Cougar killing horses

[JamesHW]

Just because you aren't seeing coyotes doesn't mean they aren't there.We rarely see them(I had a coyote /hound hunter stop yesterday) they had killed 27 THIS YEAR in my area...50+ last year.

Perhaps I wasn't clear. I have seen coyotes, just haven't seen any cougars. Of course they are likely around seeing that we are tucked in under the Adirondack park in Northern Saratoga County.

As far as the lack of feral cats, my understanding was that small house pets were a favorite snack for coyotes (we keep ours inside, only allowing them outside in an enclosure I put up off the back porch).

 

[Pettrix]

These cougar vs human debates have been on-going for years and is found in almost every state. Mountain lions do keep the deer population in check, without them, deer populations can explode leading to deadly car accidents and tick/lyme disease in humans.

As humans when we fear something, we usually kill it. This not only applies to mountain lions but rattlesnakes and other such creatures. I know one guy that kills every rattler he sees, then after a few months the rodent population EXPLODED. He had rats and mice infesting his barns and even his home. Rodents carry diseases that can kill humans, like the HantaVirus and plague.

Nature keeps things in balance. Rodent populations are kept in check by either rattlesnakes, rat snakes, coyotes, etc. Deer populations are also kept in check by mountain lions. When we step in and throw off that equilibrium, we create other problems. While the dead mountain lion will no longer harm you, the deer that ran across the road who your wife hit and she ended up dying in the car crash was not a good outcome either.

In my opinion, if you encounter a cougar that is curious/stalking, fire a few warning shots its way. Make it FEAR humans and associate humans with fear. Cougars, like their domesticated counterpart house cats, are curious. If you encounter an aggressive cougar, then kill it.

If we take out the predators, the we/humans must take up the role to take out the prey. So we must hunt more deer and shoot them and hunt more rodents and kill them. This must be done in order to preserve the balance we upset.

 

[LMTC]

I'm not sure I understand the argument that cougars would control the deer population. How many deer will an adult cougar take down in a year? Maybe 30? 50? Even at 100, it would take 800 or so cougars to make a dent in the whitetail population in Ohio, and I darn sure don't want 800+ cougars in Ohio. At 50, we would need nearly 2000 mountain lions. When the deer get scarce come late winter they will move to the next most available food source. I realize they would certainly kill some deer, but not enough to provide the numbers needed for culling each year unless the mountain lion population was huge. I'm willing to listen to a well reasoned and detailed explanation, but I just don't see how cougars will exercise any serious control over the deer population.

 

[toppop52]

I'm getting a snake, I can't eat that many rats!

 

[toppop52]

I'm not sure I understand the argument that cougars would control the deer population. How many deer will an adult cougar take down in a year? Maybe 30? 50? Even at 100, it would take 800 or so cougars to make a dent in the whitetail population in Ohio, and I darn sure don't want 800+ cougars in Ohio. At 50, we would need nearly 2000 mountain lions. When the deer get scarce come late winter they will move to the next most available food source. I realize they would certainly kill some deer, but not enough to provide the numbers needed for culling each year unless the mountain lion population was huge. I'm willing to listen to a well reasoned and detailed explanation, but I just don't see how cougars will exercise any serious control over the deer population.

Good point, the reason you have a point is that we killed too many cats and now the unchecked deer are at about 700% of what they were 200 years ago. They along with exploding hog and rabbit populations over the last 50 years are why we now are having a predator population explosion. We'll have too many predators dangerous to humans until the natural balance is once again struck. Or until Dec 21.

 

[lockhaven]

A few things do not make sense, 1:cougars will only come to town when the deer population is low in the mountains 2:cougars would keep the deer population in check so fewer car deer collisions would occur, following this reasoning the only way cougars would be of any help with the urban deer population is if they move into town and if they move into town we have to chase them away to keep them from eating pets and children.
I would rather take my chance with the deer, I guess that is why i have a deer buster on the front of my truck.

 

[rsewill]

Good point, the reason you have a point is that we killed too many cats and now the unchecked deer are at about 700% of what they were 200 years ago. They along with exploding hog and rabbit populations over the last 50 years are why we now are having a predator population explosion. We'll have too many predators dangerous to humans until the natural balance is once again struck. Or until Dec 21.

Very well said!

 

[Jstpssng]

Perhaps I wasn't clear. I have seen coyotes, just haven't seen any cougars. Of course they are likely around seeing that we are tucked in under the Adirondack park in Northern Saratoga County.

As far as the lack of feral cats, my understanding was that small house pets were a favorite snack for coyotes (we keep ours inside, only allowing them outside in an enclosure I put up off the back porch).

Not coyotes as much as fisher and maybe bobcat. Feral cats can climb trees... coyotes can't.

Have you ever heard a house cat being chased by a predator? It's a very eerie sound and will make your skin crawl.

 

[Hardscrabbler]

We are having a problem here that the DNR says does not exist. A Cougar has been killing horses in my neighborhood. The last one that I know about was two miles from my house and another at about 10 miles. The Amish have been having trouble with something scaring the horses so bad they are busting through the gate.
The horses killed are badly clawed and very large cat prints are left behind. They had an organized hunt for the cat but had no luck. I think it will take trained cat dogs to have any success, these cats are smart and elusive.
My wife heard a large cat take a deer in our woods last year. She heard a large cat growl and a deer bleating, so now if we go into the woods we have a gun handy. Sure never thought we would have this problem here, but here we are.

Kind of a side note on the IDNR. My wife and I went to an outdoor and hunting show in Bloomington, Ill about 12 to 15 or so years ago. We had a representative from the IDNR give a presentation on hunting in Illinois. Several of us in the audience asked about the coyote problem. The IDNR rep. said there is no problem. Most of us there said BS to that. Fast forward to 2012 and we have coyotes everywhere. I think Illinois now has a year round season on coyotes with no limit. Don't know for sure since I don't hunt coyotes. So much for the IDNR data on wildlife.

 

[CurlyDave]

"We hit it square with all three rocks," one of the men told KCBS-TV/2.


This is one of the best reasons to move out of CA I can think of. Much of the state is essentially non-issue for concealed weapons, and now even open carry of unloaded weapons is forbidden.

Here in Oregon the quote would be more like: "We hit it square with three shots from a .38 and it died."