Mountain Lion Hit on I-44

[dtrs5kprs]

Good point, I don't want y'all or the cougars here anymore. Move along

It's almost full blown cougar season up on your lake. About another week. Very dangerous.

[ozark trout fisher]

I used to think it was cool to have them here but I've changed my mind.

One of the things I like so much about MO is that when I am in the woods or on the river I am the baddest critter around. I enjoy living far away from sharks, grizzly bears, wolves, and other predators that wanna eat me.

I'd rather not have to pack a big bore gun around just to ensure my safety.

We don't need cougars here.

So a mountain lion would be a game changer? Then I think you're underestimating some of those "bad critters" we have running around right now. Take your pick. Black bears. Irrationally angry people cooking meth who really don't want you to know about it. Stepping into the abiotic (and much more deadly) realm, you've got flash floods, root wads, the effects of the alcohol you may be drinking on the river, dehydration, skin cancer from sun-burn. A veritable firestorm of mortality if you want to look at it everything natural (or in a few cases, unnatural) in the most negative light possible. Read "A Walk in the Woods." The author is a card-carrying city boy, but given his fear of the woods he does a pretty good job of outlining everything in the eastern forest that is worthy of fear (none of them are mountain lions. Most are a lot less cool and a lot more boring.)

But mountain lions are where you draw the line? I can't say I understand that.

[fishinwrench]

So a mountain lion would be a game changer? Then I think you're underestimating some of those "bad critters" we have running around right now. Take your pick. Black bears. Irrationally angry people cooking meth who really don't want you to know about it. Stepping into the abiotic (and much more deadly) realm, you've got flash floods, root wads, the effects of the alcohol you may be drinking on the river, dehydration, skin cancer from sun-burn. A veritable firestorm of mortality if you want to look at it everything natural (or in a few cases, unnatural) in the most negative light possible. Read "A Walk in the Woods." The author is a card-carrying city boy, but given his fear of the woods he does a pretty good job of outlining everything in the eastern forest that is worthy of fear (none of them are mountain lions. Most are a lot less cool and a lot more boring.)

But mountain lions are where you draw the line? I can't say I understand that.

Black bears= No worries there, they live on berries,grubs, and trash, no more dangerous than a raccoon.

Meth cookers= I can easily negotiate with them. If you believe all the propaganda being fed to you about speed junkies and the war on drugs you are just blind.

The law doesn't bother the poor ones, they only threaten to imprison the ones that can afford lawyers. So meth cooks? Naw, The only ones they are killing are themselves.

Floods and strainers= I can see those coming and they are easy to avoid, they don't stalk and pounce on you and then bite your throat.

Liquor= Not my thing, especially when hunting/fishing.

Skin cancer= Pffft!

I'm not stressed out about cougars now, but if their numbers were to begin increasing.....Hell yeah. I mean look at the paws on that mofo !

I just recently saw a 2 lb. Siamese kick my Labradors butt, and to be honest I wasn't too comfortable getting between them, so be dammed if I wanna go all "man on a buffalo" with a genuine mountain cat. Let's be real here!

[mjk86]

Lol it is crazy the sheer strength that a house cat possesses when its panicked. A cat once was spooked and climbed me like a tree and latched onto my face. I still have a scar in my lip. Its really incredible how powerful a 10lb cat is. I cant even imagine the fury of a 150lb one. That said they are cool creatures and even if there were more in missouri itd be extremely unlikely to have a violent encounter with one. Im more concerned about being brutally killed in a ball of twisted metal glass and fire on my way to work this morning.

[Quillback]

I don't worry about mountain lions.

Ticks are number one on my phobia list.

[ness]

I just recently saw a 2 lb. Siamese kick my Labradors butt, and to be honest I wasn't too comfortable getting between them, so be dammed if I wanna go all "man on a buffalo" with a genuine mountain cat. Let's be real here!

Your dog is a pussy.

I don't worry about mountain lions.

Ticks are number one on my phobia list.

Mine too. Here's my new mushroom hunting git up:

[Feathers and Fins]

Things I worry more about than Mountain Lions.

No particular order.

