The following article appeared in yesterday's Pickens County Progress- the local newspaper
Cougar killed in Troup County
11/18/2008 -
Hunters around West Point Lake might be led to believe that Georgia has a new predator roaming the woods - the cougar. A Sunday kill of a male cougar on U.S. Army Corps of Engineer land at West Point Lake, south of Hwy. 109 seemed to verify that thought. However, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Resources Division, this simply is a one-time experience.
"Though cougar and panther sightings persist in Georgia, there are no known native populations of these animals roaming the woods," advises Wildlife Resources Division Region Supervisor Kevin Kramer. "There is no reason to believe there are any more cougars out there. This likely is a unique experience and while exciting, is not something for which we should be concerned."
The cougar, taken near the Abbottsford community west of LaGrange, was a male, 88 inches in length measured from the nose to the tip of the tail and weighed approximately 140 pounds. The hunter who took the animal was legally hunting deer from his tree stand at the time the cougar approached.
Initial external examination by Wildlife Resources Division biologists found no tattoos, tags or collars, and the cougar had not been declawed.
Further examination by The Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study in Athens Monday afternoon confirmed the cougar to be healthy and well fed. Researchers determined the cougar had a very low parasite level and that the pads on all four feet were scuffed. According to SCWDS staff, these findings are consistent with a captive reared cougar, not a wild specimen.
Due to the fact that there are no known native populations of cougars in Georgia, no permitted cougars in this area and that the closest Alabama facilities permitted to house cougars (in Elmore and Macon Counties) have accounted for all permitted cougars, the animal taken Sunday likely escaped or was released from a non-permitted individual.
There currently are no leads as to who may have most recently held the animal, but the Division will continue to look into all possibilities.
For more information on hunting in Georgia, visit
www.georgiawildlife.com (http://www.georgiawildlife.com) .
As you can see, the DNR is in a constant state of denial regarding cougars...because to admit we have them would require them to have a management program for them, and they don't have any budget to handle that...so what's the easiest way to address the problem? Deny its existence.
If you keep telling the same tale over and over again pretty soon even you believe it!!!!!!!!
I've seen two cougars in Georgia myself...if you listen to the DNR us "nuts" are right up there with UFO captives.
That's the same thing they said about cougars here in Kansas. There was one hit not very long ago. I've never seen one here personally, but I've found some pretty interesting tracks in creek beds.
I guess you're just plum crazy Ray. :p
Same thing here in NY.
Your nuts I tell ya Ray! Since the DNR denies their existance means there can't be a closed season or bag limit on them. I'm thinking a cougar hunt party might need to be formed to help the DNR. You know by killing them all so the DNR is actually right.
That's what they say around here too...but 5 different folks in the same subdivision have seen a cougar at different times over the last 2 years and the last sighting was a big cat and a cub.
A man I know that hunted somewhere in South Central Ga was searching for a deer he shot and eventually found it under a pile of leaves with one ham eaten off.
I don't doubt in the least that there are big cats out there. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't released by the DNR to help with deer control. Pat
personally. i like my cougars about 45 yrs old,tall, and thinish.
LOL
I live in cougar country. Last year the rancher took 7 off of his place. Laying in the dark waiting for sun up to call elk is different when things that can eat you are around (but I've never seen one).
Same thing going on around home (so. il). People claim to seem 'em, states says "no no no no".
Still never seen one myself, but I've held in my hand gametrail pics from one county south of me.
What did that picture have on it?
Two cubs!
I lived just south of Franklin Ga. West of hwy 27 the place I hade rented butted up to the West Point wildlife mangement area they had cut clear cut the place where I was at. one after noon we had got rained out of work and I was walking around the edge of the clear cut and I watch a young cat cross the cut stop and get a drink I went back on the weekend an took pics of the tracks at a mud hole where it stop and got a drink. That was in Aug. just before the towers were attacked, we built a power plant there.
I've seen one. We have lots of them. Both kinds.Proof is always in the pictures. On Vancouver Island, they eat a couple of kids (children) almost every year. OK, I'm exagerating (spelling??), about one incident with someone about once a year.
We don't need to convince anyone we've got them. In a way, you are lucky to not have them.
I know of two, uh 3, people personally that have come face to face with them. One was hunting and it is now mounted.Shot a point blank range, mid air, in the pounce.It stalked him from behind while hunting/watching an area for moose.
The other was a stand off without weapons on the ocean edge, lots of yelling,throwing rocks,Arms waving high in the air. It backed my cousins into the water. They were lucky and did the right thing. Never turn your back, never run (they are cats, and cats like to chase), be as big and loud and aggessive as possible.
