Henry Rifle Forums

I just spotted a cougar in my yard. I took a cell phone picture but it was blurry and you can't see much. It was maybe a year old as it wasn't really big. Maybe a little bigger than a bobcat which I've also seen in my yard, as well as a brown bear. And I see deer almost daily.

And the daily deer is probably why you saw the cougar!

if you still have a house cat, keep it inside.

White Squirrel wrote:And the daily deer is probably why you saw the cougar!

Yep. We've got about a million deer within our town limits, and thus some big cats. They're often caught on security cameras and whatnot.

This fellow was greeting me every morning when I opened the sliding-glass door to go let the dogs out, but I haven't seen him in a couple weeks. I really doubt he was one that became cat food.

Nice. Shortly after I came in from letting the chickens out on Monday, I glanced out the window and a huge doe was snacking on Miss Ts fruit trees. I tapped the glass, and she was smoke...

They are natural to the area were here first so I say let them be.

If I walked out my door and saw a cougar, that would sure get my attention, though the odds are very slim. We do have them, now, in Wisconsin, though.

We live right in the cougar corridor in southwest Alberta. Have seen tracks in my yard but not the cats. In all my years of back country and mountain cattle work, I have only seen 2 big cats. One about a 1/2 mile away moving across a hill. The other on a gravel road from about 100 yds away. Probably about 150 lbs. Try to stuff one of them in the cat carrier for a trip to the vet! A 10 lb cat is bad enough!

My neighbor has seen a cougar in his yard a couple of times. Here's a picture taken a few years back in a canyon around 10 miles from my place. Unusual to see that many cougars together. Hard to see in the picture but they had taken down a cow and the owner had set up a motion activated camera.

Meh, we let the deer be. The predators kill Miss Ts chickens, a few of which can sell for as much as $75 to $100 each for the Heritage breeds. There are a number of chicken breeders in the area, those with sheep, goats, and cattle. None of which are fond of losing babies to sneakies. No cougars here, but... bobcats, skunks, loads of foxes, possums, feral dogs and cats... and others.

North Country Gal wrote:If I walked out my door and saw a cougar, that would sure get my attention, though the odds are very slim. We do have them, now, in Wisconsin, though.

ain't that the truth .... I do have to hand it to your guys .... a few deer wandering through the yard, I can live with .... bobcat wandering trough the yard, I would not be happy but probably wouldn't react until it became a problem .... brown bear wandering through the yard, I would consider to be a problem at first sight .... Cougar wandering through the yard, would be on par with the brown bear ....

Course, the Henrys will handle all those.

JEBar wrote:

North Country Gal wrote:If I walked out my door and saw a cougar, that would sure get my attention, though the odds are very slim. We do have them, now, in Wisconsin, though.

ain't that the truth .... I do have to hand it to your guys .... a few deer wandering through the yard, I can live with .... bobcat wandering trough the yard, I would not be happy but probably wouldn't react until it became a problem .... brown bear wandering through the yard, I would consider to be a problem at first sight .... Cougar wandering through the yard, would be on par with the brown bear ....

Wow... I left out the Bears, which we have plenty of, but haven't had much trouble with due to my time with Fish and Game... and the 'Yotes... same thing. Strong coop keeps them out at night, so they go elsewhere.

We have lots of deer as well. I think my wife has named most of them now, some are repeats from other years. They have babies in the bush behind our house. They don't bother me and I leave them alone. Don't see them much in winter, cuz we get wolf tracks in the snow a fair bit.

Someone else in the neighborhood spotted one about two weeks ago. The funny thing is when he ran he went into an island of bushes he was just a few feet from where I work in my garden. I wonder how often he has been there with me not knowing it?

Exactly, I am sure cougars have watched me out in the backcountry more often than I know. I am always very aware of that when riding under big trees.

Sister lives in Covington. I know Sir Henry you know where that is. She lives at Crest air field. Had 2 bull elk destory her garden and her flowers this fall she sent me pictures of them I dont know if I still have them.

BigAl52 wrote:Sister lives in Covington. I know Sir Henry you know where that is. She lives at Crest air field. Had 2 bull elk destory her garden and her flowers this fall she sent me pictures of them I dont know if I still have them.

I know where Covington is and wouldn't be surprised that she had elk. Some areas have lots. On the way to the range the road is marked elk crossing and I've seen herds of up to 50. That is usually in the winter when they come down from the high county.

Cougars are known to be great wanderers. When I lived in the Chicago suburbs, a cougar was sighted in the local Chicago Forest Preserves which snake their way right through heavily congested urban areas. These Preserves are heavily over-populated with deer. For sure, that cougar had a lot of folks upset, because these Preserves see a lot of use by joggers and so on. The police eventually hunted it down and shot it. Talked to one of the county biologists and he said it didn't surprise him at all, given the high population of deer. He said that any place that has a high population of deer will probably attract a cougar, sooner or later.

North Country Gal wrote:Cougars are known to be great wanderers.

Though there are frequent "sightings", the CT DEEP denies that a native cougar population exists here; however, one was killed in CT by a car on I-95 a few years ago. It's DNA matched a population of cats from South Dakota, 1500 miles away.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-moun ... ZE20110727