Drunks driving boats

Kids driving boats daddy bought them

Wake Boaters

Cougars on wake boats ( bigger predator than cougar on land )

Old women on wake boats wearing Bikini ( some things you can’t burn out of your memory )

Lightning

Tornado

Anyone wearing duck commander gear

Pissing my wife off

In other words I DON’T worry about them, I grew up in Mountain Lion country, hunted around them all the time, saw plenty and felt the presence of them, yes you will know when the hairs on the back of your neck stand up something is near. They are no more a danger or threat than a Jack Russel. Actually I take that back they are less dangerous than a Jack Russel.

[fishinwrench]

Ness, all that organic eating hasn't done much for your "package". I feel sorry for your wife.

Yeah ticks are a bummer. According to Lake Regional hospital it took 11,000.00 to determine that I have RMSF, so I guess I am just waiting to die. I've read everything I can find online about the disease and oddly I lack any of the symptoms thus far. So who knows, but I refuse to pay their bill until I die from it.

[Al Agnew]

I kinda get what Wrench is saying...living part time out here in Montana, I have to be aware of a lot of stuff you don't worry about in MO. The Ozarks is a relatively human-friendly place. Out here where I am now, grizzlies are always a worry whenever you're out in the wild, I've been too close to a rattler, I've been out on loose talus sloped that, had they started slipping, a 100 ft. cliff was at the end of the slide. We've had a black bear in the yard several times. And there are not only cougars but also wolves.

But...I've NEVER worried about the wolves and cougars, at all. The bears, especially the grizzlies, yes. But there has been absolutely no evidence of a cougar (or a wolf) attacking a person anywhere in the West where the cougars are plentiful, except, I believe, in California where there is no hunting of them and people continually encroach into cougar habitat. Most people who live out here and spend a lot of time in the woods have never seen a cougar. A friend regularly has cougars killing deer and elk within a quarter mile or less of her house (three kills so far this spring within that distance), and yet she has seen only one cat, one time.

My only cougar encounter COULD have been scary. My brother in laws and I bowhunted a spot in western Colorado for several years, back in the days when you could buy deer and elk bow tags over the counter. We had a base camp in a big valley, and would backpack from there up to the top of the plateau for several days, because that's where the really big mule deer were. One time we were climbing the very steep, 2000 ft. elevation change, slope up to the top, and a cougar suddenly appeared only about 30 yards away, but running on up the slope away from us. We thought it was pretty cool to see, but didn't think much more of it.

There were three of us that year, and we set up camp on top where there was a spring for water. It was a campsite that had obviously been used before numerous times, probably by hunters during rifle season, because of the spring. The three of us were sharing a four person tent that night when we were awakened in the middle of the night by something prowling around the tent. Then we heard a (growl, scream) that sounded like RROWW. It was very obviously that cougar, or another one. It circled the tent a couple of times, sounding like it was no more than 15 feet away. And then we heard another sound, more like a "meww". It seemed that it was a mother with a young one. Another circle, and then nothing, but we didn't sleep too well the rest of the night. We got up at daybreak to get ready to go out hunting, but were in no hurry to wander out into the brush until full light. When I did, no more than a couple hundred yards from camp, I saw the cougar again, again running away from me...no sign of the supposed young one.

That was the last we saw of it or them, but we figured, because there were a lot of bones of deer and elk around the campsite where hunters had been butchering their game for years, that the cat had gotten used to scavenging the remains. It probably came in, checked us out, found nothing for it to eat, and perhaps waited to see if we killed anything.

[jdmidwest]

Ticks and snakes are tops on my list. I saw a photo of a nice little 81" rattler out by the Castor River yesterday. Neighbor killed a 34" copperhead next door and another one about 8". That means a breeder has dumped her offspring next to me. I have warned the better half to watch closely in the strawberry patches, a known hideout for the copperheads.

Ticks have been bad already this year. And they are finding all kinds of new tick diseases. I had a tick stay on long enough during turkey season that started to turn clear. I found a yearling this morning that had munched in a few places on my leg leaving red marks along the way. I can hardly wait for a mess of seed ticks.

BTW, poor kitty. It's a shame there are no mountain lions in MO.