Here kitty kitty kitty

[Jack55]

Cougars are bigger than I thought.

[davidpt40]

Your post is full of holes Shuckins.

Humans are not quadrapeds therefore we do not represent the normal prey to cougars.  On the very rare occassion a human may be looked at as food.  Most attacks probably occur when the cougar sees humans as rivals in its territory.

How would a cougar learn to fear humans?  If it were shot, it wouldn't matter.

[mrblack]

Originally posted by Jack55


Cougars are bigger than I thought.

Now Look at these Dudes LOL
Talk about some Hillbilly looking fools LOL.
Maybe a 5th grade education between them.
I bet If they could get away with It they would be out there stringin up some darkies.

Gawd I hate Rednecks:rolleyes:

[capt. apathy]

Humans are not quadrapeds therefore we do not represent the normal prey to cougars. On the very rare occassion a human may be looked at as food. Most attacks probably occur when the cougar sees humans as rivals in its territory.

take a trip to the zoo, stand in front of the cougars, watch the cat when someone comes by with a small child (they really go nuts for the toddlers).

2 legs 4 legs the cougar doesn't care, it'll eat a bird or a fish if that's whats handy.  it's looking for a warm bag of meat, and doesn't care how many legs it walks on.

[mrblack]

Originally posted by capt. apathy
take a trip to the zoo, stand in front of the cougars, watch the cat when someone comes by with a small child (they really go nuts for the toddlers).

2 legs 4 legs the cougar doesn't care, it'll eat a bird or a fish if that's whats handy.  it's looking for a warm bag of meat, and doesn't care how many legs it walks on.

So the smart thing to do is keep you'r warm bad of meat away from them:aok

It's like when I'm scuba diving If I see a shark OR an over aggressive barracuda I get my happy arse out of the water.
Just seems like using you'r noodle to me.

The smartest and best weapon we have that they don't Is our superior Brain USE IT:aok

[Airhead]

Originally posted by Dune
... I would kill and sleep very well at night.

Be careful Dune. Being an attorney is already two strikes against you on the ol' conscience meter.

There's a mountain lion that visits my parents' place every few months and thins out the local population of dogs and cats. Occasionally someone's sheep or calf gets eaten and they hunt the offending cat down and kill it, but it's OK to eat peoples' pets I guess.

[Dune]

Originally posted by davidpt40
Humans are not quadrapeds therefore we do not represent the normal prey to cougars.  On the very rare occassion a human may be looked at as food.  Most attacks probably occur when the cougar sees humans as rivals in its territory.

Not true.  

Killer Cougars
by Don Zaidle

On August 19, 1996, 36-year-old Cindy Parolin and three of her children were riding horses in the Similkameen backcountry, 30 miles northwest of Princeton, British Columbia. Like their mother, 6-year-old Steven, 11-year-old Melissa and 13-year-old David felt a mixture of wonder and excitement as they traveled through the vast wilderness. The four were headed to a cabin to join Parolin's husband and other son for a camping vacation....Manion rushed to Parolin's aid, but she was beyond help, having traded her life for that of her son. Steven survived the near scalping inflicted by the cougar and made a full recovery after receiving 70 stitches in his head. Cindy Parolin was awarded the Star of Courage medal posthumously by the Governor General of Canada.

Other Attacks...
July 1996: On the same day, but in different places and at different times, eight-year-old Lance Beingessner and five-year-old Christine Frank were hospitalized in the wake of separate cougar attacks in British Columbia. Beingessner was dragged off a trail near Upper Arrow Lake, Frank from a front-yard swing.

July 1997: Four-year-old Rafael DeGrave suffered head injuries when a cougar ambushed him and dragged him into brush alongside a hiking trail in Mesa Verde National Park, Colo. Within a week, a cougar killed 10-year-old Mark Miedema in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park.

August 1998: Five-year-old Carmen Schrock received extensive head injuries when attacked by a mountain lion at a campground near Metaline Falls, Wash.

August 1998: Six-year-old Joey Wing needed 200 stitches to close wounds sustained in an attack near Swift Dam Campground west of Depuyer, Mont. That same week, six-year-old Dante Swallow was mauled at a day camp outside Missoula. Within two weeks, two other encounters with cats occurred in the same area.

