mountain lion - Wildlife Management Pro

Palo Pinto Ocelot Not a Native Cat

Game warden Matthew Waggoner found a dead ocelot along a highway near Mineral Wells, more than 400 miles from the nearest documented wild population of the endangered cats. Strange. A phone call received by Texas game warden Matthew Waggoner took two weeks ago was like one game wardens and wildlife biologists get every year — somebody saw, found, or hit something and they are not sure what type of wild animal they have stumbled across.

People regularly contact Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) with reports they have seen, photographed or found some dead unusual animal — one that doesn’t exist, is extinct in Texas or is so rare and the report coming from so far from the animal’s range that it’s unlikely the caller saw what he thought he saw. Continue reading Palo Pinto Ocelot Not a Native Cat

Mountain Lion Shot in Junction, Texas

This mountain lion was killed in early November 2009 about 6 miles south of Junction, Texas. The hunter was looking to harvest a white-tailed deer during Texas’ General Season when this cougar walked by. The photo was taken at Kimble Processing in Junction. Mountain lion sightings and kills have increased in recent years as the cats expand their range eastward again.

Mountain lions, also commonly referred to as cougars, pumas, or catamounts, have a large distribution across North and Central America. In fact, the Mountain lion has the widest distribution of any wild cat, from Canada to South America. Formerly distributed throughout North America, the Mountain lion is now found mostly in the remote areas of the western U.S., as well as western Canada and much of Mexico. A small lion population still exists in southern Florida, where the species is considered an endangered animal. Continue reading Mountain Lion Shot in Junction, Texas

Mountain Lion Shot Near Laredo

Here are a couple of photos of a mountain lion harvested near Laredo, Texas, by white-tailed deer hunters during Texas’ General Hunting Season. The hunters were hunting on their deer lease when the big cat showed up on Saturday, November 7, 2009. Texas has many mountain lions sighted in the Trans-Pecos portions of west Texas, but South Texas ranks second in cougar sightings.

A mountain lion has never been known to attack a person in Texas. However, mountain lions have attacked small children when left unattended in mountain lion habitat in other states. Mountain lions attack by ambushing their prey. They either suffocate or break their prey’s neck. Lions prefer big game, but will eat smaller mammals if circumstances permit.

Video of Moutain Lion Killing Deer

Mountain lions are known to kill deer, but it’s not very often that anyone gets to see a cougar killing its prey. In fact, it is a special occassion to even have the opportunity to see a mountian lion in the wild. The persons filming the video below were not only fortunate enough to see a mountain lion, but they were lucky enough to witness the animal killing a mule deer and capture the whole thing on camera.

Most mountain lion sightings are unreliable, but a video can substantiate just about anything. The following event was filmed in August 2008 and was captured on video by local hiker Jen Kulier, who wrote to to describe how she and her friends captured this video in the Crags on the backside of Pikes Peak:

“Some friends (Mark Lee, Keith Emmons, Jackson Solway) and I were getting an early start to summit Pikes Peak from the Crags last August. We were driving up the road to the trailhead at about 6 am. I was riding shotgun and holding a video camera, because we planned to film some of our hike. Just before we got to the Mennonite Camp, a deer walked into the road and stopped, so I started filming the deer. At the same time the camera started filming, the mountain lion jumped out from the trees on the side of the road and attacked the deer.”

Continue reading Video of Moutain Lion Killing Deer

Most Mountain Lion “Sightings” are Unreliable

Mountain Lion

Most reports of mountain lion sightings in Texas are never verified with physical evidence, although such reports can arouse fear and cause a local publicity stir, according to wildlife experts with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. In one incident this spring, TPWD’s John Davis pulled up a photograph on his computer that someone had taken in a neighborhood north of Austin showing an animal’s tail barely visible behind a cedar tree.

The man who sent the grainy mobile phone photo said the animal was a large cat, prompting some people to speculate it was the latest in a rash of supposed mountain lion sightings in urban areas. Closer inspection proved otherwise.

Davis, TPWD conservation outreach coordinator and a former urban wildlife biologist, examined the size of a prickly-pear pad next to the cat in the photograph and used it as a scale to measure the animal’s size. “That’s a feral cat, maybe about 18 inches tall,” he said. “It’s not a mountain lion.” Also this spring, TPWD Game Warden Arlen “Turk” Jones handled a report of another supposed mountain lion sighting. Continue reading Most Mountain Lion “Sightings” are Unreliable

Mountain Lion Snared in Western Kerr County

Mountain lion snared in Kerr County, Texas

We’ve all heard the stories about folks seeing mountain lions, and sometimes we even hear about it in the news, but sometimes seeing is believeing. By their nature, mountain lions are extremely secretive and you pretty much have to stumble into one to be lucky enough to see it.

Such was the case April 12 on the Kramer Ranch in western Kerr County, Texas. A routine fence-line ride turned up something out-of-the-ordinary as Jim and Sharon Capeheart noticed something snared in their fence. From a distance, the tan creature appeared to be a deer hung up in a coyote snare, but as they got closer, they realized that it was actually a mountain lion. Dismounting from horseback, the couple approached the cat to inspect with their dogs.

Continue reading Mountain Lion Snared in Western Kerr County

Mule Kills Mountain Lion – Photos

Mule kills mountain lion

You may or may not have seen this before, but I received these photos in an email regarding a couple of people hunting in Montana when one of their mules actually killed a mountain lion. Now mules are commonly used to protect herds of goats and flocks of sheep, but no one really expected this!

Here is how the story goes:

A couple from Montana were out riding on the range, he with his rifle and she (fortunately) with her camera. Their dogs always followed them, but on this occasion a mountain lion decided that he wanted to stalk the dogs (you’ll see the dogs in the background watching). This turned out to be a very bad decision for the cat.

The hunter got off the mule with his rifle and decided to shoot in the air to scare away the lion, but before he could get off a shot the lion charged in and decided he wanted a piece of those dogs. With that, the mule took off and decided he wanted a piece of that lion. That’s when
all hell broke loose… for the lion.

As the lion approached the dogs the mule snatched him up by the tail and started whirling him around. Banging its head on the ground on every pass. Then he dropped it, stomped on it and held it to the ground by the throat. The mule then got down on his knees and bit the thing all over a couple of dozen times to make sure it was dead, than whipped it into the air again, walked back over to the couple (that were stunned in silence) and stood there ready to continue his! ride.. as if nothing had just happened.

Fortunately, even though the hunter didn’t get off a shot, his wife got off these 4 photos!