A week ago I was roaming through an area rattling bucks to photograph and came across some fresh activity where something had been drug through a little opening.  A short search revealed a small buck that been killed, fed on, then stashed in some thick Manzanita brush.

I decided to flag a trail downwind so I could approach the kill at daylight. The next morning I came in as quiet as I could, but no movement was seen in the brush.  Closer inspection found that the deer was gone. So I slowly followed the drag marks and found this shoulder blade where he stopped to feed for awhile...

[In the same area I found two lion pies about 10 feet apart.  Stuck my size 11.5 in there for comparison.

Another 200 ft and I found the carcass again. Even though the temp was 24* and frost everywhere, the dirt that was disturbed where the lion had dragged the deer had no frost in it. Pretty sure I bumped the cat off the deer. No doubt the lion is watching me investigate it's kill!

 

 

Probably should have wired it up to the tree just to the left so he couldn't drag it away if he came back.  I can see the deer from 150 ft, about three times what I could where it was stashed when I found it the day before.

The next morning I sneak in again, and as I ease around some brush ready to shoot....the deer is GONE!  I looked around and found one clear footprint of the lion, it's pad was 4.5 inches across, so I was certain he was a big tom.

The lion had pee'd on everything in the area, so it was quite smelly there.  I followed the logical direction of travel, but no more drag marks were found, so I think he'd eaten enough that he just picked the deer up in his jaws and packed it.

A couple hundred yards away I found a piece of the backbone with a couple gnawed on ribs attached. Never did find the head again, must have stashed it in the brush?

 

There's lots of deer in the area, and many more to come, so I'm pretty sure the cat won't leave the area. Might get a little snow late this week for some tracking conditions. Need to remove this beast from the food chain this winter!

Please no pics wider than 640

WOW thats cool Thanks for sharing. Good luck with the removal.      Joe

That's cool. It would be quite the feat to get one without dogs. I don't know if I've ever heard of that happening.

Cool.   Sounds like the perfect time and use for a trail camera.

That is cool.  I would sure like to see one of those in the wild some day.

Very cool find,really,thanks for sharing!!!  

Nothing like that around here.......that's kind'a neat. Would you hunt him with hounds???

Wow! Thanks for posting that. Were you checking over your shoulder at all?

Thanks, glad you guys are enjoying the pics!

QuoteOriginally posted by ron w:
Nothing like that around here.......that's kind'a neat. Would you hunt him with hounds???

Oregon voters took away the use of hounds as a hunting tool 15 or more years ago.

Most are killed by luck during deer and elk season, a few are tracked down in fresh snow, some are taken over a fresh kill such as this, and a few guys get them with predator calls.

QuoteOriginally posted by Bjorn:
Wow! Thanks for posting that. Were you checking over your shoulder at all?

I was a little, but nothing like being a predator in search of a predator to keep your senses on edge!

That was a lion or bobcat kill for sure but I think a bear took it over.I've never seen lion droppings look like that,ever.It also looks like it contains berry seeds.The rest of the work also looks like bear.Notice that the kill wasn't covered the second time.

Notice it was drug into thick stuff first but the second time it wasn't.Bears often leave droppings where they are feeding,lions usually not,more often at marking places.

I think you have two things going on there.

This is a cool thread  

QuoteOriginally posted by JimB:
That was a lion or bobcat kill for sure but I think a bear took it over.I've never seen lion droppings look like that,ever.It also looks like it contains berry seeds.The rest of the work also looks like bear.Notice that the kill wasn't covered the second time.

Notice it was drug into thick stuff first but the second time it wasn't.Bears often leave droppings where they are feeding,lions usually not,more often at marking places.

I think you have two things going on there.

Jim...I investigated pretty good. I thought those were berries too, but it wasn't. I think the fresh meat was going right through him. All the tracks were were of the cat, no bear tracks whatsoever.

Pretty sure I bumped the cat the first morning and he didn't have time to cover it back up.

NIce Pics Ron.
I was hunting Lamola
several years back and hiked from the Highway down Diamond Cr to LaMola Lake. About half way through I came upon a fresh lion kill just like that. They generally eat the hindquarters first,.

Like the guys said I kind of got on the careful and spooky side a bit and just bout a hundred yards on down the creek I literally stepped on a grouse. That bird came out from under me and I swung my bow and arrows went everywhere. I knocked feathers out of that bird like he was a feather pillow. He landed about 15 feet from me and I went for him. He finally got it together and took off but I sat down and bout shook myself to death. I was laughing and scared half to death at the same time.

God bless you all, Steve

QuoteOriginally posted by Tree Killer:
Never did find the head again, must have stashed it in the brush?

He probably put it on the wall of his den.

Maybe but I've never seen lion droppings be runny and they are always,primarily hair and bones in segmented cylinders.Cats process meat so efficiently that that is all that's left.Bears on the other hand often get the runs from eating fresh meat.

I wasn't there though, so you should know if a bear would have left tracks.That's a huge tom lion.Cool stuff.

that is cool predator vs predator o man wish we had something like that here all we have is wild cats (house cats) and ferrets

Nice I hope you get em!!!
Maybe he had a cold or a stomach problem.  
Since the Hound ban I have spotted cougar every year for the past 8 years  once 4 at one time all mature.  My Dad stuck one of those.

Ron,

Go gettum!!  Hope you put another great BT in the bag this season.

Bob

Too cool!

Too Erie!!