Dawn, you MUST contact your local game warden (and/or Cougarnet) and have them get experts involved. Since you got so much rain yesterday the prints will be there and there will likely be scat around in trail areas. It is not a small thing to have an immature cougar in the area. It would not be unexpected to have a young male that is wondering the Red River corridor, but a dependent one with still visible spots is a major thing and experts will not have a difficult time verifying it if they put much effort into it. They will be able to test anything found and tell if it is a native cat.

This is your duty, IMO!!!

Wow. Yet another reason to make sure your garden has two gates on opposite ends!

Dawn-
Maybe you should take the shotgun to the garden with you next time! Scary!!!
Kristy

If it had any spots left, it would be less than a year old, probably less then 6 to 9 months, and it would not be on its own for another year. I would be much more worried about seeing one this age than an adult, because it would mean the mother is there nearby (unless dead) and very protective. In fact, to see one that age alone would usually indicate a kill nearby or a dead mother.

Scott,

I looked and couldn't find a single track. It was in bermuda grass with a pretty heavy layer of thatch and it walked across a gravel driveway and into the pasture and (presumably) into the woods. Those are the neighbors' woods and there's a lot of undergrowth (so thick humans really can't go into those woods) and dead leaves, etc. I wanted to find a track and make a plaster cast of it! I would have given anything to have my cell phone with me this morning, because at least then I could have shot a poor-quality cell phone photo. The place where the young cougar got the guinea was a semi-open area cut through the woods that used to be an oil well road a couple of decades before we bought our land. It has reverted to prairie grassland mixed with cedar trees and some younger oaks and that is the area where the guineas were grasshopper hunting in waist-high grass when he got one this morning. There's heavier woods on both sides of that open area. It is frustrating because we were less than 100 yards away but couldn't prevent the beast from getting the guineas. And, we couldn't have fired even a warning shot at the darn thing, because the neighbor's house and grandchildren are within a few yards of that area.

DH and I have been out in the woods all day cutting back brush and low-hanging limbs to "open up" the area and make it harder for a wild animal to hide, so I am afraid we might have messed up any tracks (although we didn't see any) with the falling trees and tree limbs, dragging them through the woods and across the side yard to the brush pile in the back, etc. I have everything in and around the garden very heavily mulched and I think that is why we are not seeing tracks.

I'll ask DH what he thinks about contacting someone, but we aren't finding any tracks or tufts of hair, and believe me we looked. We've looked all year and haven't seen a thing in terms of tracks, scat or hair tufts, until this creature startled me this morning. It was about 10 a.m. which seems late to me for one to be out also.

There have been numerous anecdotal reports this year of cougars in the Criner Hills/Delissi rock quarry area along the Love County/Carter County line all year long too, but that's about 17-20 miles from us, so I don't know if our half-grown cat is part of that population or what. Some of our neighbors who live about 1.5 miles northwest of us have been hearing cougars for months but haven't seen any as far as I know. I haven't heard any, but then saw this one today.

Kristy,

I never have a gun or a cell phone with me when I need one! I hate to carry a gun around with me, but I might have to start. When I take the cell phone and fire radio to the garden with me, they inevitably end up lost, dropped, buried in mulch, etc., unless I hang them up on a tomato cage. So, usually I leave them inside the house for their own safety.

Game bird,

You know, I don't always close that garden gate when I am inside because the cats and I both are in and out all day long sometimes. I'll probably start closing it now though.

I have a little cat, a brown and gray tabby named Tabby (well, really named Tabitha after our niece, but we call her Tabby so we'll know if we are talking about "Tabitha the niece" or "Tabby the cat") who hangs out right in that garden entrance. She likes to lay in the shade of the cedar arbor which is covered in coral honeysuckle. My biggest fear was that the cougar had gotten her. Five minutes after DH came out with the gun, and before the cougar had gotten the guinea, and while we were still looking for the cougar, I turned and looked towards the arbor and there sat Tabby staring at me with the oddest expression on her face. She was sitting literally two feet from where the cat was standing. I picked her up and took her inside and she's stayed in ever since. I wonder if she saw the big cat?

Dawn

Scott,

You posted your most recent message while I was writing my longer one above...and anxious looking out at the guinea and chicken run/coop everytime the guineas screamed.