Friend sent me some pictures about 5 miles away of one on his porch looking in the sliding glass doors at his kids.
Come and get um.
R
ps-the one 5 miles from me is in a sub diviison, not some rural area. Lots of houses. We've had a good lot of bears as well in the burbs.
Cougars? Mountain lions? In Georgia?... :confused:
I'm afraid you must be mistaken Ray. Just like my sister-in-law and a couple of her mail carrier co-workers who have seen them repeatedly in the last two years, and like the guy who lives about ten miles from me who has an active den with a female and two cubs on his property... all here in New Jersey! :saywhat:
Ron
I believe that whether there are or not in any given state, it is a predetermined position of any state game agency to deny and excuse away any evidence to their existence. I believe their reasoning is that to acknowledge their existence opens the door to a slew of lawsuits from whacko environmentalists that want to protect the lions. That means protecting their food sources as well. i.e. deer, which could severely impact deer seasons in any state which recognizes a population of lions. To follow my line of thinking out, it doesn't make any sense for us, as sportsman who want to protect our deer seasons, to argue with the state DNRs about whether they exist or not.
Just my $.02
My dad and mom were coming back from florida one year and my dad said he saw one dead on the side of the highway at the Georgia line. I believe him because he knows his animals.
I have seen one in Kennesaw one nite while walding my dog. was REAL BIG and the police man I told i don't think he believed me.
I firmly believe we have them here. Never seen one myself but we had a jack (donkey) down in Tignall that was tore up real bad...before calling the vet, everyone thought I was crazy when I said it was a BIG cat. The wounds were punctures that curved slightly inward (the shape of a cat's claw) and 4-6 large punctures at the base of the neck just past the shoulders (never reached the spine but a couple clear through both sides of the hide). The vet kept shaking his head while sewing him up..."If I didn't know better, I'd say this was done by a mountain lion!"
Yep, we know better....no mountain lions/catamounts/cougars/panthers/painters here in GA :rolleyes: I wonder how hard it is to pick a spot on a figment of my imagination?
QuoteOriginally posted by bbassi:
I believe that whether there are or not in any given state, it is a predetermined position of any state game agency to deny and excuse away any evidence to their existence. I believe their reasoning is that to acknowledge their existence opens the door to a slew of lawsuits from whacko environmentalists that want to protect the lions. That means protecting their food sources as well. i.e. deer, which could severely impact deer seasons in any state which recognizes a population of lions. To follow my line of thinking out, it doesn't make any sense for us, as sportsman who want to protect our deer seasons, to argue with the state DNRs about whether they exist or not.
Just my $.02
I agree with this wholeheartedly, but it begs the question that's been bothering ever sense I started hearing these "rumors".
Is it illegal to take game that the State says doesn't exist? Throw in a bit about livestock, and the words "non-native species" and it gets interesting.
You should call and ask the Lady in Conroe Tx. about the one that crossed the deck of her hot tub/spa while she was sitting in it one evening last summer..Good reason to change the water filter?? Oh they aint got no pumas in Texas either,,,much.
There weren't any in the Omaha suburbs either..........
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same thing said here PA. But gettin trail cam pics of them!!!
Denial don't work to good for ostriches ether, you can Bury your head in the sand, but the lions still going to eat you. :smileystooges:
In Cali. we dun protected them as a sacred animal "no hunting of mountain lions" yet we the tax payer, pay to have fish & game kill more than they ever killed in a hunting season that raised revenues and allowed the public to use there natural resources. :readit:
When it comes to Fish & game departments, for some reason this passage comes to mind.
Declaration of Independence:
..... That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,........
Is it time for a tea party? :wavey:
Could you imagine how much we could get done if we, The HUNTERS, said: we've had enough, no more, and we did not buy a hunting or fishing licence.
Well in 2006 we spent $75,000,000,000 (75 Billion) that's annually, cut that spicket off, and what Cool hand Luke said: "they'll get there mind right" :mad:
Unless there is certain number of animals to the game dept they do not exist.A few here and there are not considered a population.While hunting down on our coast a few years ago in an area where some claimed to hold panthers we talked to a local warden about it.He said there were no such animals there.He quickly then explained in no un-certain terms if we saw one we better not shoot it. :biglaugh:
Not trying to hijack but was that $75 billion dollars just in licenses and permits!?!?
So Ray,
You saying your cougars don't stink, but smell real purty. :bigsmyl:
Cougars can be scary. Without a doubt we (humans)
would be easy prey to them whenever they want.