August 1999: Four-year-old Jacob Walsh was hospitalized with injuries requiring over 200 stitches after a cougar grabbed him by the head as he played in his grandparent's backyard in Barstow, Wash.

January 2000: Clarence Hall, an animal-control hunter for the Canadian government, was mauled severely by a cougar he'd been ordered to dispatch in the backyard of a home on the Nuxalk Indian Reserve in British Columbia.

April 2000: Four-year-old Victoria Martinez was injured seriously in a nighttime attack during a family campout at Bartlett Lake, Ariz. She survived a partially crushed skull and nicked artery in her neck.

These are just a few of the more spectacular cases of recent vintage. I have researched dozens of similar occurrences and hundreds of "threatening" but noncontact encounters.



Breaking Lion Myths
Lay (Dan Lay, a retired wildlife control officer for the British Columbia Ministry of Environment who has developed cougar-management programs across North America) abhors the mass media's propensity to blame lion attacks on "human encroachment." Habitat loss is a deplorable problem that needs addressing, but it is not the cause of attacks, says Lay. Rather, he believes such encounters are evidence of a growing lion population that is taking up residence in suburban and even urban areas.

A mountain lion prowling a shopping mall parking lot is almost cliché these days. In Placerville, Calif., a cougar activated the automatic doors at the emergency entrance of a downtown hospital. Pets disappearing from suburban yards are commonplace, and there are cases of cougars literally taking dogs off their leashes.

Contrary to frequent reports, animals have no "instinctive" or "natural" fear of humans just because they are human. Among predators, hazard avoidance and prey recognition are learned behaviors. Through repeated nonthreatening exposure to humans, a lion learns that some of the prey in its new territory is bipedal.

Because children and adults of small stature more closely approximate the size of other prey species, they are by far the most common targets for lions. Hairy-chested types enjoy marginal immunity due to the intimidation factor their sheer size presents; for instance, a cougar may pass over a bull elk in favor of a whitetail deer fawn. However, if deer are in short supply and an elk presents itselfä.

The belief that animals prey on humans only in desperation due to age, starvation or other incapacitation is a myth. Young, healthy animals account for the vast majority of lions involved in human attacks.

"I investigated the death of an eight-year-old girl back in 1979," Dan Lay told me. "The cougar still had fresh remains from a deer kill in its stomach. It just licked up the girl's blood, left her lying in the ditch where it had dragged her and then moved on."

A common preservationist argument is that you are 43 times more likely to be struck by lightning than attacked by a cougar. An observation by one expert paints the picture a bit differently.

Dave Fjelline is a professional lion hunter for the State of California, the same man who tracked down and killed the cougar that killed and partially ate Barbara Schoener on April 24, 1994, about 45 miles northeast of Sacramento. His take on the lightning-versus-lion equation: "It is an absurd comparison. People do not go out and stand under tall trees during a thunderstorm, but they do go out into cougar country without a second thought. In addition, the at-risk group is much smaller, and the risk more concentrated. It is sort of like comparing the chances of a CPA and an NFL quarterback getting their necks broken on Super Bowl Sunday.

"When you add in the fact that the lions are always there, and lightning comes and goes with the caprice of the weather, and that lightning does not come looking for you but cougars do, the odds tip most uncomfortably," concludes Fjelline.

The State of California considers the risk very real, especially where children are involved. Some state parks are marked with red-lettered signs warning, "Mountain Lion Country...No Minors Allowed."



Avoiding a Cougar Encounter...or Surviving One
Millions of people live and recreate in cougar country each year, and many of them do so within eyesight of cougars. Hunters are in a special group: Their choice of recreation places them in the same habitat, pursuing the same species, as cougars.

What can you do to minimize the chances of an unpleasant or dangerous encounter? Like any predator, cougars target the seemingly easy mark, the unwary and the defenseless. The most important thing you can do is to stay alert and be aware of what is going on around you.

Here are other ways to decrease the possibilities of a cougar attack.

Keep a clean camp, much like you already do to avoid conflicts with bears. Cougars are extremely curious and quickly can become acclimatized to humans. Cougars routinely prowl camps in many areas and they may be more attracted to camps with a lot of food and cooking odors present.

