Deer Taken Away By Mountain Lion In Southern Missouri

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Originally posted by Huntschool:
Frequency is based on home range.  Lions can range as much as 500 sq miles in areas where food is a bit hard to come by.

The cat sightings near Vienna are likely true.  I have seen two in my almost 40 years in the area.  This was close up and personal.  I am a wildlife guy so, for me at least, there was no guessing...  Lion!!!  nuff said.

Exactly Huntschool. I spend an unbelievable amount of time outdoors and a good amount of it during trapping season when most folks are tucked away inside nice and warm. I've caught everything that lives in the state of Missouri and I know what we have here. I know my critters!
I don't need any proof to know that mt. lions are here, I've seen one on 2 seperate occasions in 30+ years, so yes....sightings are very, very rare. Just because more of them aren't caught on trail camera doesn't mean those of us who have seen them don't know what we saw.

Great Post KennyM!
It's kinda hard to deny that evidence....HUH?
I bet if you carried those pics and proof into the MDC headquarters they would still try to debunk it.

[Mudd]

It's been several years now but just about two miles from my house here in Ashland a friend of mine found one of his feeder calves partially eaten.

That could have been a calf taken down by anything or a bunch of anythings but the evidence that made a believer out of me was his horse that was very much alive.

The horse had bite marks on the back of it's neck and claw marks on it's withers.

The conservation department came out and said that it did appear to be the work of a very large cat of some kind.

All of this happened about a month before a mountain lion was killed on 54 hwy over by Fulton.

The cat was DNA'd and proved to be a young tom from wild stock.

It might not have been the same cat that killed the calf or attacked the horse but no further attacks occurred afterward.

God bless,Mudd

[Michigan Mark]

Seeing is believing

[tenbrook]

I was hiking yesterday looking for Chanterelle mushrooms.  I came across a fresh Mountain Lion kill.  It was a calf that had been gutted and half it face chewed off.  

Not that uncommon around here though.

[Huntschool]

Carlos:

One sighting that I feel very comfortable with by someone else took place about 4 years ago at the northern end of the property your Dad and I were employed on.

They are in or using Johnson County.....

[lpcjon2]

There have been talks of a large cat in South Jersey a few years ago and some of the horse/sheep farmers had some wound pictures that looked pretty convincing. Of course F&G stated it wasnt a cat,now that I think about it they did the same when the coyotes first showed up.Hmmm!  

[John3]

WOW..!!!

[waknstak IL]

Huntschool, I have no doubt what my buddy saw was the real deal. The DNR says it is possible that a young male might be passing thru but there are no breeding populations. The one he saw had a young one in tow and appeared to be teaching it to hunt. I really wish it had been someone who's story I doubted, kinda makes a mile walk back and forth in the dark to the truck seem a little farther thinking they might be around.

[kennym]

I forgot one incident also, my neighbors horse was slashed by something.

Left shoulder up towards neck: If you spread your fingers as far as possible, you could trace 4(if I remember)deep claw wounds

Right shoulder just above front leg: 6" long flap of skin and meat ripped loose about 1" deep.Vet had cleaned and cut off flap before I saw it. Vet said lion,but neighbor never called MDC

Sorry no pics.

These are the kind of things I believe, not the ones where someone's cousin's brother's girlfriend's boss' nephew's babysitter seein one ....    :p    

Yeah,my best bud saw something in broad daylite too, momma and 2 kittens,kittens went up an oak tree 15 feet from blacktop and he got a long look at em before they worked around the tree and slipped away. He don't tell stories.

Told him he shoulda caught one of the kittys.    


I'd still like to see one!    :D

[Huntschool]

Waknstak:

Yea, no doubt....  They are here but "here" is a really big area.  

I just hope with our almost perfect food source, and more than adaquate cover the breeding potential/productivity of thes guys does not get reached like in Urban British Columbia.....

[K.S.TRAPPER]

You guys crack me up !!  

Tracy

[waknstak IL]

Huntschool, I'm 260, have a bum knee and mostly deaf in one ear. I am a perfect food source.  

