A little hunting story

[Centaur]

Sitting in a tree this afternoon with my longbow in hopes that a big whitetail might show up. Right about sundown, a very nice 5x5 buck was making his way towards me, and everything was looking favorable that a shot might be imminent. However, a monkey wrench was thrown into the scene, as a young mountain lion came directly below my stand, stalking the buck. He was unsuccessful, as the deer caught his movement, snorted, and left the area. No deer for me, but quite a cool experience. I have only seen one other mountain lion in the wild before, and that one was on a dead run. This time, I got to watch an apex predator at work for about a minute. Very cool!

[JEBar]

fascinating .... I've never seen a big cat in the woods ... did see one that a cougar a lady wildlife officer put down within the city limits of Conroe , TX .... a most impressive critter

[Oldbrass]

Very cool, cougar attacks on humans are rarer than hens teeth

[clovishound]

Last week my buddy and I were walking down an old fire road while hunting. Hearing some splashing in the small creek beside the road we saw three otters working their way up the creek. They are normally very shy in the rivers, but these guys had to know we were there and didn't seem to care until we carefully walked over the edge of the road to try and get a picture or two.

I've seen cougar tracks while hunting, but never the cat itself. I did see one in the "wild" decades ago when I was working as a security guard at a gated community. I was filling the patrol up about 3:00 AM and got a funny feeling. I turned around and saw a cougar sitting on top of the high berm surrounding the maint area just watching me. I kept an eye on him and finished filling the car.

The big cats are fairly rare in my area.

[cooperhawk]

We've had otters on our lake and a few years back one got into our garage. Not shy at all.
I was in the garage with it and it poked its nose into every nook and cranny. I guess it was
hunting something. My wife came to the screen door into the house and I said, "do not open
that door". I didn't want it in the house. It hunted around the garage for a few minutes ignoring
me altogether and then ambled back down the hill to the lake. Haven't seen it since.

[Hatchdog]

Sorry you didn’t get an opportunity on the buck but what a great event to witness.

[North Country Gal]

What a thrill! That's an experience you will never forget.

[Centaur]

Chapter 2.
The landowner got in touch with a guy who has lion dogs, and this morning we went out to see if they could pick up a scent. It was raining pretty good, but thought we would give it a try. Well, the dogs found the lion, treed it, and the landowner was going to shoot it before it jumped the tree and took off. Dogs lost it, probably due to the downpour, so the saga continues. The guy with the dogs got some pictures of the lion in the tree, so I hope to be able to post later.

[daytime dave]

Very cool indeed. Looking forward to pictures.

[Centaur]

Kitty in the tree

[Rifletom]

Neat picture! I believe in 2008, a buddy and I were coming back to deer camp in the Southern Sierra's and caught a climpse of one. The second that cat detected us, GONE! Felt a bit leery knowing that cat was fairly near our camp spot. Never saw it again. They are good sized I will say. That must have been a surprise to see him under you. That's close.

[Kissmybrass]

Cougar Mountain trailhead is right up the street. "Cougar" being the key word lol.... and this is why I pack my 9 when I'm up there on a day hike. We have a zoo close by that takes in wounded animals and such and the Cougs there are huge!