What I feel is MUCH more scary, is that state game agencies all across the nation deny the existence of them. For whatever reason, STATE GAME AGENCIES LIE to the people when often evidence is clearly undeniable.
I do not fear cougars nearly as much as I do a state authority when they repeatedly lie.
Along these same lines, here in Michigan, coyotes
are protected during our firearms deer season, to protect lower penninsula wolves which do not exist. That is tax dollars hard at work.
That's RIGHT, Boff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here in Iowa they are not "recognized" by the DNR and we have been told there are therefore no seasons or regulations to obey if we see one. We are instructed to shoot them if we are of a mind to.
Ouch. Should've skinned that one out, salted it and tanned the hide - assuming it was fresh enough.
Tea party sounds real nice! :campfire:
Missouri's Dept. of Conservation denied it forever until someone got one on film.
Oregon Fish and Wildlife did that for years with wolves. Said there were no wolves in Oregon. Yet we kept seeing them. Finally they admitted there are established wolves here. Cougars we have thousands of, so there is no use denying them :)
Arkansas G&F says we have no wild cougars.
Oddly enough, the Arkansas G&F has a full time big cat biologist.
Seriously ...
QuoteOriginally posted by BradLantz:
Arkansas G&F says we have no wild cougars.
Oddly enough, the Arkansas G&F has a full time big cat biologist.
Seriously ...
Now that's funny right thar, I don't care who you are!
well they are like snakes the only good one is a dead one and on the table yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :biglaugh: so someone told me.
Il DNR denies trhem as well, but then aghain it wasn't that long ago that they said we didn't have any coyotes either...................
Ray, if'n they don't stink...are they ripe??
A delicacy to the Mountainmen and a danger we 'civilized and politicaly correct' heathens.
As long as it's not Green Tea; I'm with ya...
We have them in Texas out West, however the landowner where I hunt just south of Lake Texoma on the red river has let me know there has been sightings of them up there as well!
When I lived in Eastern NC I saw two myself. Now that I live in Easstern Kansas, I have seen the track of one at Hillsdale Lake where I hunt.
On the same notes I saw what appeared to be elk tracks in a field near Hillsdale Lake, Kansas. My hunting buddy also saw elk tracks in the same area. At first I was doubting myself, until I talked with a biologist at Hillsdale and he stated a small heard of elk exist in Miami County. Who would have ever thought.
Speaking as a professional biologist, I have to admit that I have a natural skepticism towards most wildlife reports I get from members of the public. I once was told by a woman that a nutria lived in the field behind her piedmont Maryland subdivision... it was so big she thought it was a bear at first. It was of course a woodchuck. I worked in the Adirondack Park in NY and throughout the northeast on wolf recovery and education issues for a couple years in the late 1990's. I heard more wacky wildlife reports and conspiracy theories than I can remember. NYDEC trading turkeys for coyotes to control the deer herd, dropping wolves out of helicopters (black of course), and "packs" of black panthers taking down deer in main street of Star Lake, NY.
Whether they love them or hate them, people are fascinated by large carnivores, and those that believe themselves fortunate enough to have seen one hate to have this romantic image dashed by a skeptical biologist, such as myself, who is right 99 out of 100 times. To these people, that one time that a cougar actually winds up dead on a road or in some hunters pickup means that the other 99 times the biologist was wrong. Never mind that there are dozens of explanations for the appearance of an actual cougar that are far more likely than the presence of a thriving, reproducing population. Collared cougars have been documented traveling over 700 miles, thus explaining some of the appearances in midwestern states in the past decade. A florida panther dispersinig to GA is not impossible, but probably far less likely than an abandoned "pet". Do a google search for "pet cougar" and you will see they are far more common than you would imagine and why they would be turned loose to fend for themselves. Even if it was a bona fide wild cougar, one dispersing cougar does not a population make.
My childhood neighbors keep telling my folks there is a cougar in the area (near Binghamton, NY). While I have seen the return of bobcats and bears to the area since I left home in 1989, until I see a cougar with my own two eyes, I won't believe it. I grew up with these people.
I guess the bottom line is, if you have a sighting and want to be taken seriously, expose yourself to the same scrutiny biologists endure. Submit your evidence for a rigorous review (http://www.easterncougarnet.org/cougarconfim.htm) and be prepared to accept the outcome, even when its less than exciting.
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They said the same thing about deer in Kansas when my wife's dad was a kid. He says if you saw one you didn't tell anybody because no one would believe ya.
