Cougars in the South?

[jgt]

I saw one on a sendero in Duval county, tx about 1968. It was watching me. I was carrying a 30-06 at the time. I walked toward it and it got up in no hurry and ambled off the sendero into the white brush. When I got to the trail it took, it was no where to be seen. When I got my place in Coleman county I found a set of big tracks where one had followed me around for about a hundred yards. About a week later there was a story in the local paper about one killed in the next county ( Brown county not far from my place). They were saying it was a very large one. I never saw it, or had any more tracks like that.

[plowboysghost]

  Game wardens here in NW Alabama flat out deny that there are any big cats around here, though they( mountain lions) do turn up on game cameras. I have seen one (black...call it a "panther or whatever"), as well as a couple more family members having seen one. A friend has seen a mountain lion just down the road from where I sit. We had one come up close to the house at night when I was a kid, and turn loose 'screaming" bloody murder. I'll never forget how frightening that was.

 Game wardens around here also say there are no bears in this area....despite the fact that an old man (when I was a kid) in my hometown had dogs get after a black bear that he saw along ...you guessed it... BEAR CREEK. The game wardens say "nope".

 When a school bus nearly full of kids, along with the bus driver, saw one in broad daylight right beside the road....game wardens said "mistaken identity".

 When locals a few years ago said they were having something big getting into their trash, game wardens said "raccoons or dogs".

 Then....this happens just down the road from me:   www.franklincountytimes.com/2011/06/22/black-bear-spotted-in-spruce-pine/

 

  The game wardens say "just a lone bear, moving through"....

  I don't think we can trust the game warden.

[pleadthe2nd]

They're everywhere the game wardens say they're not, I saw one in Clark County Missouri last fall, unmistakable, walking in the mowed grass along a timber edge, maybe 65 yards from me, though it was a pit bull at first glance, but could see his paws and long tail swaying behind him, this was on a job site for a hunting cabin I was installing the HVAC in, looked over my shoulder all day on that one. They're not supposed to be in Missouri either.

[duckjihad]

Saw one (black) 2 days in row in annie manie alabama near pine hill when in college (84-88). Had that feeling something was watching me, looked up and saw a black lab (i thought) watching me on opposite ridge while deer hunting Sitting on its haunches dog like. Turned and walked off and had a long swooping tail the length of its body it appeared. Huge square head. Next day, same time, same thing. Like groundhog day.

In 2002 was jogging on fort sill oklahoma back of the O club and saw a very big bob cat run down train tracks just before i crossed them You know, out near geronimos grave? Must have turned off tracks into brush cause wasnt there when i stepped into tracks and looked. Realized tail was long as the cat. Occurred to me bob cats have stubby tails. Oh crap! Walked slowly back towards main post for hundred yards before jogging again, and never ran out there again.

[bigbore5]

I saw several on fort sill back in the 80's. They issued a post advisory about them

[cdf41]

Ran into a female with 2 cubs about 8 years ago, she was sitting there watching me. Tried to scare her off but no go, just kept sitting there , then my flashlight died! Found ladder stand in the dark after i pretty much stumbled into it.
Ran into another one out bowhunting about 3 years ago, different hunting places by about 40 miles. Of course the NC Wildlife folks denied they were in the state.

[bigbore5]

Dec 3, 2020 20:31:40 GMT -5 cdf41 said:

Of course the NC Wildlife folks denied they were in the state.

What part of the state are you in? I'm in Gaston county. And even though we are included in the bear season here, I have twice ran off black bear from my corn, and the local paper reports bear sightings in the town park, officially any bear here are "just passing through".
Hoping one just passes through my pistol sight soon

[gumbygun]

I saw this one about a year ago. Unfortunately I only had a short telephoto lens. Very cool to watch.
I spotted it walking down a logging road below the road I was on, every time it stopped it just dissapeared. I watched it for about a half hour just walking down the road. When I would lose sight of it I started getting that hair on the back of my neck thing. I decided a sidearm might be better defense than my dslr shaped mace, bullets are also cheaper than lenses.

[x101airborne]

That mound behind it would make a good bullet stop.
Excellent picture. Very few people get pictures like that.

[bula]

Gumbygun, what state  ?

[gumbygun]

Thank you airborne

Bula it was in NE Oregon

[lobo]

As long as I can remember, the game wardens here in Mississippi flat out denied the existence of black bears in the state. Even with photos, game cam photos, multiple witness accounts they still said nada, zero, zilch existence of black bears in Mississippi. Then a few years ago they overnight (seemed like it anyway) changed their tune to, "Oh yeah, we have black bears in Mississippi."

My thinking is that they obviously knew we had the black bears, but denied it for so long so no one would try to shoot one while their numbers grew. We don't have a season on them, and I don't think we ever will. At least now they admit to their existence.

Could it be the same scenario (in Mississippi) with cougars? I guess it's possible.

[txn63]

A friend sent me a pic of a Texas game warden kneeling next to a mountain lion that was reported to have been shot just outside of Celeste, Tx about 3 weeks ago. Celeste is only about 45 minutes east of Dallas.

[chsparkman]

12 years ago I had one walk past my blind in WV. I was so shocked I just sat and watched it go. The path was fully covered with dry leaves but the lion made no sound at all.

[tdbarton]

Catamounts apparently haven’t been in Vermont/New Hampshire in a century, but people see them half a dozen times a year or catch em on trail cams. Officials always deny they’re up there though. Don’t know why.