Women attacked by mountain lion,dead man found

Originally posted by mete
Max weight for a mountain lion is about 200 lbs.....
Click to expand...

A quick internet search yielded these
cougar weights.

The heaviest recorded cougar weighed 276 pounds was shot near Hillsdale, Arizona in 1917

Theodore Roosevelt shot a cougar that weighed 225 lbs.

----

Most male cougars are considerably lighter but like people they vary quite a bit.
 
Last year I went to Fairbanks, AK. to see family. My brother told me about this guy running at a park.
This guy pulls up in his truck gets out and goes to the back of his truck to get ready to go running. As he is putting on his 44mag this old lady pulls up to walk here poodle. As she gets out of here car she see's this guy's gun and starts giving him a full ration of her anti-gun rhetoric. He says, "Look lady, there are grizzlies out here so I just carry if for protection." She gives him another ration about no bears around and if there were they won't bother you. He says yah what ever, and goes for his run.
As he come running back to his truck after about an hour or so he see the parking lot full of cops. He goes to his truck and gets ready to leave and one of the cops come over to talk to him. It seems that our nice anti-gun lady was walking her dog down one of the trails and a grizzly came out of the brush, grabbed her dog and ran back into the brush. Cop said she should think about getting a gun if she was going to keep walking her dog in the park.
Thought that was the funniest crap I've heard in a long time.
 
Without prejudice to any of the very valid comments about being ready in the outback (I certainly carry when I go backpacking.), a 120 pound cougar is stronger in short bursts than a 300 lb. healthy Homo sap. and has MUCH better teeth and "finger nails" (Think of 20 box cutters with 1" exposed blades. Kitty Scissor Hands. Just a blur of slicing action. Wherrrrr!! Splatter!!!!).

Unless the cougar spooks (here, no experience with being hit by thrown rocks) or you have a serious weapon, if he wants you, you're dinner. (OK, Maybe Bruce Lee excepted. Are you him? Really?)

Any doubt? Try wrestling bare-handed with a really angry 15 pound domestic tom cat and count the stitches.

And they have millions of years of evolutionary adaptation for sneak attack. If the rabbit or deer doesn't know he's coming until too late, how's your sense of smell and hearing? Zip by comparison. You may have to shoot/stab as he munches on your head.

Unless you see people as some sort of disease that needs controlling by cats, the folks out there need cat hunting again -with dogs. The natural top predators (wolf packs) are not there to control the cats, but that's yet another story.
 
Here in Northwest Ohio, I know of at least a half dozen caged cougars in a 10 mile radius. Every few years we hear rumors of big cats on the loose. Escapees? Have never heard of a kill. A family I know less than 10 miles away breeds wild cats: cougars, bobcats, caracals, ocelots, margays and more. I've even played with a young tiger at their place. While I have some ethical issues with their hobby/business, I have enjoyed access to these animals. What struck me in this thread was Thomas Linton's suggestion of confrontation with a determined but ordinary sized housecat. My few, brief encounters with the sharp end of cats has left me impressed, though I love cats dearly. Dogs too...Hell! communing with animals is a passion. Having wrestled with a declawed juvinile tiger, I shudder at the thought of defending my soft frail body from such an animal. On the other hand, I've found cats to be easily discouraged by bluster and confidence. The story that circulated here a few years ago [referring to a 60+ year old in Vancouver(?) who killed a mountain lion with a knife] and alot of other literature suggests that not acting like prey[that is to say not moving away from the cat hastily] is the best defense. Eye contact is good. Waving arms to appear larger also good. Tactical retreat sensible. If you just happend to be riding away from the big kitty, innocently, on your nice mountain bike...well, you look like prey. I'm with most of ya'll.....I never go out into the field without a good knife at the very least. You can do a lot with a good blade. There isn't much wilderness in my neighborhood but I'm carrying some force multipliers in the woods whenever I am walking, running, biking, driving or even doing summersalts. Being prepared is a way of life. some folks just don't think that way. What can you do?
 
Yep, I agree. There are those that are prepared for life and those that need those that are prepared for life. In the end, which one you are is totally up to you.

While you're looking that big ol putty tat in the eyeballs, be sure you don't have any fear in yours. Not a good thing at all.

For those that are knife handicapped either because of knife carry laws, a bossy wife or personal choice, you might consider a good hiking staff. I don't like the new fangled shock absorber types, but even that would be better than nothing.