Hope the cougar population doesn't explode like the whitetails did!!!!!
Bjorn- whoa ! Two of them? cool x 2 !! And the black panther in the tree- well- how many saw that? LOL
I live in cougar country - I found tracks in my driveway the other day ....so they are here !
I have seen them around here; there is an over the counter tag for them....but I have not seen one in a long long time.
Cats are preditors- and they walk around looking where they are going; and don't stop and feed with their heads down.
They are very most likely to see you first; and slip out of sight.
And when a state acknowledges there is the presence of a mountian lion; they have to come up with a game management plan. $$$$ and more worries.....better just to deny it ( did this in Michigan too).
Steve Kendrot,
I hear ya. However.... I don't place the same credibility on the claims of houswives and suburbanites as I do on hardcore hunters. Hunters who KNOW what they are talking about and who spend lots of time in the woods can't be lumped in with the same people who learn animal identification by watching Disney movies. Basically, always consider the source...
Bjorn, to funny, got a pic of this one last week.
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QuoteOriginally posted by Dave Bulla:
Steve Kendrot,
I hear ya. However.... I don't place the same credibility on the claims of houswives and suburbanites as I do on hardcore hunters. Hunters who KNOW what they are talking about and who spend lots of time in the woods can't be lumped in with the same people who learn animal identification by watching Disney movies. Basically, always consider the source...
Exactly what I was thinking Steve!
I was bowhunting deer and pigs in the everglades once and after dozing off for a couple of minutes in my tree stand, I awoke to find a huge florida lynx staring up at me from the base of the leaning tree I was in. I had never seen one before, heck I didn't even know that there were lynx in Florida before this happened but, I sure knew exactly what kind of animal I was looking at! :readit:
Ron
Steve,
Speaking as a non- biologist, but also as a person who did stay at a Holiday Inn Express a couple months ago, I am highly qualified to say- THE FREAKIN'THING WAS SHOT- IT'S DEAD- IT HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF GA AS A COUGAR.
There doesnt need to be any scrutiny.... in this case. But as you can see, they continue to discredit its existence with the story about its footpads being worn down on concrete.
Sort of reminds me of the wolf expert who met with sheep ranchers in Wyoming in a town hall meeting to discuss how they were going to control the wolves killing sheep through contraception.
An old grizzled rancher stood up and said, "Son, I don't think you understand. The wolves aren't trying to @#$rew our sheep, they're eatin' em!"
Budgets, economic interests, social interests and political bent all cloud the comments, attitudes, and the "effluence" coming out of so many scientists' mouths so often I have come to trust them and their statements about as much as I trust my congressman, senator, and local county commissioner to do what's right instead of what will get them reelected.
I live in Texas, halfway between Dallas and Houston, halfway between Waco and Tyler. In 15 years of living here have personally seen 6, including one last weekend dragging a yearling deer across a ranch road (5 miles west of Corsicana, Navarro county). Wondered why we haven't seen a deer for at least 2 weeks on that side of the ranch.
Ron
We don't have any cougars, but we do have wookalars.
Wow, I had no idea Georgia had a season for mountain lion. Good for them.
If he'd shot that lion here in Alabama, he'd most likely would've lost his hunting rights for life. Not to mention the huge fine.
Come to think about it, maybe that's why no one in 'Bama has admitted to shooting one. :p
All the Alabama guys are watching football this year.........
Now doesn't that add a whole new feeling to walking through the pre-dawn Georgia woods with nothing but a short sharp stick? Just a little more exciting than kicking up a mean hog in the dark. There is a certain feeling you get when you look at a brown bear or a shark who is looking at you, now we don't have to travel so far to feel like an appetizer.
There's probably four or five of us that ain't.
War Eagle, baby!
:D
Take it to 'Em, Joey!
The say the same thing here in SC, from last winter to this fall I have seen or heard them 5 times, found scat and tracks. I have several neighbors who have seen them and or heard them, one almost hit one with their Truck. DNR says they don't exist so I guess we are imagining this, or we need good anti psychotics!!! There have been several caught on game cameras about 50 miles north of here so how hard would it be for them to move from NC to SC or GA?
Kirk
I recently saw a Discovery Channel special that stated jaguars are now living in Southern Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Per the show jaguars were wide spread in the southwest in the late 1800's until they were killed out by ranchers. They even had trail cam pictures of the jaguars.
QuoteOriginally posted by Joey Ward:
War Eagle, baby!