Thanks for clarifying the age. I had wondered if it might have parents around.

How nervous should I be about us and our pets?

Dawn

These experts will know where to go in nearby areas to find any tracks. There will be sign around that they will be able to find if they try hard enough. Cougars drop their scat on open trails, so they should be able to find that, especially since the cat is possibly consuming your fowl on a regular basis.

The cat will be back IMO because of the age of it, and the source of food.

This is the best scenario as far as being able to verify what it was. Go for it. Call everyone, but start with the game warden and start by telling him that you know that a very high percentage of sightings are mistaken, but you think this is one that will be proven accurate. Plus, because of the age of the cat, you think verification is important.

Scott

WOW Dawn, You know me with my camera. Anywhere I go I have my camera. I would have takin pictures like crazy. When my dogs trapped the bobcat in the brush I took the camera right up close.With my dogs right there and Rich with a gun just in case. Got some neat pictures.

I am with Scott on calling the game warden just so they know its in the area in case there is trouble with it. The big cats will stay in cover but like Scott said if the moms dead the cub can be hungry and who knows what it will do for a meal. Then again mom could be in the brush teaching the cub to hunt.I would becareful since you don't know the situation. If it was just a big cat i wouldn't worry so much about you since they try to stay hidden most of the time and most times will run away, but being a cub and not knowing the situation thats scarey.If you don't want to take a gun with you at least take a dog or a few dogs. But from now on when you are outside can ya take a camera with ya. LOL. Just stay safe.

Y'all, Except for the fact that it is killing our poultry, I'm just not all that concerned about this thing. We have them all over the place from time to time. Some people (not us) seem to live in places they travel through on almost a daily basis, often at about the same time of day. Don't forget, the Red River is less than a half-mile west of us and about 2 or 2.5 miles east of us. We have tons of Wildlife Management Area land where all sorts of wildlife abounds. No one here, including the game management people who are way understaffed and way overworked, get excited about the occasional cat. DH doesn't want to call in the game warden people so we won't.

I don't want to overreact, but I will be sure to carry my cell phone and fire radio out with me from now on, so I can call for help if needed AND I'll take a couple of dogs out with me AND I'll take a gun. If it is dark, I'll take a camera. If I can find it, and can manage not to lose it, I'll take a camera. That doesn't leave me many free hands for gardening, though.

Now, if this critter is seen here again, I probably will call the game warden. Since our poultry have been disappearing for six months, and this is the first sighting of it....and I HAVE seen a coyote with a chicken in its mouth, I am not sure this big cat has even been here before today.

However, one mystery is now solved. I often refer to my old farmer/rancher friend who lives and farms/ranches near me. He is about 88 years old now and I'll call him Fred.

Several years ago, long after I'd had my first encounter with an adult cougar, and also had seen a pair (male and female) walking through the pasture next door, Fred told me he'd seen a lynx walking through his old home place on the river, which is not where he currently lives near us. The old home place is further northwest and sits on the river.

Fred and I had a long discussion about it as I tried to convince him it was just a big bobcat because we don't have lynx here, and he kept telling me he'd lived here all his life and knew bobcats and it wasn't a bobcat and it DID have a long tail and it wasn't a cougar either because they aren't spotted. You can imagine the conversation. Of course, I'd never seen a cougar kitten/cub and didn't know they were spotted until today. Having seen this one today and having compared it to photos on the internet, I now feel confident that Fred's lynx from around 2004 or 2005 was a cougar cub. The animal I saw today really fits Fred's description of the lynx he once saw. So, that's a mystery solved. And, oddly, as Tim and I searched for tracks or other signs of the couger cub, I kept thinking about Fred's "lynx" and wondering if I had just seen the same type of animal. LOL So, now I know what he and I saw, and it wasn't a lynx.

For what its worth, I've had worst close calls with several venomous snakes, three very aggressive deer (at separate times) and several wild pigs (not all of them at once). Once I had a real close encounter with 23 cows (or, 22 cows and their bull, maybe) who were making a dead run for the veggie garden while I was in it and there was only a 3' tall woven wire fence (dog wire, not hog wire...and certainly not cattle-proof fencing) between me and them. So, in the overall scheme of things, this startled me but it only frightened me for our cats and poultry. This animal wasn't big enough to hurt me that badly, although I'll concede that if its mother was around, that could be a concern.

