We AIN'T got no stinkin' cougars in Georgia!!!!!!!!!!

[JC]

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.

[Kirk32256]

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.

[bayoubowman]

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.

[Steve Kendrot]

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!

[Steve Kendrot]

No need to yell Ray!      I didn't say a cougar wasn't shot in GA, I merely suggested that that in itself was not evidence of a population.

[electric blues]

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...

[Bjorn]

Time to get away from those glue fumes, electric!  

[electric blues]

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.

[Rick McGowan]

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.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Well if the GDNR said "No lions in GA, then if You see 1 You can kill it"

[JC]

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.

[bigiron]

if you have a huntable supply of deer you are going to have the big cats, end of story.

[Flint Head]

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?

[Rick McGowan]

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.

[Doc Nock]

  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!

[Ga.boy]

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     bowhunter who got the cat.

[Roadkill]

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.