Just like an Alabama school: can't even get the mascot right...it's either an eagle
OR a tiger...not both! :p
Tell em what I said JC... :jumper:
I think it is obvious that we have big cats. I have lived in north GA and western NC most of my life I know an old man that has a black "paanter" skin hanging in his barn. He killed it when he was young in the mtns. of Robbinsville, NC. I have heard countless stories of encounters. I have yet to see one, but I fully beleive most of the stories.
It is probably best if they don't become recognized cause they'll just raise liscense fees to cover the protection costs. Just my 5 cents.
I have to go along with Steve on this one, people even "experienced hunters" see what they want to see. There was a SERVAL cat caught in Atlanta earlier this year, video of it runing around Buckhead and getting netted was on the news, NO-ONE admitted to releasing or owning it, maybe it snuck in on a flight from Africa, I don't know. The fact is that if someone is in illegal posession of an exotic animal, they aren't very likely to admit it. A couple years ago, here in the Atlanta suburbs there was big news about a "confirmed bobcat sighting" and people panicking that it would eat their children and pets, the DNR was shown carrying a live trap big enough for any black bear to the sight. The video of that "bobcat" was also on the tv, it was a TABBY cat, I figured that out in about two seconds, but apparently the DNR didn't see the video or can't tell a housecat from a bobcat or just set the trap to make people happy. I was hunting with a good friend of mine and an "experienced hunter", in good light and in the open and broadside he saw a "mountain lion", I got there a few minutes after the sighting, he couldn't tell me if it had a long tail or short or what color it was or if it was spotted or mottled or all one color, but he was positive it was a "mountain lion", twice I have been threaten with physical violence, because I doubt someone when they saw dead "mountain lions" on the side of the road in GA, in both cases the persons that saw them KNEW ANIMALS and got a good look and it was positively a mountain lion! One was a dead dog and the other was a dead coyote and this is with animals in the open in good light and not moving. I have seen for years on the internet "confirmed" photos of mountain lions taken in various eastern states, and I do mean various as some of these "confirmed" photos have the same photo being attributed to a half dozen different states.
Actually if you do a bit of browsing, you will find lots of "confirmed sightings of BIGFOOT too. Does anyone remember a couple months ago and all the national attention the the "bigfoot" being found in north GA? There was a "confirmed" cougar road killed in Michigans UP a couple years ago and was on the front page of the paper and everything, there was a lot less publicity about it turning out to being a prank. I was riding in a pickup with two of my VERY experienced hunting buddies in Michigan, I was looking to the side, when an animal ran across the road directly in front of the vehicle, they both got a good view of it, I didn't see it at all, one of them saw "an eight point buck" the other saw a "black bear". Try interviewing people over something they just saw, I had two people who were standing in the same place and saw the hit and run accident and one was positive it was a red car and the other one was equally positive it was a green car. In other words, eyewitness sightings are nearly worthless and even things that are "confirmed" are frequently wrong. There is no doubt in my mind that people bring animals home, alive or dead, that they aren't supposed to have and then dispose of them or try to find a way to explain why they have it, not saying that is the case this time, but it has happened. And I can say from several personal experiences that most of the stuff in the news is largely fiction created by newspeople trying to make themselves important.
Rick, proof positive: this was a confirmed kill in troup county. DNR confirmed the kill and issued a statement. Show me the carcass of a bigfoot and I'll say they exist where it was shot.
There have been a few of these over the year, DNR and F&G have just decided that it was an escaped pet, little or no investigation. That includes photos by respected wildlife photogs in NC, GA and VA and WVA I don't know about other states, but it was always ruled an escaped illegal pet or similar. I have known quite a few people who have sited or heard them, and found tracks, but the evidence has been ignored. I would buy Bigfoot or the skunk ape if someone shot one or trapped it too, and this I feel has happened with catamounts a few times in the east. I remember VA denied yotes for about 10 years after they arrived in the late 70s and early 80s. A bunch of us like around 20 people saw and photographed one, but F&G said it was a feral dog. One of the guys was from Az and shot them for pelts and he said it was a coyote. DNR or F&G in my opinion, just don't want to have to handle catamounts until they can't avoid it any longer.
Well LDWF has said for years that we did not have them in Louisiana either. They recently had to recant that and admit that we do. Too many trail cam pics that have been confiremd as authentic. My brother saw one almost 25 years ago on the Ark/LA line.
Hunters the reliable source? A select few certaiinly are, but some of the tallest tales I've heard have been spun by hunters.
