Cougar habits-experience with cougars?

[MAX-24-Dean]

This is what the guy looked like, very nice coat. He was dispatched by law enforcement/game department.
Edit: This picture was taken approx. 2 hours after my first encounter as law enforcment showed up.
At 5:30am it was still pitch dark here when I pointed the flashlight in its direction and saw it.

Picture was taken at 7:30am

 

[TugBarge]

What part of Washington? Rural here and never saw one in 40+ years. Sightings about once a year reported in the local news.

Bruce

I am also in SW WA. No cougar sightings yet.

 

[Jchonline]

This is what the guy looked like, very nice coat. He was dispatched by law enforcement/game department.

Yes that's exactly what I would have done. No messing with an animal with this kind of demeanor toward humans. You either kill it or it will attack someone eventually. I do hate killing animals, but in this case it is warranted.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Told law enforcement that if it would not have force me to retreat and hadn't followed me, I would not have called them.
I know that neighbors recently lost livestock to the cat.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Klickitat County is one of three counties in Washington State that is considered prime habitat for Cougars, hence the over population.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

We see them all the time here; there are two nearby dens for cubs that I know of, so, yes, lots of deer carcasses around.

Our house rules: nobody runs around when the light levels are low, e.g. dawn or dusk, and always take a dog out with you if you are going out between dusk and dawn. We have German shepherds with high protection instincts. Our outside lights are motion activated, so they come on as we exit the house. We pay attention to other animals, just in case. More often than not, our horses or cows will see the mountain lions (cougars/panthers) first. Then again, our animals are quite non-reactive to their presence, which suggests to me that the mountain lions come through often, and don't bother the animals. Our animals are quite reactive to pigs, and I have seen the horse hunt, surround, and drive pigs out of the pasture.

Know your environment; cougars like to be safe, so they tend to be in brush, in trees, or on rooftops. When we lived in town, animal control followed up on a young girl reporting one on the neighbor's roof, and tracks were found there. Subsequent game cameras showed that the mountain lions were moving along stream beds through town, and then leaping onto roofs to go house to house on roof tops. It was said to explain some of the local small dog and cat losses. Locally, mountain lions have been observed to jump forty feet horizontally, and eighteen plus feet vertically. Around here, they are exclusive hunters of deer, except for a few months when young adults are scouting for new territory and can run short of deer. A neighbor has had cattle on an area with a den for more than fifty years and has never lost a calf to a mountain lion. (Ok, anecdotal.)

Candidly, I worry much more about feral pigs. Statistically, cougars aren't much of a risk.

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All the best,

Peter

My first encounter with a Cougar was about 8 years ago. I got that feeling like someone was watching me as I rounded the corner of my barn.
Walked by the barn out the fence, when I looked back at the barn I saw a cougar in the loft through the open door. Would have been a 10 foot vertical leap to get up in the loft. That's when I found out about their ability to leap horzontally and vertically.

 

[ponytug]

My first encounter with a Cougar was about 8 years ago. I got that feeling like someone was watching me as I rounded the corner of my barn.
Walked by the barn out the fence, when I looked back at the barn I saw a cougar in the loft through the open door. Would have been a 10 foot vertical leap to get up in the loft. That's when I found out about their ability to leap horzontally and vertically.

Great radar!

I'm always looking up in big cat country. Dropping on prey is a favorite hunting method. There is a big oak that we often pass by, and there is a wide branch about 12' up that has no moss or lichen on the top side. I'm personally convinced it is a mountain lion roost, but I have never seen on there. Whether it hunts from there, caches food there, or just rests there, I have no idea, so it might be a roost for... something else like a tree climbing pig?

I find seeing a big cat above me to be very unsettling.

We see them a couple times a year. They keep their distance, and we keep ours.

Most of the cougar/mountain lion attacks in California have been trail runners, typically dawn/dusk.

All the best,

Peter

 

[JasperFrank]

We have them here at my place frequently. Before letting the dog out, in the fall, all the outdoor lights go on, as it is still dark. 10 minutes later, I'll go out with a "hella," flash light, with huge candle power. And scan the area for my dog's morning walk. Cougars don't want to be around humans. They run off, and will not attack people or dogs, unless they are starving, or a bad Cougar, that just like us, happens. We have bad humans also.

 

[Jstpssng]

I would think a good load of birdshot would help move him along and hopefully would associate the bad stinging from the shot to give him some fear of you, I probably would make sure that I had some buckshot backing up the birdshot just in case my plan didn't go as planned.

To each their own. If I feel threatened enough to shoot something, it's going to die. I also would use something lethal... leave your #4 buck for something which can't kick your butt. (I consider buckshot to be a "hope it works" option... go big with a slug, or go home.) I might consider bear spray, it's supposed to be pretty potent.

 

[Lineman North Florida]

To each their own. If I feel threatened enough to shoot something, it's going to die. I also would use something lethal... leave your #4 buck for something which can't kick your butt. (I consider buckshot to be a "hope it works" option... go big with a slug, or go home.) I might consider bear spray, it's supposed to be pretty potent.

I was kind of trying to stay within the law as I kind of figured anyone had enough sense to do what needed to be done if they felt they or their family was in danger without posting it on a forum for any and everybody to see, I also don't believe that every animal has to be killed if you can give it a healthy fear of humans and what they can do, but I do believe if it comes right down to it that we are truly the apex predator and should be the final survivor.