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One less mountain lion in Harding County

L

Liberty Belle

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
1,818
Location
northwestern South Dakota
One of my good friends who teaches in Buffalo hit a full grown female mountain lion with her car on the way home from a school board meeting in Buffalo last night. The cat leaped out on the highway in front of her as she came through the Slim Buttes and she smacked it hard.

It killed the cat, dented her car and scared the living daylights out of her. The "experts" tell us that the only lions we have out here on the plains are young males that are only passing through.

Could they be wrong? :o :???:

Oh, yeah - they said we didn't have wolves here either until the state trapper accidently killed one with a "coyote getter". :evil:
 
Thought you might like to see the cat conked by our favorite art and music teacher.

One less critter to dine on our livestock.
36e635e0.jpg


How would you like this old girl jumping up out of the ditch at you in the middle of the night? Or any other time, for that matter.
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:shock: :shock: :shock: WOW! :shock: :shock: :shock:

Bad timing on the cat's part but kind glad I don't have to worry about her when I'm camping near Buffalo this summer!!!!!
 
Wish I could tell you that this was the only one we have around here, but that would be a lie. Mountain lions have even been seen right in Buffalo and in all corners of the county. Keep your gun handy, you might need it.
 
Wow, there're getting to be alot of them! So did they cut it open and see what was in it's stomach. :???:
 
There have been a few so called sittings around Mitchell in the last few years. At first I thought of the whole idea of there being cats in south central SD as bogus but more and more people are claming to see them in the river breaks down by Gregory so who's to say that they aren't working their way east. They killed one in Yankton? last year by the school? Not sure. have they found out what she weighs? Looks like around 130 or 140 pounds. No doubt she is a mature female by the looks of the pictures. Have they posted her to see what was in her stomach? Has anyone lost any calves yet in your area(s)? I was out by Ogalla last winter at Lange's and they had pictures of their horses all scratched up and also pics of lions tracks going through the river mudd. She had two kits with her!!! Our DNR has some great policies don't they?
 
Liberty Belle,
Do you suppose that teacher could do a repeat performance in Bennett County?
We'd pay for any repairs and provide a free steak dinner!!!
Lions have about eleminated the white tail deer population here, as well as several colts, and one good saddle horse that it ran over a cliff.
There is an elderly lady who works at our town's fitness center who asked a neighbor up on the north end of the county what lions liked to eat.
The rancher told her, "Colts and little old ladies".
I told her that she should tell him that there are some lions up in northern Bennett County that have developed a taste for bald headed ranchers! :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Wish I' d have got one of them instead of the deer I got tonight.

I popped over a little rise and three mulie does were crossing the road. I got the middle one.

Can't see just how much damage it done to the Cummin's, but the grill is for sure busted and one outside light is loose. At least I could drive home.

Now I see why they make them Dodges so high. She didn't get a chance to get up on the hood and thru' the window. Sure is a good thing I got a doe license this year! :shock:

And I hadn't filled it before! :D

Guess next time I'd rather shoot one. Seems more sporting and a lot cheaper. :x
 
couple a years back, we had a summer where 3 or 4 small folks were attacked by "cougars" on the outskirts of Missoula...too danged close to the college to make folks feel comfortable!! Of course, THEN it was okay to "take them out"....only because they threatened "human" life in a "greenie college town"...now, if they had been eating our livestock, that would have been a different story! :roll:
 
matt said:
There have been a few so called sittings around Mitchell in the last few years. At first I thought of the whole idea of there being cats in south central SD as bogus but more and more people are claming to see them in the river breaks down by Gregory so who's to say that they aren't working their way east. They killed one in Yankton? last year by the school? Not sure. have they found out what she weighs? Looks like around 130 or 140 pounds. No doubt she is a mature female by the looks of the pictures. Have they posted her to see what was in her stomach? Has anyone lost any calves yet in your area(s)? I was out by Ogalla last winter at Lange's and they had pictures of their horses all scratched up and also pics of lions tracks going through the river mudd. She had two kits with her!!! Our DNR has some great policies don't they?
Click to expand...

Who's going to make up a mountain lion story/sighting?

Doesn't matter whats in her stomach we know what they should eat its what they shoudn't eat that matters. The one that was recently collered and relased in Bennett Co. was staying in area close to a home with small children. Yes it could be in Kansas by now who knows.

The Black Hills are loaded and they have spread out from there. We have a resident elk herd on the east end of the Pine Ridge Res. shared with the Rosbud sioux tribe with several ranchers sighting lions. I haven't saw one just tracks. I've heard lions like elk and habitat the same places. I have family in the badlands who have seen them up close and personal and friends On Niobra river in Nebraka also.



Its always the same locals who know/report/ forsee problems, Game Fish Parks downplay them til it's near crisis situation. Then come up with lame anti influenced solution (Black Hills/Prairie Lion Season- No Dogs, strictly happen to see one and shoot it). I've got four kids who won't depend on studies/laws for protection.
 
:shock: :shock: They've been spotted way south of the Niobrara too. :shock:

Ashby and Bingham Nebraska have a resident one that travels the area.
 
In 1990 we lost one of are horses to a cougar right in the pasture by the house they can do alot of damage. We just had another siteing in Feb about a mile from are place it was right after the kids had been picked up by the bus. So we walk the kids to the bus stop in the morning and meet them at nite. Just to make sure they safe they never seem to catch or kill the cats here? How crazy hey. :???:
 
big cats have been running the Republican River for 15 to 20 years, even moved up out of the river into the hills.
been a few black ones spotted recently. one old guy said the deer move in, and the cougar follow. then the bear are the next to move in.

two counties west of here, they claim to have spotted bear, in those canyons I could believe it, but would have to see it first.

needless to say, we go armed about every where, just in case
 
Tony Dean strikes again!! I really do wish this guy would either take a typing class or hire a proof reader. All the mistakes in the following article are just as he posted it on his website:

Mountain Lions in SD a Miracle.

