Cougar killing horses

[R_Walter]

Cougars will take down elk deer and moose, so a horse isn't that far from the size of a moose, so that doesn't surprise me at all.

It's getting kind of thick in here.... I don't have any moose down my way, but there's plenty of elk. And, I spend a lot of time outdoors on my ranch and in the surrounding national forests chasing cows and big game hunting. In that time I've come across a lot of lion kills on mule deer, but never one on a mature elk except for a few cows that were winter-kills already or at least pretty sick judging from their carcass. I can't agree with you that lions are 'taking down' elk and moose with any kind of regularity. Just offering up my experiences. By the way, a large bull moose is as large or larger than a typical quarter horse at 1,000 to 1,200 lbs.

 

[treman]

I know there have been a couple of cougar sightings near our property in SW IL (Smithfield)over the past decade. The wild ones don't scare me as much as the zoo that is about a mile away. We always hear the male african lion in the twilight morning and night. somewhat an eerie feeling while sitting in the woods. hope they don't get out. I wouldn't mind it though if some of their elk got loose

 

[earljr59]

Interesting thread.Dozernut It was good to read your posts.I am from Fairfield,Illinois in wayne county.A little sw of you.We have quite a few sightings and a few cougers on trail cameras.My oldest son just turned 23.when he was 12 we were hunting rabbits and our 4 Beagles treed a couger.We had about 50 feet of brush between us and even less between us and the couger.My son asked if he should shoot it and I said no as he only had light loads . When I headed into the brush to get closer to my son the couger jumped out of the tree and ran across the frozen lake with our hounds giving chase.I was relieved,my son asked why I told him not to shoot.I said I was so surprised it caught me off guard.We have often wondered if his 20 gauge would have killed it or just made it mad.I warned the landowner to keep his kids close as we treed it behind his barn.His family has seen it themselves since then. We saw this couger a few other times around our house over the years.It is the tan color.My neighbors have spotted it and people have told us about their sightings.A couple years ago while combining my neighbors field the farmers kicked out a pair of black ones.We thought they must have left our area as we hadnt spotted one in awhile. I went to my neighbors to get my haircut and her and another neighbor told me they had just saw a couger in the last week. One saw a tan one and one saw a black one. There are 2 cases here where a couger killed livestock.A horse in a pasture. A pony in a pen.They both had big claw marks high on the rear where it looked like they were dragged down. Two different farms/owners roughly 10 miles apart.When we first treed a couger we had some non believers,but had a lot of people come up to me at school functions etc. to tell me about their sightings.Had an elderly couple tell me they didnt want people to think they were seeing things.As the years have gone by so many have spotted cougers around here that I would have thought a hunter in our county would have shot one by now.
Sorry this was so long,but I thought its interesting enough to share.

 

[Brake Weight]

I know there have been a couple of cougar sightings near our property in SW IL (Smithfield)over the past decade. The wild ones don't scare me as much as the zoo that is about a mile away. We always hear the male african lion in the twilight morning and night. somewhat an eerie feeling while sitting in the woods. hope they don't get out. I wouldn't mind it though if some of their elk got loose

I lived a block over from the local zoo when I was going to college. It was strange hearing all the animals when you get out of the cab late at night/early morning on the weekends.

 

[MWRR]

Did you know that COUGARS would kill and eat coyotes?

That is the cycle of nature. When you take out the main predator (cougar), it creates an upset in the entire ecosystem.

Back in the '60's and early 70's we had neither coyotes nor cougars. We did have a good supply of small game, until coyote numbers exploded. The introduction of COYOTES has upset the ecosystem. And, Cougars ARE NOT the answer for controlling our coyote population. I don't need another preditor to protect my cattle from.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Cougars will take down elk deer and moose, so a horse isn't that far from the size of a moose, so that doesn't surprise me at all. And if you think about it, a horse is penned up in a confined space, where a deer has miles and miles to run. Which one is going to be the easier prey?

You were doing fine until you got to the cougars taking elk and moose. Maybe a young calf, but elk and moose are not cougar prey. Any full sized horse, donkey or mule killed by a cougar should have been sent to the glue factory long ago.

Black bear are considerably larger and stronger. I suspect some kills blamed on cougar are actually bear kills. A 350 lb. bear can tackle a much larger animal than a 125 lb. cat, and yes, blacks will hunt when they are hungry. You may survive a grizzly attack if you play dead, but if a black bear attacks you, it's because you are dinner.

 

[powerpace]

Cougar will do a lot to keep the deer population from overrunning your area. Also, they are not as scary as people make out. Generally they are shy and avoid confrontation. It's only the young stupid ones, or the starving ones, that create a problem. I have a Large Munsterlander who loves to run. He's a 100 lb. dog and a scrapper who likes to chase cats. I have seen him chasing a cougar once, and once he ran into one that gave him a fight. The fight ended about even, he had some new holes in his body, but so did the cougar.

The males have a huge range, so it's pretty inevitable that they will occupy any area with enough game to support them.

Hey Larry, I used to live in Myrtle Creek. Up behind Del's. Sutherlin now.
When the State of Oregon banned Cougar hunting with dogs the Cougar population boomed. When you hunt with dogs you may not kill every cat you hunt but they are more warry about staying long in certain areas. As it is now Cougar are seen in towns all over this area. Same with bear.
I have ten acres backed up by many square miles of forest. On any day there may be six to twenty deer on this property or across the fence. When Cougar or Bear are around there are no deer or turkeys for a couple of days.
My neighbor shot one of two cougar less than a half mile from my house. It's mounted on his wall, big cat.

 

[powerpace]

I thought the same thing. Cougars are not big enough to take down an animal the size of a horse. Maybe if the horse was ready to die anyway. It's more likely the horse died and the carcass was scavenged by wildlife.

The definitive way to identify a cougar kill is that the cougar buries its kill in leaf litter and debris. It will stand on top of its kill and reach out to scrape leaves and twigs over the carcass. The length of the scrape marks gives you a pretty good read on the size of the cat.

Larry, Over on Shoestring road a friend of mine heard a commotion in his barn and discovered a cougar attacking his horses. One of the horses had to be put down. This was several years ago. I saw the damage done. The cat was shot when it came back a few days later.

 

[powerpace]

Cougar killed near Fair Oaks area | The News-Review - NRtoday.com

Cougar Killed in Roseburg Neighborhood | KEZI

Dogs and biologists track collared cougars in northeast Oregon September 17, 2011 Oregon, OregonLive.com, By Bill Monroe, Special to The Oregonian
... Bruce Johnson, project leader for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Mt. Emily cougar study. the current estimate of cougar numbers in Oregon (5,700)...cougars and what they eat: Deer (66 percent of kills) are preferred, followed by elk (29 percent) and non-ungulates (i.e., coyotes, raccoons, etc., 5 percent). Male cougars tend to prey on elk more frequently than female cougars. Details are online at:https://sites.google.com/site/mtemilycougarstudy

 

[s219]

I also know someone whose healthy horses were attacked by a cougar. One of the horses ran into a barbed wire fence and tore up a leg, but recovered after many months of care.