Leave your pet at home or keep it under close control. A dog fleeing from a cougar can lead the mountain lion straight back to you.

Be especially alert when you are cleaning downed game animals and keep your firearm close at hand.
If the worst happens and you find yourself in a confrontation with a mountain lion, what you do next can make the difference between a story you tell your friends and one they tell about you. Convincing a cougar that you are more than it wants to tangle with takes some courage on your part.


Make yourself look as big as possible; stand tall, spread your arms and open your coat.

Maintain eye contact, speak loudly and firmly and bare your teeth

Do not turn your back on the cat, even to get uphill. If you decide to back up, be sure of your footing. Slipping while climbing could trigger an attack, and poor footing leaves you less able to fight if an attack occurs.

Do not stoop, squat or bend.

Do not make quick movements or sudden noises that may trigger an attack.

Do not run. Cougars chase down deer for a living!
If attacked, your option is simple: fight back with everything you have. Although cougars will defend a kill, their young or possibly even a den site, their most likely motivation for an attack is predation -- they intend to eat you! Playing dead is not going to work. Plenty of people, even children, have fought off cougar attacks successfully, but I know of no one who has survived an attack by feigning death.

Use a stick, a club, your hands, a fishing pole, a camera -- whatever. If you have to, shoot the animal. Remember that wildlife agents are going to have to be convinced that your life was in danger if you are going to avoid a citation. At close range, your rifle may be more useful as a club.

If you kill the cougar, leave the scene intact and contact wildlife authorities immediately. Better yet, stay put and have a friend contact the fish and game department. Get the names and telephone numbers of any witnesses. If you see other hunters, ask them if they have had any cougar contact in the area that might corroborate your experience. Carefully note where you were standing when the attack occurred, where the cat was and other relevant locations. Mark these spots in some way that will not be erased by bad weather -- hunting season is a busy time for wildlife agents and it might take a while for one to reach you...

From Outdoor Life

[Elfie]

The U.S. does not have a huge bio-diversity of animals. Its important to hold onto the species we have. Cats in the USA are pretty rare. Other than the zoo, I've never seen a bobcat, or puma, or cougar.

I've never seen a Cougar in the wild either. Yet they are rather abundant here in Colorado. Some places, like Boulder have serious problems with Cougars attacking dogs right in peoples yards. We have a hunting season on them here to control their numbers.

As several others have stated, you will NOT see a Cougar under normal circumstances unless it wants to be seen or has no fear of humans. These animals are normally very secretive and are quite capable of evading humans long before you have a chance to see them. Thats why Cougars are normally hunted with dogs.

Predators will normally kill whatever is easiest for them to catch. The less energy they expend making a kill the better it is for the animal, especially during winter months.

[NUKE]

Originally posted by mrblack
Now Look at these Dudes LOL
Talk about some Hillbilly looking fools LOL.
Maybe a 5th grade education between them.
I bet If they could get away with It they would be out there stringin up some darkies.

Gawd I hate Rednecks:rolleyes:

Just curious.... what exactly about the pictures of these guys makes you think they are "hillbilly fools" ?

They seem like normal looking humans to me. How do you ID a fool from a picture?

[Dune]

He's just jealous because he only reached 4th.

[mrblack]

Originally posted by Dune
He's just jealous because he only reached 4th.

Yep 4th grade got me all the way to paramedic and my own buisness that nets me $110.000k a year LOL.

If you Kill animals for "sport" you might just be a redneck:aok

[Octavius]

So is that the universal "I killed a courgar" pose?  Standing position, arms in a loving embrace... very um, suggestive

[NUKE]

Ever see a fisherman pose with a fish ? Ever see an Elk/ hunter photo? How about a deer/hunter photo? Have you ever seen a hunter pose with a bear kill?

What's wrong with posing with a cougar kill while holding it ? How else could one hold up a dead cougar?

[mrblack]

I swatted a fly waite let me get my camera:D

[Holden McGroin]

Well it sure is a small world, the guy on the right,  Calvin Fredenhagen, was my supervisor for my  thesis "The stress energy tensor of a locally supersymmetric quatum field on a curved spacetime."