Thank you all for your concern and I will be careful. If I see another one, I'll try to snap a photo and I'll call the game warden. The poultry are going to stay in their fenced run until we feel like we've made the area safer for them.

Dawn

Getting people to confirm the sighting is not for safety or anything similar, it is to better understand their current range and behavior. There have not been reproducing populations verified in hundreds of miles of you for many decades, and the truth is that almost all sightings are mistaken identity throughout this part of the country. Most of the ones that are accurate turn out to be released or escaped captive ones. We all tend to believe you because of our experience with you, but still most of the sightings of even the most intelligent, objective people are wrong. This is an opportunity to document a reproducing population and IMO it is your duty to have this confirmed. It is relatively easy to find evidence of reproducing populations anywhere they exist. If you really had a young lion on your place it would one of the most important Oklahoma wildlife discoveries in our lifetime.

So you can take the easy way out or you can step up to the plate and do what you need to do.

(Can you tell I reaaaallllly want this to be reported and confirmed?)

Scott,

I can tell. I just don't want to fight DH on this one and he personally knows the local game wardens (who I think are great guys) and that may play into it as well. Maybe he'll mention it in passing to them when he's talking to them one day. He worked hard today to clear the underbrush on the edge of the woods and he got a lot done in one day and intends to do more next week, and that is something I've wanted him to do (not that I like the idea of him working in the woods during snake season) for years and years. Generally, he has been so busy with his fire chief job with the VFD that major chores like clearing the woods never quite get done. So, at least today he was motivated to get out there and do some of the long-postponed cutting and clearing.

We had spent lots of weekends in the non-snake season clearing the underbrush for several years, but then he got involved in the fire dept. and that begin to eat up our "major chore" time.

Do you want to know the truth? I saw it myself with my own two eyes, and even I am skeptical about what I saw. I keep having these conversations in my head saying "Maybe it was a really big bobcat with a tail...." or "Maybe it was an escaped pet lynx...." etc. etc. etc. LOL I suppose it is denial---not wanting to believe this animal is right here on our property stalking and killing our animals. Certainly, I'd rather it were just a little old bobcat or a coyote or something. I'm used to seeing them fairly often. I assure you if I encounter it again, I'll call the warden myself.

Now, I'm gonna grab a flashlight and go outside and call the missing house cat who failed to show up before dark. I hope he is OK.

Dawn

Well, I tried. I understand what your saying, though, and if it was me I might be doing the same. It's easy for me to have a strong opinion when it is someone else and not me that would be doing it.

One of these days we will get confirmation of breeding cougars (outside of the western panhandle) and it will be huge news across the state. I was kind of hoping this would be it. (Plus, I could say I heard about it before anyone else and knew the person who brought it to light.) I have a relative here who is a game warden, so I'll probably tell him about it and find out from him what your local wardens are like when it comes to this type of thing. He was down there a couple counties west of you for a few years so he probably knows them somewhat.

Keep a camera around near an outside door. Even if you never see it again, you can probably get some awesome shots of other predators for us to see! I see a bobcat about twice a year , and the occasional red fox and coyote near our house, but nothing like what you see with all of the "bait" you keep around your house!

Scott,

I just think DH doesn't want people traipsing around the property looking for signs of these things. He expressed some concern that it could be disruptive to our lives and routines and also that if signs of the cougars were found here and if they were (now or later) classified as 'endangered' or 'threatened' (which I can't imagine, but on the other hand the Florida pumas are classified that way), then "the powers that be" could tell us we couldn't do anything to change their habitat and that we couldn't shoot one, if needed, to protect our animals,etc. (I know you're allowed to shoot an animal that threatens you.)

I don't think it is in any way meant as a reflection of his opinion of the specific individuals who hold that job in this county. They're terrific people. We've met them in connection with wildfires on game management land and one of them came to our place once to pick up an injured fawn we found so it could be rehabbed.

And the cougar thing kept me from sleeping, as did the fact that the kitty who was missing last night still hasn't shown up. Hopefully he'll show up after sunrise.

