We have occasional Cougar attacks in washington. Wouldn’t happen if we weren’t shrinking and dividing up their territory. They were here first and our suburbian invasion is the issue. Seems “stand your ground” laws should apply here in favor of the cougars.
About 10 years ago, I spent a few weekends at a large ranch in South Texas that was largely abandoned and only visited occasionally by the family. It was predominantly used for hunting parties. Outdoor plumbing and there were many layers of carpet fragments covering holes in the floor of the living room so you wouldn’t fall through- but it had two huge state of the art fridges filled with booze. A real man cave kind of place.
I was out there to get some solitude, and in return I cleared waist high weeds and mesquite for about an acre surrounding the main house.
Not far from the main house was a decrepit old barn-like structure that had been used for storage. It was falling apart, and largely propped up by the contents against which the failing walls rested. Old furniture and farm implements.
The first day I was there, I went inside and looked around. As I entered the furthest room of the 3, I heard what sounded like a mouse squealing quietly- very soft animal sounds. It was not a mouse- that is just the closest thing I can think of- and so I was intrigued and starting looking around.
After a few moments I looked straight ahead and down, and I was face to face with a mountain lion- probably 4-5 feet away from her face as she was crouched under the remains of an old desk.
I very quietly started moving backward- never taking my eyes away- and the noises stopped and all was well.
For the rest of my many visits, I saw her often at dawn and dusk. I never went into the structure where she was living again- but I saw her almost every day. She would come out and look at me if I was there, I would look back and nod- and as soon as I nodded, she would turn and go off hunting or whatever else she was up to.
To this day I remember what a stunningly beautiful creature she was- and how quickly we came to an understanding about a peaceful coexistence.
To the OP- take it for good luck.
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Do you ever get that creepy feeling that something bad could happen?
Nice kitty… Smile for the camera.
That is a great story Tom. I’ll share one as well.
We used to live in the foothills above Boulder CO at 8,000ft elevation. We bordered National Forest on two sides on the property and had lots of “wild” wildlife in that the critters that came around were generally not very used to humans. Anyhow at night I started hearing loud and weird large cat sounds. Not quite growling but more like a loud and agitated mtn lion. And it went on for hours at night. After the third night I started to get concerned that it was a injured mtn lion as there were some old mines down in that ravine that I knew big kitties used to go inside. I’d seen tracks going in those tunnels quite a few times and was always careful before I went inside.
So on the fourth day I called a neighbor to help me investigate. I was not dumb enough, in this rare instance, to go down into that ravine solo hence getting my neighbor to join me. The purpose was to see if we needed to called someone from the Wildlife Division to help an injured or trapped lion. So we go down into this wooded ravine and we find numerous cone shaped piles of bark and other forest floor debris about a foot high and in diameter. These were new and certainly made by some large creature making those piles. I later learned that is one way a lion marks its territory by piling that stuff up and then peeing on the piles.
So we continue up the ravine with clear signs of a active lion nearby. The forest and canopy is becoming increasingly dense so we stay close together. I was leading and then came across a 30 foot circular area completely cleared of any forest floor debris. No leaves, no sticks, no bark nothing. And in the exact center of that circle and under all that missing debris was the partially eaten remains of a mule deer nearly completely covered in said debris. Only the cleaned off ribs stuck out and the rest was completely buried. Immediately I knew this was no injured cat but instead a very healthy cat (or mom and cubs) who had been feeding at night in a frenzy. Given we knew it was healthy and should be left alone we figured out how to leave the area. I knew and told my buddy that in all likelihood it was watching us as we were right next to its kill and we needed to be super careful now.
Being the one more versed in cat behavior (and I’d asked him for a favor) I told my buddy you head out of here first but back out as one never shows the back of your neck to a large predatory cat. He got out and then I did the same thing, slowly. Boom were were in the open and safe. While this was not one of my 3 aforementioned lion sightings it was the one that taught me the most about how they behave and perhaps the most dangerous. I heard those cats sounds for another few nights and then it was done.
Hey, if y’all Do-Gooders’ greatest aspiration in life is to be harvested by Mountain Lions, then PLEASE, walk on up there with no armament whatsover, and let ‘em harvest you to their hearts’ content.
Me? I’ma be quite well-armed when I head up into known [or even potential] Mountain Lion territory.
And if I were a human female, then I’d be decked out like Angelina Jolie in Mr & Mrs Smith.