[Friend]

Mountain lions were hunted into extinction in most Eastern and Midwestern states during the 1800s and early 1900s. A typical male mountain lion controls 50 to 300 square miles, depending on how plentiful food is. He will allow a few females on his turf but will not accept male intruders.

Research shows that mountain lions will travel enormous distances. In May 2004, a mountain lion wearing a radio tracking collar was killed by a train near Red Rock, Okla. The animal had traveled 661 miles, as the crow flies, in 266 days from the Black Hills of South Dakota. It was twice as far as earlier research had indicated the cats would travel. It tells us they can move long distances in relatively short periods, and that extends their range considerably.

The mountain lion is moving east again. The cougar population appears to be growing in the West, and young males are seeking new territory. Mountain lions are thriving because deer and elk — the cougar's main prey — have grown in numbers.

Mountain lions — real and imagined — have captured the American imagination for centuries.

[J-dog]

Been reading this thread - and not one to buy into a conspiracy theory. Do I think I lion eat on that carcass? yeah - especially when the man defined the carcass as having been dragged a number of yards. Unless there are a number of black bear in the area then that has to be a lion. Again tracks/sign tell the tale. As many in this thread I am also a long time trapper have seen two bobcats in my career that went over 30 lbs - have seen a thousand 30lb bobcats that did not top 13 or 15 lbs when put on a proper scale.      

David Petersons(sp? sorry David) book ghost grizzlies I am reading right now brings up a good point. IF the lions truly exist and someone establishes beyond question a breeding population of Lions in MO what steps, how much monies, and programs will MODNR have to develop to protect these lions?

Basically it is cheaper for them to deny the whole gig  just like the grizzlies in CO that they keep saying are not there. (Have not got but to midway the book so unsure the conclusion is they are griz in CO. Great read of a book though if anyone interested)

Just a thought and my opinion on why a DNR may deny the existence of a species. Would be very interested to hear what some of yall think of this.

Jason    

[fireman_3311]

I talked to your neighbor a couple days after that happened! Scary deal!!!

Originally posted by kennym:
I forgot one incident also, my neighbors horse was slashed by something.

Left shoulder up towards neck: If you spread your fingers as far as possible, you could trace 4(if I remember)deep claw wounds

Right shoulder just above front leg: 6" long flap of skin and meat ripped loose about 1" deep.Vet had cleaned and cut off flap before I saw it. Vet said lion,but neighbor never called MDC

Sorry no pics.

These are the kind of things I believe, not the ones where someone's cousin's brother's girlfriend's boss' nephew's babysitter seein one ....     :p    

Yeah,my best bud saw something in broad daylite too, momma and 2 kittens,kittens went up an oak tree 15 feet from blacktop and he got a long look at em before they worked around the tree and slipped away. He don't tell stories.

Told him he shoulda caught one of the kittys.    


I'd still like to see one!     :D  

[Chris Shelton]

Originally posted by K.S.TRAPPER:
JimB nailed it!! Bobcat        Nice job Jim everbody always thinks mountain lion in the midwest. Yes, Missouri has mountain lions but look for prints or something to prove it.

Tracy

Yup, I saw this and knew another trapper would peg it, lol. Looks like a bobcat to me as well!! Wouldn't say there isn't mountain lions in MO but this setting is a bobcats normal MO!

[dhaverstick]

I guess I left out another pertinent piece of information. My father has trapped off and on for over 50 years. In the late 60's and early 70's he made good money at it and I remember several bobcat hides being stretched, dried, and tanned when I was a kid. All that being said, and relying on his considerable experience with trapping, he still thinks his deer was taken by by a mountain lion.

[Bonebuster]

It is, what it is!

Bobcats can be big, and they can live right under your nose. But they can`t eat that much meat in such a short time. Bobcats ain`t quite that greedy.  

[Eric Sprick]

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_e08c1c9e-24e5-11e0-a8e6-0017a4a78c22.html


Hmmmmm.

[Huntschool]

Oh no!!!!  Right across the river....  Now what shall I do.....

Thats great... admission.