feed on it for days. If you find a carcass, it's time to get out of there. If you find a carcass high on a rock, bush, or tree, it's likely a cat. Predators like coyotes as well as smaller scavengers will rip apart a carcass and carry pieces away so parts of the kill may be scattered over miles. If you find a whole carcass, it could very well be from a large cat.

Bobcats prey on smaller animals, primarily rabbits. A human is not a meal to a bobcat. A bobcat will not hunt a human and thus is a bit more timid and more likely to flee.

A mountain lion can and will kill and eat a deer or an elk. A human is the same size or smaller than some of the animals they prey on. A mountain lion is a threat to a person. A mountain lion may not be afraid of you. A mountain lion is an ambush predator, so it will sneak up on you, hide in the bushes, etc., but if spotted, the hunt is off because it no longer has the element of surprise.

If you have dogs, trust that their senses are better than yours. They smell things you don't smell, they hear things you don't here. If your dog refuses to walk down a trail or past a bush, or into a canyon, or has all their fur up for no apparent reason, trust me, there is a reason, and take it as a warning.

Easiest way to tell a mountain lion and bobcat apart if you only get a quick glance, a mountain lion will have a large and remarkable tail, almost the length of it's entire body.

My first, and scariest, mountain lion experience is this.
I took my dog, 80lb golden retriever, for a walk on a well used hiking trail in the Rocky Mountains after work, which makes it dusk, 5-6pm. As we are walking up the trail my dog is maybe 10-20 yards ahead and stops, she clearly sees something in the bushes. I start yelling at her, fearing a skunk or porcupine (neither of which we ever want to encounter on the trail). The dog ignores me (of course) and runs towards whatever it sees, when a mountain lion, surprised to be spotted, jumps up, turns, and runs off, in and out of sight again in an instant. This animal was easily as large as my golden retriever with a tail as long as its body. It had been crouched in a bush, uphill from me, not 3 feet off the hiking trail. There is no doubt in my mind that if my dog hadn't been with me and smelled it, I would have walked right up to it without seeing it and this would have been a completely different story.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

I'm in NW Washington state and we have lots of them even though sightings are fairly uncommon. A few months back someone filmed one swimming in a nearby lake, which seemed odd to me, but I guess they don't hate water like domestic cats do. There have also been sightings in town where the cats probably hunt pets and feral strays.

I remember seeing a documentary where they kept some rescued cougars in huge fenced area and seeing one hunt ducks, so they do eat small animals sometimes. But for the most part they avoid humans as much as possible and I doubt they'd bother a chicken coop the way bobcats will.

I also have to add that despite these animals being fairly common in this area I have never heard of a person here being attacked, and that includes adults and children. Even so, it pays to be cautious. I would never allow small children into any wild area unless a well prepared adult is with them. These animals are nocturnal, so extra precautions should be taken at night. I personally avoid going very far outside at night if I can help it.

I agree. I think bobcats are the bigger concern with chickens.

There have been sightings of swimming cougars at Shasta Lake in the last year or so, and in the last month a couple was walking their small dog at that same lake, on a trail, when a cougar grabbed him and dragged him away. They screamed and did everything they could, but the cougar took off running with their dog.

That seems very bold and out of character for a cougar, but it could be a matter of the cougar population relative to humans on trails is very low, and so the incident rate of them doing things like this is also low, which gives us the impression they're doing something out of character. It could just be they aren't being presented with opportunities like this.

It's alarming to have realized yesterday that we were, in fact, hearing a cougar on our property two nights ago. But I'm not feeling terribly worried. I think learning what I can about them and watching videos is helping a lot.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Stories, I don't know where to begin. I have seen much scat. I have seen fresh tracks in the snow, so one was still around when I was around. I have seen many carcasses. I have encountered a mountain lion twice and a bobcat twice. My husband has also seen a mountain lion and my friends saw one right out their living room window as well.I guess here are just a few things to keep in mind. as well.

Dawn and dusk are the most likely time to see them both.

They are both solitary animals (unless they have one or two young with them).

Scat, especially older, will just look like a coil of hair and will be the same size as a dog or human.

Mountain lions (I'm not sure about bobcats) will have a home range. If there are signs of it in the area, as long as there is a food source that lives there, they will remain in the area, until there is reason to move on (such as mating season, or seasonal migration of deer/elk herds)

Carcasses tend to be hidden and guarded. They return to their kill and may feed on it for days. If you find a carcass, it's time to get out of there. If you find a carcass high on a rock, bush, or tree, it's likely a cat. Predators like coyotes as well as smaller scavengers will rip apart a carcass and carry pieces away so parts of the kill may be scattered over miles. If you find a whole carcass, it could very well be from a large cat.

Bobcats prey on smaller animals, primarily rabbits. A human is not a meal to a bobcat. A bobcat will not hunt a human and thus is a bit more timid and more likely to flee.