I let the 3 youngish house dogs out at 4 a.m. and they ran hysterical circles around the veggie garden and chicken coop/run area. They weren't barking so I don't think anything was around at the present time, but they were hitting on a scent that was making them crazy. Jersey, in particular, was just beside herself. When she hits a scent that gets her excited, she jumps and leaps into the air, and she was hopping around like mad. I think she has some kind of coon dog in her because she's a great hunter.

I'll put the camera by the back door as soon as I find it. I suspect DH or DS have it or have left it in a fire truck. I would love to get a photo of it, if I can do so safely.

If I see a cougar again, I'll call the warden. Once is sort of a "freak accident" type thing that might not repeat itself for years, if ever. Twice, though, certainly would indicate our place is part of its regular range.

Dawn

Hey girly,

I have to know if the kitty came home.....

Take care now.

Laura

Hey Laura,

Nope. Nada. Nothing. No Kitty.

He's a very complicated, big, aggressive, muscular, formerly feral-for-8-or-9-years teddy bear of an orange tabby. He has roamed the hundreds of acres of property at our end of this road ever since we bought our land in 1997. For a couple of years around 2005-2006 or so, he lived with Fred on his ranch. Still, he remained feral and elusive. He'd sleep under their house or in the garage or barn and sometimes followed Fred around as he worked. He roamed maybe a half-mile to a mile in any direction and wouldn't let anyone touch him. He eventually left Fred's ranch and resumed roaming after Fred took in an abandoned dog, and "Yellow Cat" or "Old Yeller Cat" as he is affectionately know around the neighborhood, didn't like the idea of living with one dog. I always talked to Yellow Cat if he was lurking nearby, and sometimes took food and left it in a shady spot near an oil well where he liked to hang out. During drought, when the creeks dried up, I'd take a pie pan and fill it with water and put it out for him. I guess he started liking having regular meals because he started coming to our house for them about 15 months ago.

We "tamed" him about a year ago and he's lived here ever since, but he sleeps all day and roams all night and doesn't like our other cats. He is very independent and really is used to doing his own thing. If ever there is a cat who is a smart, wily, tough survivor, he is the one. So, I don't know if he hasn't come home because something got him, or if he just decided to go "walkabout" for a day or two as he sometimes does. Of course, I hope he is safe and comes home soon.

I've been out calling "Yellow Cat" regularly all morning, but haven't seen any sign of him. The situation is more complicated because I've been letting Jersey, Honey and Sam take turns patrolling the yard all day, and Yellow Cat doesn't like dogs. So, he may be staying away because a dog is out.

Dawn

Dawn, I hope your kitty shows up soon, safe and sound.

Just to let you know, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Wildlife hunting regulations for furbearers (which includes mountain lions or cougars), "Mountain lions can be taken year-round when committing or about to commit depredation or when deemed a nuisance, safety or health hazard." So shooting one you find killing your chickens and guineas is certainly within your legal rights.

This is the correct time of year for young males to be out trying to establish a territory of their own. I think you should talk to Tim about reconsidering notifying the game wardens. I'm not sure they would bother with trying to hunt it down on just one report, but they would at least have that one report in case they get more later. I would certainly worry about a young male discovering he could hunt your much more easily captured fowl rather than learning to hunt the deer in the area.

Debra

Here is a link that might be useful: Wildlife Dept. general regulations on furbearers

Debra,

I know we can shoot them at the present time. The risk would be if the following occurred:

1) A breeding population was found on our property, or heavily using our property as part of its feeding range;

and

2) We ended up in some database as having a "breeding population" of this animal here;

and

3) At some future point down the road, the cougar is declared threatened or endangered in Oklahoma and, thus,

4) Their habitat must be protected, which results in....

5) Certain rules being applied to our property taking certain decisions out of our hands.

Is it likely all 5 of the above could happen? Maybe or maybe not, but if you talk to people, esp. those in the western U.S. to whom it has happened with, for example, wolves......well, you don't want for it to ever happen to you. So, we're staying off the radar and out of the databases and reserving our property right decisions for ourselves.

For what it is worth, Tim is a law enforcement officer with almost 30 years of experience and he has friends in all kinds of law enforcement and wildlife management positions in several states and he knows well (all too well) how government bureacracy works in these cases.

