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Anyone up for some cougar talk?

B

bukket

New Member
I heard through the grapevine (go figure!) that some folks up around Belle Plaine lost a cow to what they suspect was a cat. Apparently the cow was found without it's head in a pasture. Supposedly this story ran in the local paper.
This is the 3rd or 4th time in the past two years I've heard the one about the DNR releasing cats on the river bottom up there to control the deer.
Did anybody else hear about this latest story with the dead cow?

I hunt the river bottom up there and have never seen any sign or glimpsed a cougar or bobcat. I've seen a ton of coyotes, though. I'd hate to start dreading walking to my stand in the dark!!!
 
We have been in the company of big cats for a few years now. The DNR has not set them loose like the bobcat, these are free ranging males, to date none of the five cats killed in Iowa so far have been females. These are toms 1-3 years old, it is very unlikley you will see anything more than a track, most all attacks in the west have been in areas of low populations of game. I've been in touch with S/Iowas two bobcat bioligists in regards to running the lions with dogs, and there is no interest due to the political aspect.So keep on hunting and if you do site a big cat you'll be among the few.
 
i find i tough to believe that with all the meat on a cow, it would eat the head, and leave the rest
 
Teeroy, I agree, I have never heard of a cat to just take the head off of whatever it killed. Sounds a little fishy to me.
 
maybe it was the mothman? he's been known to do that ya know?!
grin.gif
 
We even get reports of mountain lion sightings in our area from time to time.I find it hard to believe,being there's never no credible evidence to back any of the sightings up.
 
why would it eat the head? there ain't no meat in the head. i have never seen an animal make a kill, and eat the head first.....something is DEFINATELY wrong here
 
I have actually seen an animal kill something and eat the head first. I was raising turkeys at my grandfathers house, because we live right next to each other out in the country. They were only about 2 months old Well anyways, one morning I went outside to look at them and one of them was lying there dead w/ just his body laying on one side and his head on the other side. My grandpa told me that he heard somewhere that minks would do this.....and then suck the blood out of the neck. I don't know if it's true or not, and i know a mink isn't big enough to eat a cow! haha. But I just thought it was close enough to the subject to tell a story about it.
 
From the short version I heard it wasn't stated whether or not the rest of the carcass had been eaten on. For all I know it was devoured. Or maybe it never even happened.
I do know for a fact that there have been cat tracks found within the last month between Malcom and Tama. I saw them, but I thought they were bobcat. As the crow flies it would only be 10-15 miles from where this supposed cow was attacked. If it were a cougar that's well within its "range"

The topic is a fun one to me. I thought I'd throw it out for discussion...I'm not trying to pull one over on anybody.
 
I am not an expert but I am sure that a cougar would not eat a cow's head first. All carnavoirs will eat the soft tissue and stomach first. Since they don't eat plants they get most of their minerals and such through the stomach contents of their prey. A cougar track is much bigger than you would guess anda bobcat track is about the size of a large dog. Also if the track shows claw marks then it is a dog or coyote and not a cat because cats retract their claws except when they want to use them. The thought that the DNR would release cougars to reduce deer populations is rediculious. The cougar would only kill 30 or 40 deer a year at the most and have a range or 50 plus square miles. That is not much of an impact.
 
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