Jason, I’ll tell you the truth about the encounter. I’m working graveyard patrol as a police officer with 9 months experience. We get a call of a prowler in the back yard of a house on Silverado Trail, pretty much in the city but three blocks from the boonies. I’m one of three officers who respond. The Sergeant and beat officer go into the house and I guard the gate that leads into the backyard. While I didn’t see it, apparently the beat officer and sergeant went out the back door to search the back yard. Their flashlights illuminated the mountain lion. The sergeant stepped back into the house and shut the door, leaving the beat officer in the back yard with the mountain lion. At the same time, the neighbor/owner had contacted me asking me not to shoot his “cat.” The beat officer was severely rubbed and pinned against the back door and realized he wasn’t going to be attacked. Still had to change his undershorts. We all got to spend some time with Toby, who died a couple years later of old age.
Seven. Jimmy Hoffa.
Wow. Amazing creatures. Glad you got out of there okay. I was lucky in never crossing paths with cubs or meals.
They are closely related to house cats- the largest in the genus Felix in the world so are not truly lions. The increase in sightings and human attacks are new and not exclusively due to the intrusion in their habitat but to an expansion of their range into ours and a dramatic fall in hunting pressure. Nationwide their principal prey species, deer and rabbits, have exploded coinciding with prohibitions on using dogs to hunt cougar. It is nearly impossible to hunt them without dogs. They are able to breed rapidly and litter size increases with food availability but the males have to establish large territories so disperse widely. They used to be exclusively nocturnal but, like the deer, have become daytime active as human pressure declines . Game management , even of problem animals, has changed to a higher tolerance. We should all expect more interactions, nationwide, and be prepared for these adverse consequences on both species.
For those mountain lion alarmists here, a few things to consider. There are typically 30-40 fatal attacks by domestic dogs in the US each year, and over 5,000 people require hospitalization for dog bites annually. About 50 people are killed by lightning each year in the US. And what about mountain lions? According to Wikipedia, in the past 100 years there have been a total of 125 documented mountain lion attacks on people with 27 deaths in all of North America. It’s obvious that the odds of being attacked are extremely remote, and it’s unlikely that most people will ever even see a mountain lion due to their well-known avoidance of humans. I’ve hiked in mountain lion territory all my life - I’ve never seen one and probably never will, though I know it’s very possible that some of them have seen me. Rattlesnakes are a considerably bigger concern for me on the trail than mountain lions. It’s true that there are likely more mountain lions around than there were 30-40 years ago, and there are more sightings than there used to be, but there does not seem to be any statistical increase in attacks on humans. While mountain lions (like coyotes) do pose a potential danger to pets that are left outdoors, the danger to humans is negligible.
Human hubris to think in terms of having to interventionally manage all forms of nature.
Cougars/mountain lions are not particularly closely related to the domestic cat. Once upon a time, all cats big and small, were lumped together in the genus Felis. The African lion was Felis leo. Nowadays, the lion is Panthera leo, the cougar/mtn lion is Puma concolor, and the domestic cat is Felis catus. (Floridians call their cougars “Florida panthers.”)
A pair of cougars/mountain lions/Sonoma panthers is definitely a good omen.
Good omen! How many cases are you in for?
I see these all the time - some of my wife’s divorced friends are cougars.
Here is a great website for those interested. Lets me see who is in my neighborhood!
6-year-old girl attacked by mountain lion, saved by adult who punched cat in ribs during mauling
By Jon Haworth
February 17, 2020, 5:32 AM
…The incident occurred on Sunday morning just before 10 a.m. in the Rancho San Antonio County Park and Open Space Preserve in Santa Clara County, California, when the six-year-old was walking with her parents in a group of six adults and four children when the mountain lion suddenly jumped out of the bushes and began to attack the child…
I was once attacked by a cougar . My college roommates didn’t believe me.
One final point about these cats: From what I’ve read, the prophylactic rabies immunoglobulin treatments, administered s/p an intimate encounter with a warm-blooded predator, have retail prices ranging from $75,000 to $125,000.
For folks who already can’t afford health insurance, that would be a financial death knell.
And even folks with 90/10 policies would be looking at $7500 to $12,500 out-of-pocket expenses [plus whatever their deductibles amounted to].
But did Penthouse publish your letter?
Lemme guess… you escaped in true Wine Berserker fashion by braining her with the bottle of Rombauer?
Cougars in the Vineyard!! Must be Rose time