If you've never gotten into a tussle with government authorities over an animal deemed endangered or threatened, you just can't imagine how much power they have to take control of how your propery is used or managed if it is deemed to be habitat for an endangered or threatened species. We watched a lot of this type of thing going on in parts of Texas with regard to the golden-cheeked warbler for years before we moved here, and that stuff continues to go on.

We are not anti-government by any means, but we want to totally avoid the kind of nonsense that has plagued property owners in Texas because their land contains habitat for the golden cheeked warblers.

Also, and I hope I don't offend any Love County residents by saying this, but we have some real redneck residents here. I mean really, really, really redneck. Some of them really like to hunt, and they like it a lot. They think nothing at all of ignoring your "Posted: No Trespassing No Hunting" signs and running all over your property hunting whatever suits their fancy, in or out of season, with or without a license.

Several years ago, Tim was almost shot by one of these "sportsmen" in the dark one night, and on another occasion in broad daylight I had a bullet whiz by so close to my head that I "felt" it and "heard" it pass by my right ear even though I didn't see it. It scared me to death and I feel lucky to be alive because it probably missed me by less than an inch. I was on our property, was dressed in brightly colored clothing and it was NOT hunting season at the time, yet some idiot was running around in our woods firing a weapon.

Based on these experiences, I guarantee you that if some of these "sportsmen" knew they might find and shoot a cougar on our property, they'd be creeping through the woods and pastures without our permission every weekend, hoping to bag a cougar they could have stuffed and mounted. We don't need more people like that running around here. So, we're keeping the cougar sighting to ourselves partly in an effort to protect ourselves.

If there were a lot of Love County residents on this forum, I might be concerned word about the cougar would get out, but there's only two Love Countians besides me who post here as far as I know, and I don't think either one of them are the type of person I have to worry will come here looking to bag a mountain lion.

When you live out in a rural area, you have to protect yourselves from all kinds of dangers....and some of those are animals with only two legs.

Dawn

I see what you're saying. I wouldn't want someone, anyone, telling me I couldn't defend my property and its resident life forms, and I would certainly hope the state of Oklahoma would have better sense than to deny folks the right to defend what's theirs. But we are seeing more and more intrusion by government bureacrats into things they know nothing about really.

I would think you should be able to do something about the jerks who trespass and shoot on your property without permission. There is no excuse for people not respecting the rights of others to what's theirs. I don't own a gun and don't hunt, but I have been on receiving end of hunters' largesse. I love venison! Still, hunting on private property requires, by law, consent of the owners. Maybe we could all put our heads together and come up with an idea to scare the holy crap of people who trespass on your land. My daughter loves Halloween decorations and does them quite well. I've seen some that would scare me to death if I didn't know what they were and came upon them unaware. ;)

Well, keep your eyes open and keep the feathered residents penned and the kitties inside and don't let the dogs out except in groups. Maybe if the cougar can no longer find anything to eat near your place he'll go off looking for a territory somewhere else.

Debra

Debra,

And, you know what, I should have emphasized it isn't just the government. Often it is extremeist conservationist groups who file suit against the property owner on behalf of the endangered or threatened animal.

Still no sign of Yellow Cat. If he is still alive, he is likely to show up around sunset tonight wanting to be fed. The other cats are out, but sticking close to the house....like on the front or side porch, or on the back screened-in porch, or sleeping in the garage or on the patio. The cats have known for a long time that something was "out there" and they are smart and do what they have to do to protect themselves. Sometimes, we'll come home and there will be 2 or 3 of them sitting up on the roof of the house (they jump to the roof from a tree), and it is a 2-story house, so I guess if they get up there, they feel safe. You have to ask yourself what would scare them so much that they'd get up on the roof of the house....but, of course, I think now we know what's been scaring them.

All the cats are trained to come in before dark, except Yellow Cat, who already had his own nocturnal lifestyle before he adopted us. They aren't allowed out until after 10 a.m. although, until I saw the cougar, I'd been letting them out between 8:30 and 9:00 a.m.

This morning, one of our nearest neighbors....he's 1/2 mile north of us....stopped by to warn me there was a vicious animal roaming around and that I should be extra careful. So, figuring he'd seen what I'd seen, I said "The cougar?" and he said "No, a white pit bull. What cougar?"

