Don't Poo Poo the Cougar

jim preston said:
Cat sightings in Australia? Wouldn't be surprised at all. Tigers and especially leopards are widespread across Southeast Asia. Saltwater crocodiles also are. Yes, there are salties in India. And lions were once widespread across Asia. Now they are only left in the Gir wildlife preserve in Gujarat. I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were big cats in Australia, although they probably wouldn't be cougars.
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Any big cats in Australia are escapes. In theory, there's enough room up north for a species to be breeding, but I think there'd be more sightings if there were a neonative population.

Read this about the Wallace Line. (Then click the link on Wallace himself, the man who got Darwin off his duff and publishing. :) )


Incidentally, there is one spectacular exception to the Wallace Line division of species: humans. The aborigines crossed that water at a time when the rest of the human race had barely become H. sapiens. They are arguably the oldest human race on Earth, followed way later by American Indians.
 
Ahh. I suppose crocs can swim.
Still, in a place as diverse as Australia, it seems strange that there are no big cats. You've got mountains and desert, big sharks, salties and freshies, Tasmanian Devil, kangaroos, and more snakes than you can shake a stick (or your reproductive organ, reed about it) at. But no big cats, and cats would probably thrive.
 
Win Heger said:
That is a good reminder to us that hike in cougar country how large they can be. Like most other people I've never seen one but there are quite a few in Zion
N.P. and the surrounding area.

I'm told to wave your arms and try to look bigger than you are. Most likely they'll run off. Keywords: "most likely"

Win
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Yes most likely, let us know how it worked out whenever you bump into one :D:thumbup:


I'm a dog person and really don't trust the stray cats I can easily give a boot to but there's something about a 200lbs cat that says "Be afraid, be very afraid... or shoot it dead":D:thumbup:
 
I have a healthy respect for something that size,with that many teeth and claws. Probably why I make facetious comments whenever "What knife for mountain lions?" threads show up. If you're down to fighting something like that with a knife your prior planning needs work.
 
Jerry Schand (sp?) of the 'Afoot and Afield' series of back country hiking books on Southern California has/had a Rodesian Ridgeback - I was out quail hunting along the rugged Kitchen Creek in San Diego's east county around 10 or so years ago when I heard a rush in the cattails; I spun around and almost blew away his dog with a 12 Ga. load of #8 shot...

This about 3 to 5 miles from one documented Cougar kill on a hiker (Julian), and several attacks on hikers, mountain bikers, horseback riders, and dogs - the size, shape, and color of his dog was very similar to that of a mountain lion, and the method of attack used was the same too...Jerry came very/very close to losing his dog that day!

FWIW, the juvenile male cats get chased out of a mature male's territory, aren't real familiar with humans yet, are hungry/thirsty and are kinda clumsy at making the kill...those are the more dangerous ones IMO

Shel

p.s. Was once camping alone in the Virgin River valley just northeast of Zion NP when I decided to go for an extended hike up the stepped plateau - after a few hours of uphill/flat/uphill hiking I stopped to take a piss...while looking around I spied a large cougar on a rock watching me. There I was, naked in the wilderness with nothing more at hand than a rock and harmonica....he didn't like the 'music' much, but my lips were bleeding by the time I made it back to camp!!!
 
Years ago, on a kayak trip in northern Idaho, my crew and I walked into a small restaurant where we found a mounted cougar that, according to the information on the mount, was at one time a world record cat. This thing was huge, I'd guess 9' from it's nose to the tip of it's tail with a head as big as a melon and feet that shamed my size 13s. Considering we were spending most of our time deep in the back country, that dadgum mount REALLY got my attention. I spent the rest of the trip looking over my shoulder. I've never forgotten that cat and would hate to run up against one anywhere near that size in the field. You'd better be packing something stout when that day comes.
 
Claim: Photographs show a large mountain lion hit by a truck and killed in Arizona.
Status: True.

Origins: The large mountain lion shown in the photographs displayed above was hit by a Ford F350 truck on Highway 64 in northern Arizona (about halfway between Williams and Valle) in November or December 2007.

-- from the snopes.com link
 
cuphead said:
I'm a dog person and really don't trust the stray cats I can easily give a boot to but there's something about a 200lbs cat that says "Be afraid, be very afraid... or shoot it dead":D:thumbup:
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Ill seriously second that

When the cat I seen dropped the cows neck it was chewing on and sat up and looked at us over the bonnet of the nissan patrol we were in , I coulda sworn I felt it thinking "are you food ? "

I have NEVER felt like that before
 
"I live along the Missouri river, and the Nebraska DNR, in it's infinate wisdom, released ten one year old males in 2001. "

Any documentation for that?
 
I discussed this thread with our 'good' neighbor Larry, a 65 year old Montana native, third generation, the youngest of 11 kids - his family has been kicking around this part of Montana for over 100 years...

Larry tells me that 'back in the day', pulling big 250 to (almost) 300 lb cougars out of the remote Swan Valley' elk wintering ground was a pretty regular occurance - this guy is about as straight up as anyone I've ever met, I believe him...

Here kittty kitty kitty... :eek:
 
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