A mountain lion can and will kill and eat a deer or an elk. A human is the same size or smaller than some of the animals they prey on. A mountain lion is a threat to a person. A mountain lion may not be afraid of you. A mountain lion is an ambush predator, so it will sneak up on you, hide in the bushes, etc., but if spotted, the hunt is off because it no longer has the element of surprise.

If you have dogs, trust that their senses are better than yours. They smell things you don't smell, they hear things you don't here. If your dog refuses to walk down a trail or past a bush, or into a canyon, or has all their fur up for no apparent reason, trust me, there is a reason, and take it as a warning.

Easiest way to tell a mountain lion and bobcat apart if you only get a quick glance, a mountain lion will have a large and remarkable tail, almost the length of it's entire body.

My first, and scariest, mountain lion experience is this.
I took my dog, 80lb golden retriever, for a walk on a well used hiking trail in the Rocky Mountains after work, which makes it dusk, 5-6pm. As we are walking up the trail my dog is maybe 10-20 yards ahead and stops, she clearly sees something in the bushes. I start yelling at her, fearing a skunk or porcupine (neither of which we ever want to encounter on the trail). The dog ignores me (of course) and runs towards whatever it sees, when a mountain lion, surprised to be spotted, jumps up, turns, and runs off, in and out of sight again in an instant. This animal was easily as large as my golden retriever with a tail as long as its body. It had been crouched in a bush, uphill from me, not 3 feet off the hiking trail. There is no doubt in my mind that if my dog hadn't been with me and smelled it, I would have walked right up to it without seeing it and this would have been a completely different story.

All great information to think about, thank you!

Someone else in this discussion mentioned a neighbor whose dog will no longer go down a certain trail or road. For the last few weeks our dog Meesha has been refusing to go into the dog yard. She puts the brakes on hard and won't budge. She likes different routes and wants to explore (she's always on leash), so at first we thought she just wanted to go do her business elsewhere and do some sniffing and have a little adventure.

But when I saw that comment, it occurred to me that her behavior is strongly against walking into the dog yard, not just preferring something different for a change. I was able to take her there this morning with no resistance, but usually she does resist. I smell nothing, and the other three dogs seem fine, but not Meesha. She's the most emotional and sensitive of them. I'm wondering if a cougar or some other animal put down a scent that she's reacting to.

The dogs all know when something has been near their yard or our home. They go sniff crazy. But this is a bit different. I'll never know for sure, but it sure does have me on alert.

 

[PirateGirl]

@CarolinaSunshineFlock

I definitely think it's because they smell something we don't! Sometimes it's just something unfamiliar so they may be nervous, but sometimes maybe we really should be nervous. Wild animals spray and mark their territories, neighborhood dogs and cats do as well. Walk your dog with a few friends with dogs, one dog pees, the next dog pees on the same spot, the third dog pees on the same spot, the first dog goes back and pees on it again to cover it up. Smell is very important to other animals. Once I was hiking with my dogs and my golden absolutely refused to head up the canyon. She totally put on the breaks. This is not like her. Normal behavior is to run ahead, sniff everything, roll in everything, do doggy things, she is not a shy or timid dog. When she was off leash she turned around and ran all the way back to our campsite at full speed (no one else was at camp, she was not running back to be with her friends). That was so uncharacteristic, it was enough to spook me. I too retreated back to camp. Don't know what she saw or smelled, but it was the same dog that had years prior seen the mountain lion and her fair share of other wildlife that I respected her decision to get out of Dodge!

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Cougar or bobcat tracks or none of the above?

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I keep reading that you won't see claw impressions with a cougar track. And one toe on the front paw is forward more than the others. The pad is wider than a dogs.

I'd say not a cougar, but are there examples of cougar tracks with claws? What if they're running after something. Could their claws go out?

 

[Sunshine Flock]

I should have my son call in and report the swampsquatch he thinks lives in the swamp next door & see what happens!

According to the Big Foot documentary on Netflix my husband watched, you can bait Sasquatches with apples. I'm guessing a Swampsquatch is a close relative, so do try apples!!

 

[Pensmaster]

I keep reading that you won't see claw impressions with a cougar track. And one toe on the front paw is forward more than the others. The pad is wider than a dogs.

I'd say not a cougar, but are there examples of cougar tracks with claws? What if they're running after something. Could their claws go out?

Which is what got me to wondering. The scratch marks are not wide like a dogs would be.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Which is what got me to wondering. The scratch marks are not wide like a dogs would be.

Right, I wondered about that. We had a nearly identical track right off our back deck last week. Narrow claws just like in your photo. So we brought out some paw samples (dogs, cats, chickens) and we're not sure. Too big for a housecoat, but we couldn't figure out how it measured up to a dog print.

For the record, autocorrect doesn't want me writing house cat as one word. It throws a fit and changes it to housecoat!

 

[Sunshine Flock]

And a chicken just stole a potato chip.

We're going to photograph tracks from now on. Why we never thought to do that, I don't know. And scat, and I'll post photos here.