The birds have not been allowed out to roam and they are very mad. When I walk outside and they see me, they squawk and let me know all about it. They are going to have to get used to it until we come up with a better way to protect them. There's nothing wrong with the fenced-in, covered, shady and comfortable run. It is very nice. It is just that they'd rather be free.

As for people who hunt without permission, it gets very tedious dealing with them. Of course, you can always order them off your property if you can catch them doing it, you can have them arrested if your property is properly posted, you can call for the sherriff's deputies to come arrest them and, under certain conditions the deputies can seize their weapons (we usually do call and request a deputy) and even their vehicles if they are spotlighting from the road. Still, it is an ongoing issue and it gets old.

Dawn

Here is my two cents for what it's worth, It is a shame that goverment, both at the state and federal level, have done and continue to do things that cause us to mistrust them, and I dont believe that was always the case.
For what its worth I concure completly with OD and her familys decission not to get the bureacrats involved, for even if you trust the local authorities, and no matter how nice and trustworthy the individuals at the local level might be, their boses can and will overide them if it suits them, or becomes politicaly expediate, and if it has anything to do with an endangered species, well then you dont have a chance.

And if" you report it, there is always the possibility of them not finding the evidence, and even tho the sighting was made by a credible witness, that, in all likely hood will become irrelavant and then it will probably be listed as another case of mistaken idenity by a civilian, and you know they can't be trusted.
Freedom from goverment interferance is fast becoming a thing of the past, what a shame.

Hi Dawn & all,

Hope yellow cat comes home when the dust clears. He probably has very keen senses as well. I have a very large yellow cat whose name is "punkin". I understand from the neighbors that he visits regularly. We are on a E-W dead end with 4 neighbors on 2-3 acre lots. I have also noticed the guinea gang has diminished from a dozen or so to 2 or 3 since early spring but they aren't my gang to worry about. I truly enjoy their visits though and punkin is usually on top of my car! He's a tough one alright.

Wish you a pleasant evening and holiday. The office will close tomorrow at noon and I'm out of here for a couple of days. Looking forward to picking something this weekend!

Laura

Hi Dawn

Now there is another Love County poster. I have been reading this forum for several years. I have never met you but live about 1/2 mile south of you across the pasture from Fred.I have two small house dogs and when they are outside which is only when they need to go potty I always worry about them. Now I will really worry,espescaly at night since I work 2nd shift. I have little led lights I clip on the collars they look like fire flys running around. I have a trail camera and deer feeder set up behind the house don't hunt but just like to see the wildlife,got hundreds of pics deer coyote grey fox coons maybe a cougar is next. Anyway keep us informed on the forum

Rickey

Hi Rickey,

Cool! And you're right here in "my" (now I'll call it "our") neighborhood. If you tell me which direction you are from Fred, I can guess which road you're close to without you revealing your exact location. : ) I think you and I are on the same road but I'm north of B. Rd and you are south?

I want a trail camera so I can try to catch this thing on film. You are likely to catch it on film if it comes to your feeder looking for deer.

You and I may be seeing the same gray fox if you've been seeing one the last six weeks or so because I've been seeing one running up the road a lot (from your direction towards me) lately.

The cougar cut right through our yard going south towards you but I don't know if it continued farther south toward your end of the road, or if it veered west at Coach J.'s house and went more towards the river.

We don't have a whole lot of cougar activity here. My last "close call", which was with an adult cat around 9:30 p.m. in the winter so it was pitch black dark, was probably 5 years ago (the older I get, the harder it is to keep track) and DS's was one summer after that.

There's also a white pit bull running loose and no one is sure who he belongs to, but he seemed friendly, and headed back north towards S. D. Rd. this morning.

It's good to see you posting here. When I start whining about the inevitable drought and dry weather a few weeks from now, at least I'll know you are suffering (LOL) along with me.

