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Mountain lions

gersdorf

gersdorf

Life Member
Here is an article from todays paper about a mountain lion killing a deer in marshall county. Here is pic from a trail camera that I got from a employee of the Marshall County Conservation office.
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Mountain lion back in Iowa, DNR says
A Marshall County deer kill is the first sign of the big cat in 1 1/2 years.

By NIGEL DUARA
REGISTER STAFF WRITER


June 1, 2006



Biologists at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources confirmed that a mountain lion killed a deer in Marshall County.

A landowner found the deer Tuesday morning on private property about two miles northwest of Bangor, said Rick Trine, wildlife management biologist for the area.

Trine said the marks on the deer and the condition it was found in are consistent with a large-cat kill.

"The claw marks on the hind quarters and neck, puncture wounds to the neck and head, and the fact the 150-plus-pound deer was dragged 50 yards to some pine trees indicates to us it was a mountain lion kill," Trine said.

The deer only had three legs. "It was an old injury that apparently had healed, but left it easy prey," Trine said.

This is the first confirmed mountain lion in Iowa since October 2004. That lion was found about three miles from the Marshall County find, but Trine said that doesn't mean it's the same animal.

"They can travel pretty far in a single night," Trine said.

Some want to hunt the big cat, which once was native to Iowa. Others want to protect it.

Ron Andrews, a DNR fur-bearer biologist, said mountain lions are unprotected in Iowa and can be killed by legal means. However, he advised that people who see a mountain lion avoid it, and that they call their county DNR officer.

"If you see one, act big, act tough, look mean," he said. "The worst thing you can do is take off running."
 
I let some fellows hunt the back of my place in late turkey season and they swear they saw a cougar. I thought yeah yeah...everyone is seeing them these days but if they are really there, how come they don't show up on trail cams? Guess they are now! Yikes!
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Here Kitty Kitty!
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I shared the article with a co-worker who's family originally settled in the Bangor area. His comment was, "Glad to see it doing what nature intended (picking on the cripple)."
 
I guess on WHO this morning they said that one was hit by a car and another was shot in that same area.
 
I saw one, I was snoozing, my buddy slammed the brakes at night and said "holy $h!t, is that a cat Gunner?". I couldn't believe my eyes as it walked into the forest, never seen one since but a neighbour claims he saw one this winter. Oh well, I agree with whoever said they're just doing what nature intended. Mind you.....you've got a pile more people per square mile than us, could be bad I guess there.
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I don't know if I would like to shoot one or not.

But, I do know I wouldn't want one dragging off one of my kids.

If that happened, I'm certain I would be expending all my hunting skills toward their extinction!
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This past shotgun season we found some tracks along a portion of river we hunt. It makes me a little uneasy. I would hate to climb up into my tree stand and find a cougar sitting right next to me. I heard that the DNR brought them back into the state.
 
Red, it didn't happen to be near boone county were they. When I used to go to ISU I was coyote hunting and calling when I came across some mountain lion tracks in the snow as clear as day right next to the big river up there.

That's not my first encounter either. One time during shotgun season our group was hunting by a hog confinement near Tingley, IA. Another guy and myself saw a mountain lion carrying off a dead piglet.

I also know a guy who has trail cam pics of a black one with cubs. So they do end up on trail cams.

They are definetely here and I don't see the population going down just like the bobcats in van buren county.
 
A friend and myself went to northern Minnesota fishing this past weekend. His folks live up there and his dad was telling us about hearing the timber wolves hollowing when he is getting out of his stand. He say that you are pretty nervous on the way back to the truck. Talk about spooky. The cats would make me a little uneasy.
 
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I also know a guy who has trail cam pics of a black one with cubs.

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Perhaps that is the elusive bear cat...
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Just ribbin ya.


Here is a quote from the nature alamanac


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Are there black cougars?

