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mountain lion

T

therancher

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Feb 11, 2005
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Had a 250 pound calf attacked by something has hole above his shoulder and one wide injury up on his neck. He's alive and will proble live. A neighbor has seen this lion slithering across the ice on his pond this late winter and has 9 dead deer laying around his property and has tracked it in one of the last snows. The DNR is trying to disapate any thought of this being an attack. what should I do ? THeirs 240 more calves outthere . can we use a hound to tree this kitty? this is in eastern Iowa
 
Let the local media know that there is a mountian lion on the loose have them warn eveyone that their kids are in danger of being attack and eaten. The news media should play it up nicely and force the DNR to take care of the problem :-) . You just need to cite a few of the attack cases from california.
 
That is scary. If it attacked a 250 lb. calf, just think about what could happen to the 10 year old kid that goes out playing in the woods.

Check your local laws, but its likely that if you find it threatening you or your livestock, you can legally shoot it. Taking dogs to tree the thing when it is not threatening anything will probably get you in trouble.

The media approach might not work so well either. Its amazing how many people will come to the defense of the poor hungry lion.

SS&Shut up can work if no one ever hears about it. That sounds easy, but word usually gets out some how. If you're caught in that scenario, you'll surely get prosecuted.

Its a tough situation that we're dealing with more and more around here and there's not a good answer. Take the dogs with you while you are checking/feeding livestock and hope they can find the thing in a threatening location.
 
We have cougars show up here every now & then seems to be getting more & more.I guess they follow the river. ALWAYS Fish & feathers deny,there's one in the area. :roll: :roll: It seems for some reason the first sign there's one in the area is a horse shows up with the same marks you said.Now there's an animal that I'm terrified of!!!!


A friend of ours has the hounds but when a cougar showed up in his area a couple yrs ago{WAY TOO close to where my niece and her three kids live} F&F wouldn't let him use them.Not sure what happened,I'm guessing Kola's solution kicked in but all the sudden nobody was seein the cougar anymore...THANK GOODNESS!!!!
 
For Darn sure don't tell any media or government agency people. Being from Kalifornia, Trust me on that advice. Kola has the best advice we have to use the 3 S method of wildlife management alot. We have a little butterfly that the enviros love. When I mean love, love to shut down any ranching activity. Because you know we are all rich and rape the land. You know we have protected this little cat out here so if you happen to dispose of one we have plenty to take it's place.
 
I don't know if anyone remembers the posts I made last fall of my daughter seeing the mountain lion at the kids fishing spot acouple miles from the house- or all the reports in and around town--but all the reports must have worked to some extent- as the Moose and Goose folks are talking of allowing lion hunting up here now- with a maximum number allowed taken...

They are finally admitting they are here-and getting thicker-- altho I know quite well they have been here all along for the past 50+ years I've lived on this river.....
 
Hounds will work great if you have a tree to put him up. Then the 3 S'S apply. Hounds have been outlawed here by the folks in the western end of the state, and we have alot more cats. The wolves showed up this spring also. Don't get me started.
 
A father and his son were hunting. A mountain lion jumped out in front of them and started snarling.
The father said "What should we do?"
The son said "I'm gonna run for it."
The father said "You can't outrun a mountain lion!"
The son said "I don't have to outrun HIM-- I only have to outrun YOU."


What about it being a coyote? They attack by the jugular, flank or just behind the ribs. Seems a little more likely in Iowa then a mountain lion.
 
This lion was taken legally a little over 15 miles from me this spring. Weighed 185 pounds and had just finished a nice meal of cow elk. not me in the picture, but would not have minded me being the one with the rifle.

4-14-2009104437PM.jpg
 
Good possibility that it's coyotes they're a lot easier to scare off by a herd than a cat is. Usually with coyotes you will have bites and lacerations on the defender cattle also. A cat may have very well decided to leave provided the other cattle had proven to be too much. I live in the foothills of south eastern colorado so I deal with bears, mountain cats, and coyotes. The best thing actually that I have found for a defense measure is a draft mule. Other than that contact your local division of wildlife and see what your laws are and what they suggest; here we can defend our stock by any means.
 
to therancher, I'm in eastern Iowa too. Do what ever you have to do to keep it from coming our way. Calves here are out in the open on chains. Cant think of an easier target!
 
There was this lion who had just eaten a bull,and he felt good. He felt so good he opened his mouth and roared and roared. He roared until a farmer came along and shot him.
The moral of the story is: when you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

"therancher" just wanted to know what you planned on doing? Tracking?[/i]
 
The second part of my previous post got cut off somehow, probably due to the fact that I can crash a computer by looking at one!

Anyway quite a few lion problems in my neck of the woods this winter including a neighbor losing a couple of fall calves. A lion's will is greatly influenced by how hungry he is and how easy he can get a meal. I would guess that several of the cows in the herd ran off whatever tried to make a meal of the calf. Any predator tries to take prey by attacking the neck. A young lion will range farther looking for his own territory and takes a while longer to develop the skills to hunt efficiently. Thankfully around here there is a huge population of elk that provides good pickings for good hunters of any kind. Where the lion was taken that I posted, there is supposedly a bigger cat working as well.

therancher, I would consult the division of wildlife in your area and see what help they can offer. A lion, irregardless of his skill set, can create a lot of havoc and expense unless he is 'encouraged' otherwise.
 

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