Dawn

I know what Dawn and the others are talking about when they talk about the governments and animal sightings. I was raised on ranches. Most ranchers and cowboys know what they see when they see it. Whether a mountain lion, cougar, black footed ferret or something else. I've seen pastures took over after reported false sightings especially the black footed ferret in CO, KS and NM. Some ranchers used to out of the goodness of their hearts let sight seer's and even hunters on their ranches to view or hunt. Only to have a viewer leave without saying a word and contact someone and say they saw a BF in a town there. Even though the rancher knows better they can take over. Stop all control methods and even grazing while a person comes in and views the town and now they even set up cameras. Have seen this take longer than a year in some cases. So now many don't allow any viewers or hunters and that stops the false reports and aggravation. The same goes for lions. Most of the ranches in the foothills where I was raised in my youth were 50 thousand acres up with approx. one cowboy per 25,000 acres. Even over 40 years ago the saying was better to not say anything if you see one dead or alive than to go through the hassle. And it is even worse today. I can only remember seeing one live lion where we were close enough to remove any doubt. An old cowboy can tell you by the kill if it was a lion or not. And have saw a few pictures over the years but not many as a lot just ride on if they are dead. This country is rough and very few roads. So in the end unless you are sure you have an established population and a animal is permanent and not just traveling through it is best to wait and see as far as I'm concerned. Jay

Hi Jay,

I couldn't agree more.

And, I've seen a few ferrets here too, although usually run over dead in the road and I didn't look at the color of their feet either. And, now that your comment reminded me of the whole black-footed ferrett issue, I'll never look at their feet to see what color they are. If they have black feet, I won't tell.

For those of you who have no idea what the government and environmental/conservation/wildlife groups have done to property rights over the last few decades, I'd like to suggest you subscribe to RANGE magazine for a year or at least visit their website. (You might find the magazine, which I think is quarterly, at your local Wal-Mart--I see it there every now or then).

If you visit the website, pay special attention to their "Special Reports". They are very enlightening.

One of the things that RANGE magazaine does so well is to present the property rights/wildlife conservation issue from the point of view of the people who own or lease the land. It is a fascinating read and a real eye-opener.
I love seeing wildlife here (well, most wildlife) but I am not going to turn over our land to them.

Dawn

Ranchers have killed a few in Cimarron County in the last few years, and they are all documented and no big deal. The photo on the game camera near Perkins last year was not a big deal to anyone other than those happy to see them.

Since there has not been any type of evidence of breeding populations within a couple hundred miles of I35 from Texas to Minnesota in many decades, it would be a very big deal to find evidence of this, so that might cause some disturbance. Males have not established permanent ranges here because they have found no females, but if/when females make their way here, they probably would establish a relatively small range in remote areas with lots of deer. A lot of the Red River area qualifies.

Everything I have read says they will not make a regular habit of coming around homes to get dogs/cats/chickens if there are plenty of deer around, so I don't think a mature cougar will be a regular visitor. Who knows about young ones.

There has still only been one wild, native cougar body verified in Oklahoma outside of Cimarron County in a few decades that I know of, and that one was a young collared male one that came here from the Black Hills of South Dakota in only a few months time, so the population is still almost nonexistent in our state. Just had to throw that out there one more time to keep us all grounded.

Scott I agree that most of what you would find anyway in the areas I've been raised around and familiar with are young males and that goes for the lions also. They are usually traveling and many times by the time you find a kill on a big ranch they have moved on. I have known ranchers who have seen and a couple who killed a cougar but have never seen one myself. I know many of the people in the Kenton area and have been told some stories there also through the years.
I will kindly disagree with the "not a big deal". It can be. And sometimes it is the curious outsiders that make it that way. Sometimes it is the gov't regulations. My family on my Dad's side has been involved in ranching in NE NM since the early 1900's and I was raised in that area and still have family and friends in that area. So I know a little about what some have experienced. Till you know it is an established animal it is not worth it. And like I said the Black footed ferret situation has been a night mare for many. Which has left a sour taste in the mouths of several. Hopefully the cougars and other animals will move on and leave Dawn's animals alone. But also that is one thing that goes along with living in a rural area. I was raised in a rural area so I'm used to it. And think Dawn is also. Although you never like losing an animal in your care. You have to be alert all the time. I've trapped foxes and when really hungry had a coyote get a hen in clear view of me. Animals don't act normal when hungry or hurt. If there is an established population I hope it is discovered and documented. Jay

Good Morning Y'all,

Well, I hope it is discovered and documented, but not on our place. When we had the male/female pair roaming our pastures here in southern Love County several years ago, we assumed they were a breeding pair but never saw any young ones. We didn't see them on our property, but we saw them in two different pastures about a quarter mile north of us, and so did several of our neighbors.

