Cougar Range Expanding

[Rick]

For most of us in the eastern 2/3s of the country Cougar or Mountain Lion is the last thing on our mind when we wander off into the woods. But their range is greatly increasing. Over the last 20 years or so we've seen game animal populations explode off the charts. Coyote numbers have increased in response as have the number of Bald Eagles. It only seems natural that the explosion in the deer population would benefit the lion population. More food means more kittens yielding more adults and so on. As numbers increase range has to expand and since every other animal has adapted pretty darn well to urbanization it's hard to imagine that lions wouldn't adapt to some extent.

While the odds of running into a Cougar are pretty remote the opportunity is still out there so we need to keep it in the back of our head. And just because confirmed sightings have not been made in your state doesn't mean they don't exist. It just means they haven't been sighted....yet. They've even been confirmed in Chicago! You can easily see how the population is expanding their range on this map.

http://www.easterncougarnet.org/bigpicture.html

http://www.cougarnet.org/cmw-desc/Chicago-08.htm

[finallyME]

There are lots of cougars here. Especially in Provo . Of course, there are also all of those that hang out in the clubs in the city. My brother stumbled upon a cougar while deer hunting with a friend. Scared the pee out of him. The only time I saw a cougar was at a BYU football game, and at the zoo.

[Rick]

Changed a word on ya.

[finallyME]

Sorry, me and my potty mouth.

[2dumb2kwit]

I was watching American Diggers, a while back, and they saw one (got it on camera.) in the mountains of western N.C. The big bad wrestler guy about crapped his pants and got the heck out of there. LOL

[letslearntogether47]

In my lil neck of the woods,black bears are being seen everywhere these days.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/06/1...ng-8-per-year/

[crashdive123]

I'm told we have them here, in downtown Jacksonville. Seems there have been several sightings at a few local night spots.

[hunter63]

Wisconsin's DNR seem to poo-poo any reports, until you shoot one then still down play the possibility of them being around.

At "The place" SW Wisconsin, locals have seen wolves, and black bear...DW saw a bear down in the river bottom, but I haven't seen any sign.

Just yesterday I saw a deer down the block in the city, running for her life........there is a power line east of here about a block the forms a corridor of wild/green belt thru the area....I'm sure it is being used by all sorts of wild life.

[Rick]

Hunter - Here's a link on one of the pages I listed above that shows the confirmed sitings in Cheeseland. If you click on a dot you'll get the report, some with photos, that DNR issued to confirm the siting.

http://www.cougarnet.org/uppermidwest.html

[hunter63]

Yeah, we all have seen and heard about these sighting, and they a the only one that the DNR will admit to....quite a few unsubstantiated reports, news paper articles etc, claiming many more.

"Hello DNR?"
"Hello can we help you?"
"Ah, Yes,.... can you tell me if anyone reported cougars around?"

"Well sir, there are no cougars around and haven't been since 1901"

"So, the one I just shot doesn't exist?"

"What?....That's against the law with prison time, big fine...."

"Well then, never mind....thank you."

"Hello, Hello, Hello.........


See Honey, I told ya I needed a .454 casull for a (and I just love this phrase) "woods bumming" pistol.

[finallyME]

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[Desert Rat!]

The police in Santa Monica Calif. shot a mountain lion in the city about two weeks ago, the lion had to travel about 4-5 miles through the city to get to where he was from the Santa Monica Mountains,including a freeway.

[hunter63]

Where does a cougar walk......Any where he pleases.
Kinda too bad the the solution seems to be shooting them, rather than capture and release.

[Celticwarrior]

Yeah, they got trap cam footage of one up here in the UP of Michigan relatively close by. After years of the DNR refuting such claims, they finally had to admit we have them in the state, or at least one. That one actually came all the way from South Dakota and they think that it might have come from as far away as Wyoming originally. Long way to travel to get to new hunting grounds. And with no other panthers supposedly in the state, it would be a lonely life, unless he knows something we don't know. LOL

[Rick]

There were similar stories of long range travel in some of the Wisconsin reports I read through. I guess 120-140 miles in a month or 6 weeks is pretty doable for them.

[Jimmyq]

My inlaws live an hours drive away (perfect you say?) and in their suburban area there is usually one jogger killed by a cougar every couple years. They also get black bears in the yard checking their fruit trees and compost bins quite regularly. Another hour north is Whistler BC, bears are right in town hanging out with the skiers and snow boarders, some dude got mauled a couple weeks ago sitting in his hot tub up there.

[Rick]

(note to self. When encountering bears when in hot tub always invite them over)

[Batch]

While they always talk about how endangered the Florida Panther is, they also forget that we have a population density above what is naturally sustainable. Most panther deaths are panther on panther predation now. We are building a corridor through the state and they are being more fair.

We see panther sign every trip to Big Cypress.

[Rick]

I read one report on Florida that put the number at 160+. That seems a lot to me over such a rather small territory when you exclude water.

[Batch]

They tag over 200 and then subtract killed panthers with out collars from what they tree'd and collard. They are liars!

We can easily document panthers from Miami to Valdosta, Ga.