Here's an interesting story about these issues in Deer and Deer hunting.
http://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/article/LegendsPt1/
I always get a kcik out of people who tell me they just saw a 17 point buck run by... must have better eyesight than I do!
No need to yell Ray! :scared: I didn't say a cougar wasn't shot in GA, I merely suggested that that in itself was not evidence of a population.
The Geogia DNR has been denying this for over 20 years. I remember being about 5 and seeing a cougar around 15 yards from me....talk about scaring a little kid.
**** one had a den less than half a mile from my house in some dead pines. I remember my mom screaming at the DNR guys because they were denying it up and down that there was NO WAY cougars could be here. I've met about 15 other people that have seen one, and that was in a county next to me. (I live just south of the Cohutta WMA where I'd bet a years pay a few cougars are hapily living).
The Geogia DNR are **********....
**** i was 4 when I saw taht one, and maybe 50-70lbs...I woulda been a perfect snack for that cat if they ever attacked people...
AND if you people think seeing a cougar at point blank range is like seeing some **** like bigfoot....well..... Ive had so many arguements with DNR officals and game wardens that I just get angry anymore...
Time to get away from those glue fumes, electric! :biglaugh:
yes I was doin drugs at 4....
could imagine a little kid on a serious acid trip? hah, he'd be in a cartoon world all day.....talkin to Barney. Actually that sounds like an adult tripping too...
seriously though, that sounds bout like a DNR person....cougars in Georgia?! Blasphemy!
EDIT: And to clarify, these animals are NOT AT ALL dangerous to us. They might get your dogs or cats, but the chances of a cougar attacking you for food are so small its hard to imagine. These animals are FAR more afraid of us than we are of them. Hell the one I saw ran from a 4 year old. A black bear is 100x more dangerous. If you see one in the eastern United States then consider yourself lucky as hell. And if you shoot it I hope the full force of the law comes down on you, they are incredibly rare and beautiful animals.
JC, I'm not doubting anyone, I am just saying that a LOT of things confirmed by many different entities end up being something other than what they were first confirmed as. I personally know of a number of circumstances where people brought animals from other states and countries without the proper licences or permits and once they found out how much the taxidermy work was going to cost they discarded the animal on the side of the road or elsewhere, the same thing also happens when the taxidermist refused to touch it without proper documentation. Some recent game camera photos on the internet "confirming" an eastern cougar and an immature bigfoot, were a pointer dog and a black bear with mange.
Well if the GDNR said "No lions in GA, then if You see 1 You can kill it"
Caylor, this is a family site, I'm sure you can come up with some better vocabulary to get your point across. Let's not get this thread shut down because folks can't keep their tempers under control.
Rick, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. I have a few good friends in DNR: "unofficial" opinions contradict the public position.
Salvatore, that's pretty much their position now.
if you have a huntable supply of deer you are going to have the big cats, end of story.
About four years ago, out of the clear blue sky, the S.C. rules and regs book states that a hunter can't kill or molest a couger, also known as a mountain lion. So I say to myself...hmmmmm?
JC, I didn't disagree, I'm just saying that, I don't take everything or ANYTHING I read in the paper or anywhere in the media at face value. There have been lots of "confirmed" reports of all kinds of things that never happened. One cougar also does not a population make, it takes hundreds to have a viable breeding population without the severe inbreeding problems they are having with the Florida cougars. If there is a population of cougars in GA, they didn't get here on their own.
:) WE've had this debate going on in Penna for many years!
These big cats are normally so secretive, from what I can tell from those who really study them scientifically, they will only be "ghosts" at times to most folks.
They do like to avoid people then...but when they get habituated to people and realize they're no threat..well, ask the bikers/hikers in CA and areas out West that have been stalked and attacked!
I've known trappers in the northern big woods areas of PA that have actually caught them in traps... and had them pull out when they showed up! Truth? Dunno...
Only thing I truly believe is that in the world of nature, there are things that exist and occur that none of us will ever witness, and those that do, won't be believed. Truth is often stranger than fiction. No more so than in God's amazing wilds and woods!
If I saw a cat like that while in my deer stand I think I would try to act as inconspicuous as possible and hope it didn't see me! I probably would have been too nervous to draw my bow. My congratulations to the lucky :scared: bowhunter who got the cat.
We have them, but not enough of them judging from the number of wild horses we have. My friend took one above Reno-could see the casinos-that weighed 165#. it was eating horses. The BLM can provide horses to feed your nonexistent cougars-we have corrals at teh edge of town with a thousand or so. unadopatble and you pay to feed them via taxes-call they'll send you a few.