I hope the cougar doesn't come back here. We have a huge deer population....I see them in the yard several times a week, if not quite daily. Still, something has been getting our poultry, which are no longer free-ranging, and it/they have been getting the poultry since January. We also lost a 1 year old male Maine coon cat back in the winter.

We have everything here most years, y'all, including an occasional alligator that presumably wanders up from the river to somebody's stock tank, although the closest alligator to us has been found in a stock tank about a half-mile away to our southwest, so I am not real worried about finding one of those here. The feral pigs scare me more than the rare cougar sighting. One guy out west barely got away from them year before last--they chased him until he got to his ATV, hopped on it and turned it on. The pigs are a lot more common in our county than cougars, especially along the river and on the more remote ranches west of town, but there's only been one year that we've had them on our property.

I am feeling a bit calmer now. Yellow Cat returned home this morning after being gone for 36 hours, and in a big way. I'd let three dogs out to "patrol" the property and chase off any wild things that might be around. It was about 5:30 a.m.

While the dogs were off and running through the woods, chasing something and barking, I'd called and called Yellow Cat but didn't see him. Suddenly, the dogs reversed course and came running out of the woods, yelping and carrying on and with their tails between their legs. I thought "Oh crap, something is chasing them." And something was and it was Yellow Cat. LOL

Now that I know these three dogs can be chased by an old yellow tabby cat (admittedly a very muscular and aggressive one because he was feral for so many years), I don't know that I'll trust them to keep me safe from any varmints that are running around.

Scott, my best guess is that this juvenile male might be from the cougars that have been prowling the rocky hills along the Love County-Carter County line about 17-20 miles north of us. There have been numerous reports of them in that area this year. There's a big rock quarry there and some hills with small caves, etc. and lots of missing pets the last few months, etc. It is an incredibly rugged area. Almost all of our big winter wildfires were there and it is such rugged land that often the firefighters couldn't get up into those rocky hills off Oswalt Rd. except on foot so they'd have to wait for the fires to burn out into the more open areas.

Of course, the cougar also could have traveled the river. The river and its thousands of acres of bottomlands seem to serve as a "highway" for all the wild things. When our creeks here dry up, as they often do by mid-summer, the coyotes and bobcats seem to travel the creekbeds too. Fred told me last week his creek is already dry, but ours still has water, so it shouldn't be serving as a "roadway" yet.

We had tons of coyotes a couple of months ago but we don't now (as evidenced by all the cottontail rabbits that are all over our yard at night), and I don't know where the coyotes have gone. (I'm not complaining.) I do know a lot of ranchers were shooting them during calf season (for obvious reasons) because one of the ranchers who lives slightly north of us told me he shot 5, and I think 3 of those were in one week. I don't think anyone here shoots the coyotes just to shoot them, but they were killing calves.

I hope the only wild animals I see today are the cute little ones like squirrels and rabbits. In general, I like seeing all the wildlife. Seeing the occasional ringtailed cat is pretty cool because they are so reclusive. I think bobcats are beautiful animals and I even like seeing coyotes, and love hearing their howling at night. It is a little harder to appreciate the cougars because they have the potential to be so dangerous.

I have noticed a huge decrease in the number of possums, armadilloes and raccoons the last couple of months, and we've hardly had any skunks at all, so I've been wondering what's happening to all these smaller animals.

Dawn

Yea!!! It's good to hear Yellow Cat made it home safe!

Debra

Debra,

It was a relief to have him home. He's been sleeping upstairs in the weight room at night since his return. He's more nocturnal than any of our other cats, and I assume it is from all his years of roaming the area as a feral cat. His favorite new "discovery" is air conditioning.....not only is he sleeping inside at night, he comes in during the heat of the day. It is quite a change from the independent "Feed me but don't touch me" cat he was when he first came to live with us

No further signs of the cougar, but the deer and rabbits have stopped coming to eat hen scratch, so I suspect they know he (or something else) is around.

Dawn