OMG!!! First Game Cam pic ever. Huge Funny thread

[McSpin]

Quote:
I'm not too far from LeRoy and I hear about mountain lion sightings about 3 times a year, every year. Every story imaginable is passed around. Yet, no one has ever produced a clear track (their tracks are easy to identify), a good photo or a dead cat (either from a road kill or a person killing one). Everyone says they'll shoot and ask questions later, yet no dead cats. Tens of thousands of hunters roaming the woods with digital cameras, guns, trail cams and predator calls. Thousands of trappers looking to draw in predators with baits. All this and no proof of a mountain lion. This is why I think often times when someone sees a cat in the dark, it's automatically a mountain lion until someone can prove it isn't. With me, it's never a mountain lion, unless someone can prove it is. Why take the side of the least likely occurrence when there are so many other possibilities that are hundreds of times more likely? Even in areas where mountains population exist in good numbers they are still a rare animal that the average person is likely never going see. In NY bobcats are becoming more numerous every year and a large bobcat is an imposing looking animal.

 

[dcbcaaron]

this is a great post, I've seen some large house cats in my day, but something about this picture seems different than just a regular house cat. i've got to put my vote
on the side of mountain lion, maybe a young one, but that is my vote. Can't wait for some more pictures.

 

[racuda]

Quote:
I'm not too far from LeRoy and I hear about mountain lion sightings about 3 times a year, every year. Every story imaginable is passed around. Yet, no one has ever produced a clear track (their tracks are easy to identify), a good photo or a dead cat (either from a road kill or a person killing one). Everyone says they'll shoot and ask questions later, yet no dead cats. Tens of thousands of hunters roaming the woods with digital cameras, guns, trail cams and predator calls. Thousands of trappers looking to draw in predators with baits. All this and no proof of a mountain lion. This is why I think often times when someone sees a cat in the dark, it's automatically a mountain lion until someone can prove it isn't. With me, it's never a mountain lion, unless someone can prove it is. Why take the side of the least likely occurrence when there are so many other possibilities that are hundreds of times more likely? Even in areas where mountains population exist in good numbers they are still a rare animal that the average person is likely never going see. In NY bobcats are becoming more numerous every year and a large bobcat is an imposing looking animal.

This reminds me of a quote from CSI's Gil Grissom: "When you see hoof prints.. think horses .. Not Zebras"

 

[racuda]

Quote:
Because of this thread and others I bought a game cam and put it up by the chicken coops. The next morning I anxiously checked the memory card. I had an animal!...It was Sunny, my yellow Lab!

 

[Outdoors Addiction]

What you have captured in the pic does not look like a mountain lion to me. I am a predator hunter, part time taxidermist, and I work full time in a hide tannery. The animal in the pic appears to be an American Lynx. The American Lynx looks just like a bobcat because they are from the same family. The only differences between the two is that the Lynx is much larger, has larger feet in comparison to their body, and the have longer tails. Be careful with this animal because they are extremely dangerous to animals and humans. Lynx and Bobcat are much more ferocious than a mountain lion, they just lack the muscle and power of the mountain lion. I hope this is the last time you see this thing.

http://www.nationalforestlawblog.com/Lynx.jpg

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Personally, I think it is a large male domestic cat. There is a large tomcat that lurks around my mother's barn, scared me have to death when it bowed up and showed me all his teeth. I first thought he was a bobcat! He was large enough to be one!!

While people may argue this is a mountain lion, mother pumas keep their young at their side almost until the young are full size. If this is a mountain lion, it is no where near full size or even the size the mother usually turns them loose; or a strange new breed of pocket panthers. Not saying she couldn't have mountain lions around here, just saying I highly doubt this is one of them.

If it's not a domestic, then it is a bobcat. Not all bobcat are well marked, many are just a sandy color. You are lucky to find a well marked cat.

I think it may even be the same cat as the one pictured. The tail may appear shorter because if you notice the cat has a black "half" to his tail, it may have been lost in the glare of the night cam or it could have been turned off to one side.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Quote:
I had already filled my tag so I was only armed with binocs, a camera, and a thermos of coffee. My brother was in a ground blind with his bow about 300 yards away. Just out to watch the sunrise, but ended up having a thrill of a lifetime. It's not every day you have a lion walk past so close you could spit on him.

 

[HippieChickens]

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[Caincando1]

I haven't seen anyone use the tree for a reference yet, unless I missed it. How wide is the tree and how far from the tree was the cat?

 

[Chook-A-Holic]

After reading and looking at the pics in this hilarious thread, I feel I should get a vote also. I say "Domesic Housecat".