While hiking or riding, cover your six. The best way to know where you've been is to look and at the same time, you're taking care of the business of personal protection.

ptn brings up some excellent encounter points and Thomas Linton makes a whole bunch of sense to me. The attacks may be infrequent as far as the number of attacks in 110 years or whatever it was that the CDFG reported to the press, but the simple fact that there have been 2 within 2 days and 2 others reported within a year and one other reported death within 5 years tells me that they are becoming more and more frequent.

Being prepared for any situation is what this is all about. Going around in a dream state and hoping for the best is absurd. Get real and get prepared. Take up the responsibility of someone needing to rely on you and not the other way around.
 
I havn't eaten Cougar, but some friends whose judgement of tablefare I've come to trust, say it's good stuff. That said, I wouldn't turn my nose up to a thick steak.:D
 
...............late 20th century wildlife conservation practices have encouraged a cougar population increase. A simultaneous increase in human population has brought our two species into closer contact. Panthers living on the fringe of suburbia become less wary of us. They eat our pets because they are easy prey. They begin to associate us with a food source. Mountain Lion/human contact is inevitable, but highly improbable for 99.999999999999999999999% of us. I, for one, have no problem sharing a world with creatures that could eat me. I'll continue packin' my "claws" when in the field and continue to tell myself I've got a 50/50 chance if the billion to one chance cougar encounter actually occurs.
 
I don't go hiking without a field knife and my knobbed Irish blackthorn walking stick. The thorns are only half snipped, so a good whack is like a bed of nails. Not as pretty as a fully trimmed cane, but very effective. :)
It's easy to slam the sheeple for not carrying pocket knives. I guy the two rescuers credit. Even bashing an angry cougar with a rock takes some guts. Even if you had a nice Bowie, do you think kitty is gonna let you strut up and slip it between its ribs?
The webpage Pentlatch gave has a long list of cougar attack stories that is definitely worth reading. There is one that it missed, pre-2001. I think it was in the US Northwest or Canada. A group of people were sitting at a fire outside a remote cabin, when a cougar that had sneaked under the cabin, leapt out and attacked. They tried scaring it off, but it kept swiping and lunging, eventually taking someone's thumb off. One guy took a steak knife and killed it while it was wrestling with the thumb amputee. So they don't always flee, even when six people are waving and yelling at it and stabbing it.
Yes, I'd agree that anyone hiking or biking in that park ought to be carrying some means of defense. But I give those two rescuers some credit. Grabbing the victim by the legs, calling for help, and smacking the cat in the face with a rock saved her life. Jumping on the cat's back with an SAK may have ended up with 3 kitty meals :)
 
Mr. Badexample.I have a newsclipping from years ago that I believe to be that very story.A group camping, an attack where a man lost his thumb,and the cat killed by a serrated kitchen knife.Only it was a WOMAN who killed the cat.She is quoted as saying the "hide was tough,hard to stab though,like shark.":eek: Begs the question as to how many sharks she's stabbed also.
 
Well boys were in luck! I just went into my little box of goodies,you know the one full of teeth my kids lost,my dads ww11 dog tags and yellowed news stories of women killing Mt.lions with knives.;)

DOS RIOS Calf.Robin Winslow age 48 (a few years back),bad news she's married as it was her husband who lost the thumb.

Heres her quote."I had a hell of a time getting the knife through its skin.Its tough,like shark".

12 inch serrated kitchen knife btw.

And my wife (raised on a farm no less)won't touch a worm.:rolleyes:
 
"Kitchen knife." We're probably talking 1/16" of 420J or 440A. Why oh why have we been worrying about whether 5160, O-1, 3v, or "INFI" is best for 1/4" slabs of chilly steel when this lady can "do" a cougar with a kitchen knife? Up to Green River!
 
LOL, reminds me of my wife. On her first turkey hunt, I possitioned her for a shot at point blank range on a fine tom and she stood there, 20ga pulled to her shoulder, with her mouth hangin open and let em feed away, LOL. Gotta love em, but wouldn't want to depend on em to kill my food.:D
 
I don't know...I think my ex-wife could have killed anything.:rolleyes:


But...off the top of my head, isn't there a tool called a "bang stick," used by scuba divers? Short staff with a 12 guage shell in it which is detonated by the pressure of the end being pushed against the target? Used on sharks, as I recall.

Uh, I suspect it is not legal for use on land.:)


(Edit: Found this one of many in Google:

http://bluewaterhunter.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/shop_bangsticks_biller.html
 
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