Many species of large cats have dark (melanistic) color phases that crop up occasionally in wild populations - notably leopards and jaguars - but no example of a melanistic cougar has ever been produced in North America. Some South American populations of cougar have been reported to produce melanistic individuals but concrete evidence of this seems to be lacking and these animals may be a different but similar species of cat that is mistaken for a cougar.

Large black cats have been reported in North America since earliest colonial times (long before the importation of alien species) but none have ever been shot or captured. At the time of first contact jaguars ranged as far north as Georgia and Arkansas and these animals do produce melanistic individuals but of course it's highly unlikely that they ever occurred in New England where many of the early reports of black cats originated. So unless there's another species of large cat roaming North America that somehow managed to avoid discovery for the last four hundred years reports of these animals must be based on optical illusions or tricks of light.

More recent (20th century) reports of large black cats are most likely black panthers (melanistic leopards) that have either escaped captivity or been released by owners unable or unwilling to care for them. It's significant that reports of black cats increased markedly (at least in Illinois) after the laws concerning ownership of wild cats changed in the 80's. Most recent sightings of these animals seem to describe feral leopards rather than cougars.

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I don't know if I would like to shoot one or not.

But, I do know I wouldn't want one dragging off one of my kids.


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That was the first thing I thought of when I watched the news at noon today. My 19 mo old daughter loves to play outside, just yards from our timber in the back yard. Part of me would hate to shoot a mt lion just because of their rarity and part of me thinks it would be great, my daughter tips the scale on that one.


About 4 years ago dispatch got a call from a guy about a mountain lion in his yard. Yeah right. We showed up and low and behold, there it was crouched down next to his porch. This one had a collar and had escaped from a guy a mile away, several weeks earlier (he forgot to mention the escape to anyone). We were not too worried about it because everybody knew the guy had them, he had even walked them in town on leashes in the past. The lion ran off and began circling the house in the standing bean field. We contacted the owner but before he arrived the lion suddenly dashed into the yard and tried to attack the guys 50lb dog. The homeowner started screaming and whacking it with a broom and it ran back into the field, which added some excitement since we had'nt really expected that. The lion kept pacing aggressivly in the beans and was obviously trying plan another attack on the dog. The guy mentioned their other dog came up missing earlier in the week.
The lion's owner finally showed up and we told him to go get the thing. He replied, "I dont think so boys, that ones just a breeder and he's not too tame". That much we had noticed ourselves. The owner wanted it shot so I went back to my car for the shotgun. In the mean time the cougar decided to make another run at the dog which happend to be standing right next to my two partners, neither of which were very keen on the cougar. I had my back turned when all hell broke loose, but there was alot of shooting, running, and woman-like screaming, lol. They had managed to wound it with thier handguns and I got elected to follow the blood trail into the beans to finish it off. Apparently they thought this should be my job since they had done "all the hard work"! To this day I'm still not sure if that lion was alive when I found it or not, but the first patch of hair I saw got plenty of buckshot regardless. Not surprisingly, tracking a wounded lion (semi-tame or not) in waist high beans is pretty exciting stuff, I highly recommend it if you ever get the opportunity!
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I still regret not asking the owner if we could keep the skull, or at least taking some pics. I guess we were trying to be cool like it was all no biggie or something.
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Sorry for the long post, but that's my Mt. Lion story.
 
Timber, working downtown Grinnell I have seen the aforementioned breeder walking one of them. You want to talk about out of it's elements. The whole time I was thinking there is no way this guy can handle this animal if he decides to take a turn for the bad. A lady was wanting to pet it.
 
How do you maintain a permit to raise these and walk these through an area with people? Cat decides to go, guy on the end of the leash is history. Can you spell L-I-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y? I'd bet the guy's insurance carrier would love to know.
 
I don't think he's doing it anymore. He was downtown for a photo shoot with the local paper.
 
Limb, Ill try to get the pics next time im down south. It was a guy I asked permision to hunt on that said he had the pics. I'll try to get hold of him.
 
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