Closer Cougar Confirmation

[Pat]

Yesterday I found out that the lady I did the bars for thought she saw a coyote in the front yard of my mom's house but on getting a better look it was a cougar. She had her camera with her and got out and got a snapshot. She said it stopped and looked back at her. It was a digital camera and she promised me a copy. If I can enlarge it and have the cat recognizable I will post it. This would have put the cat within about 500 ft of a state highway. and less than 200 ft from my mom's front porch in the middle of the day. The cat wasn't startled or running just walking along, noticed the comotion of someone getting a camera and pointing it out and turned to look at the folks making the fuss and got it self imortallized in a snapshot. Sure hope the cat stands out in the picture enough to be recognized.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[jimbrown]

Wow I have never seen one in Ok or north of Houston. Used to see them in south Texas. I have seen two at a time here on my place and probably one of the two again at different times. Here they are mainly after deer and might take a calf if they wre really hungry.

[Pat]

Jim, One of the favorite camping and hiking locations near San Diego of my wife and I was the trail where the lady jogger was eaten a few years ago. One of our coworkers was in a Mexican standoff with a cougar for a few hours one afternoon near there. He was mountain biking when the cat took an unhealthy interest in him. He got off the bike and kept it between him and the cat. Every time the cat seemed to lose interest he would try to slowly back away but the cat would come back at him again. After a few hours he was able to back away out of the cat's sight, mount the bike, and set a new personal downhill speed record exiting the area.

Ordinarily a cougar in good health in the presence of sufficient game isn't too dangerous for an adult human but if they are sick or not fully physically fit such that they can handle their needs, then there are people who are way easier to catch and eat, especially small humans.

As I did not witness the one in our backyard or the latest incursion I can't know if it was the same animal or if we have two. I don't know why the cat would come into a field with little cover between a house and the highway, within a hundrred yards or so of the state highway in the middle of the day.

After our backyard sighting AND the fierce growling that scared my wife, I have encouraged her to put her pistol in her pocket when she goes out to fill the bird feeders or wander around in the back yard. Better safe than lunch! I hope a few .357 rounds in the face even if she misses (not unlikely) would be a decent deterrent.

I don't think I could pursuade her to routinely take my "street sweeper" 12 ga magnum with pistol grip and extended tube feed and pump action. (Mossberg) Although it has a comfortqable padded sling, it is still a bit more than she wants to pack. We'll see how it goes the first time she sees one a bit closer. She was within about 75-100 ft of one in Baja when we were packing in the mountains and were only armed with knives and fishing rods.

The locals tend to call a cougar showing the black color phase a panther (black panther, no relation to Huey Newton) Percentage wise there is a small but not vanishing percentage of cougars that are mostly black instead of "fawn" colored. I think the percent of black ones may be a bit higher around here as there seems to be a fair number of sightings. I haven't confirmed this with any authority.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[twstanley]

Or maybe they just blend in less or look less like a coyote from a distance when they are in their darker phase....a black animal stands out in brown parched pasture/woodline more than a tan/brown one obviously.

[Pat]

TWstanley, Could be, I have never personally seen any other than the standard issue fawn colored ones except on TV or in a zoo.

I'd be happier to not see them so close to the house when I know there are oodles of deer to eat and the deer are not usually so close to the house so that isn't the attraction. That makes me suspiciouis that the animal may have difficulty hunting regular game or at least the plentiful deer and that is often a precursor to attacks on humans.

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[twstanley]

Pat, you are one up on me, I have never seen one at all.

I agree with you on the 'patrol' patterns though, if a normally reclusive creature starts being seen regularly close to humans and homes, something has changed and you certainly need to pay attention to it.

[Pat]

TWSTANLEY, My wife offered an alternative explanation. We have a row of 9 large pear trees with good fruit on them right now just to the one side of the yard where the cougar was. Deer come up at night to feed on downed pears and sometimes stand up and eat out of the trees. They don't do this in the daylight but maybe the cat was checking out the lay of the land and planing a strategy, intending to come back when the deer were there. Just an idea, not impossible but not confirmed either.

In cases where someone's safety is at stake, I prefer to err on the side of caution. I'm not satisfied to think there is NO DANGER just because no one near here has been eaten lately.

The lady who took the snap shot just moved into a different house and doesn't have her computer set up yet so the pix are not available yet. I will post the pix if the cat is identifiable in her snapshot, when I get hold of it.

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[EddieWalker]

Pat,

Did you get the picture?

I've only seen one Lion in the wild. It was while backpacking along the Sierra Crest Trail in California. There were a dozen deer on the side of a hill that my buddy and I were watching, then they just disapeared. A minute later the Lion came out and walked along the side of the hill. This was early afternoon in late summer.

He was extremly fluid and smooth. It wasl like a snake, but larger and covered with fur. The tail is what really caught our attention. It just looked too long for it's body and seemed to slither along after it.

It was about 200 yards away and we had our binoculars out already from watching the deer.

Eddie

[Pat]

Eddie, I didn't get the picture yet. Last time I checked the lady had not gotten her computer set up and running since moving (again.) I know she is busy with 6 new horses, one daughter and few months old baybe staying with her, and another daughter who lives about 50 miles away just having a baby last week.

I just called and got no answer so I will try again tonight or tomorrow.

I am interested in getting my hands on the digital file so I can crop/enlarge/enhance or whatever to try to optimize the recognizabililty of the cat, if required. Who knows, maybe her snapshot wont be a hand held blur that is unrecognizable.

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[Pat]

I have talked with the lady who snapped the cougar in the front yard of my mom's house. As she was in the process of moving she has had difficulty finding the CD or the print (packed with the CD.)

It seems the snapshot was made with a disposable, not her good digital camera, but she says the cat can be identified when the shot is enlarged on the computer. Meanwhile a friend of hers had a close sighting of a cougar at his cabin and she forwarded the JPG to me. This is the picture posted here, NOT the one on my property.

I'm posting the cabin-porch-through-the-window picture as a stop gap measure while treading water and holding my breath to get my hands on the CD that the photofinisher put the pix on from her disposable.

If you look closely and squint just right you can convince yourself that it might be a cougar. Hee Hee!!!

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