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

[Ray Hammond]

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  .


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.

[twosheds]

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.

[beachbowhunter]

I guess you're just plum crazy Ray.  :p

[ishiwannabe]

Same thing here in NY.

[madness522]

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.

[Pat B]

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

[tradwannabe]

personally. i like my cougars about 45 yrs old,tall, and thinish.
LOL

[joe ashton]

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).

[Soilarch]

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!

[bloodyarrow]

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.

[tradwannabe]

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

[tradwannabe]

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.

[Sharpster]

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!  

Ron

[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

[BMOELLER]

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.

[tim-flood]

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.

[JC]

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?

[Soilarch]

Originally 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.

[david_lewis93]

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.

[Bjorn]

There weren't any in the Omaha suburbs either..........