A fe years ago, I spoke at the annual Buffalo Banquet at South Dakota State University, an annual affair attended by some teachers and most students in the fish and wildlife school. I visted with teacher Jon Jenks late in the evening and he told me that there were a couple hundred mountain lions in western SD, mostly in the Black Hills.

Unfortunately, so much of the coverage of the state Mtn Lion season and sightings of cougars has verged on sensational. And some ranchers size upon each killing as "one less predator we'll have to deal with."

I consider it a miracle that in spite of how much development has occurred in the Black Hills, a large predator has been able to survive. I hope I am lucky enough to see one sometime.

I also hope those in ranching can get over the "knee jerk reaction that every predator is bad. some parade under the conservative banner, but get government sponsored predator contro, and at least som eof them call me a socialist because I believe in public lands.

Whose done all of this name calling? Aside from blogger Steve Sibson, so has Betty Olson, a SD lockout leader who is also running for the SD legislature, where if elected, she'll help a few others of her kind, turn the clock backward in our state.

TD
March 25, 2006
http://www.tonydean.com/issues2.html?sectionid=7384


Note from Liberty Belle - So, how about you other ranchers out there - do you think every predator is bad? Or just the ones that happen to be dining on your livestock that the government won't allow you to shoot?

I don't know about how things work elsewhere, but the only predator control we have here comes from our predator control district that we tax ourselves as producers to pay for. The GF&P trapper stationed here refuses to work with more than a handful of landowners and none of Harding County's predator control pilots. We sure aren't getting our moneys worth out of this "public servant" we are involuntarily taxed to pay for.

I will continue to call Dean a socialist because that's exactly what he is and I believe in calling a spade a spade. I do appreciate his keeping my name in the public eye though. I understand name recognition is a real benefit to a candidate for public office – and it doesn't cost me a dime!

I do hope that Dean gets his wish to see a mountain lion – preferably real close up. It would be interesting to see his reaction if one shows up in his basement munching down his house cats like the one in the city limits of Rapid City did last year. Do you suppose that might change his perspective a little?
 
Here's a mountain lion for Tony Dean. Do you suppose he'd be as glad to see this cougar as the cat would be to see him? :twisted:

Nevada hunter shoots mountain lion that charged him, son
Associated Press

YERINGTON, Nev. A Smith Valley man shot and killed a 125-pound mountain lion that charged him and his son while hunting turkeys at the Mason Valley Wildlife Refuge.

Tom Bird says the six-foot, eight-inch long cat got within about eight feet of him and his son, Ryan, before he shot it with his 12-gauge shotgun.

Bird has both a license and tag for hunting mountain lions. But he told the Mason Valley News it was the first one he had seen in his nearly 30 years hunting various game at the refuge.

The attack occurred March 26th several hours after the pair had set up a blind and put out decoys at the refuge near Yerington.

Bird says he and his son were starting to doze off when the mountain lion raced out from behind them and proceeded to attack their decoys.

Bird fired a round from his 12-gauge shotgun, which he believes might have spooked or disoriented the cat, and then it turned toward the two hunters and began to charge.

By the time Bird was able to fire a second, fatal shot, the cat was only eight feet away. The pattern of the shotgun shot was less than a silver dollar in size, confirming it had to be at nearly point-blank range.

April 4, 2006
http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=4725683&nav=9qrx
 
Didn't Tooke South of Ekalaka lose one of his old-line bucking horse stallions about 1996-1997 to a lion?

If my memoery serves me right, there were several horse attacks down in that country at the time.

Heard of one NE of Plevna around the same time.

I remember seeing tracks in about '78, '79 or so in the Breaks NE of Baker.

Badlands
 
i have read all i can handle...i got to respond.

LB, read the story about the hunter and the lion.....do you honestly think the lion charged the guy? READ it. He put up a turkey decoy.....LIONS LIKE TURKEY.......he got in a BLIND....that means he was consealed. I would really doubt the lion even knew he was there...i would bet the lion would have run right over him if he hadnt shot it. I would have done EXACTLY the same as the hunter, i would have shot the animal had it turned like that, but i bet the animal just wanted to get out of there, not attack. The animal freaked out when a load of bird shot went over his head! I dont know about you, but i think that would be an awsome sight to see a lion attacking the decoys....i probably wouldnt have even pulled the trigger at him at the beginning, but who knows...adrenalin does crazy stuff!

There are lions almost everywhere now and it is just something your gonna have to deal with.... They are a very stealthy creature. the reason the GFP dont know how many there are is because of how stealthy they are. I did just read that the GFP has decided to up the quota on lions in the next hunting season to 8 breading age females, up from the 5 last year. I would think it to be irresponsible for them to just have an open season like they do on coyotes. I am not much into the baiting or using dogs to run animals until they cant run any further and are up a tree. To me thats not hunting. They are gonna come out of the mountains once in a while, thats a fact. People are gonna move into the mountains...Rapid City is spreading out further and further all the time. Would i be afraid to go into the Hills hunting this next fall? NO. I am planning on getting an elk tag and a lion tag this year. Really hope i get a chance to see one myself. i get the feeling that some people will never be happy until every preditor is dead.

Note from Liberty Belle - So, how about you other ranchers out there - do you think every predator is bad? Or just the ones that happen to be dining on your livestock that the government won't allow you to shoot?

By that quote LB, your trying to tell me if you see a lion out in your pasture, minding his/her own business, sunning themselfs after a meal of prairie dog or rabbit, that you wouldnt give the critter a little lead poisoning? I honestly doubt you would hold back.
 

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