Cougars

[labradorguy]

We always saw more sign than the actual animals. After seeing the one at my farm, it made me wonder just how many might actually be running around here. lol.

[Quillback]

It does make you wonder, live in a place that has lots of them and you never see one, then you have a state like Missouri where supposedly there aren't that many and people see them every where.

[Wayne SW/MO]

My story is a black powder hunt in an are know as Snow Mountain in eastern OR. I went a popular campgound where we often camped during cow season and intended to hunt the back side of a lake that always had deer. I had hoped that the campground wouldn't have too many hunters, or if it did they wouldn't hunt the backside that required a long hike around the lake. As it turned out O was there alone. The area I intended to hunt required me to come past an thick with brush and seedlings and I decided that would put me too close to an ambush. I knew from elk hunting in the snow that there was healthy cat population, so no evening hunts that trip.

[DaddyO]

OK. I'll tell this story here and let you guys share your thoughts. In October, I was fishing TaneyCoMo at night. They had been generating all day and had turned the water off around 10pm. I fished between outlets 1 and 2 until about 1am. I left the water and walked down below outlet 3. I met 2 guys coming out of the water and when I got down stream to the root wad, I looked back up river and there was only me and one other guy left fishing. I worked my way downstream until I got out to the point where the river opens up to bank to bank deeper water. So, there was about calf deep water between me and the opposite bank which was about 40 to 50 yards away. I had begun catching fish and had just released the 3rd fish when I heard a growl, of the feline variety. It was the kind that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. I looked over at the far bank and couldn't see much by the light of the stars and moon. I shouted "Hey!" and heard some crushing of leaves and then silence. I turned my headlamp on, but I couldn't see anything because my breath was fogging up the view. I took my headlamp off and shined it over at the far bank. I saw 5 pairs of eyes staring back at me. I turned the light off and started reeling in my line. It was time to go. Before I could finish reeling in all of my line, I heard a splash in the water downstream and another upstream. I shined my light downstream and one set of eyes was coming my way. I panned upstream, as I started backing out and saw 3 pairs of eyes moving around on the far bank. I panned further upstream and found the 5th pair of eyes coming across the river, also. I decided to alternate my light between the downstream eyes and the upstream eyes as I backed out of there. They tracked me until I got within about 200 yards of the stairs by outlet 3. I never got a look at what it was, all I could see was the eyes shining back at me. It was the first time, in a long time, that I felt that my order in the food chain had dropped a peg.

[labradorguy]

Pretty interesting. It makes a person wonder what it was. I've only ever saw them by themselves, or a mother with a young one, but I'm no cat expert. ?? I've had wolves move down the opposite bank from me while fishing in British Columbia, but I'm too new to MO to know if there are any of them around here. I never really minded that feeling of being part of the food chain, even in Canada with a Griz standing there looking at me. It's nice to know that there is still some "wild" left in North America. In an era when our wildlife is all managed, it's nice to know that there are a few species that are still "managing" themselves just fine.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I would guess it might have been a bobcat with kittens. possibly they are used to cleaning up fish that don't survive the release? Bobcats aren't bothered by water. I know that herons in some instances will actually come very close to you if they see you cleaning fish, I mean within a few feet.

[stlfisher]

Spooky, but very interesting stories.

[Fishin Hodge]

No doubt, cats cross our area from time to time. With that being said, the percentage of people that claim to have seen one is astronomical and comical to me. I have a bad habit, when I am in a crowd, to ask all the people if they have ever seen a cougar. I've never had less than 20% respond with yes, and one time it was 7 of 10 for 70%. That to me is hillarious. They are around from time to time, but they are extremely ellusive and there is no way that everyone that claims to have seen them have.

Sorry, this is just one of my pet peeves. I have spent a lot of time in the woods, and have a group of freinds that spend more time in the woods than we should. Of my true outdoorsmen friends none of us have saw a big cat. Now one of them did marry and older woman; that is as close as any of us has gotten to a cougar. I think a lot of folks let their eyes play tricks on them.

I will say, I have a friend that is good as gold, his word is the truth, not an outdoorsman in anyway, that claims he saw a black panther. That one really gets to me and don't know what to make of it. Melanistic cougar maybe????? The only Jaguar's around here I've seen are of the BassCat variety.

Anywho, I love me some big cat talk.

[labradorguy]

That's the attitude the MDC guy had. He told me I should have taken a picture... I told him that was a really good idea since I always carry my iPhone out (and the camera turned on) while I am brush cutting a big field full of trees, vines, briars, and brambles. lol. I told him if he could not confirm a cougar from what was left of a dead doe with a cut up back, or from the hair sticking a strand of barbwire 20 yards from where she was, then he basically just didn't want it confirmed.

The old man who has ground next to me told me right after I bought the farm that he once saw a mountain lion on my place. I gave him a hard time about it and we had a good laugh. Right after I saw the one at my farm, I gave him a call and apologized.

For the record, the cat that followed me was on the border of the San Juan's Lizardhead Wilderness, not in the St. Louis Forest Park. It's a fairly common thing there, the cats hear a rifle go off and it's like ringing a dinner bell.

I've never saw a UFO either...

[Flysmallie]

I know that herons in some instances will actually come very close to you if they see you cleaning fish, I mean within a few feet.

Last summer in Gulf Shores I had one meet me every morning at the end of the boardwalk as I was rigging up to fish. Then it would follow me around like a dog, stand on my camera bag, beg for treats. I bet at least two dozen people stopped to take a picture of that dumb bird following me around.