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Thread: Rare sighting for my county

  1. #41
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrWolf View Post
    Two weeks ago when my son and I were unloading the moving truck after dark, there were sirens in the distance. All of a sudden we hear answering howls in the woods above us. I just bought a place with 81 acres up a mountain. A few minutes later I shined a flashlight down the driveway/road and could have sworn I saw a cream colored big dog size something just vanish. We continued unloading till we hit the guns and ammo.
    Maybe you live pretty close. Where are you?

  2. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by kbstenberg View Post
    The Minn. DNR flatly denies the existence of mountain lions in the state. They say that any pictures of long tailed cats are Bobcats.
    No, they flatly deny a POPULATION of lions, not the odd young male dispersing from South Dakota. All the Midwest and Mideast states get South Dakota lions dispersing through, though none have a functional population. Big difference.

  3. #43
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    Once quite a few years back, my FIL rented his old home place out to a young fellow who was a really great trapper. He live trapped most everything, and built boxes to hold his catches in. He once trapped a mountain lion ("panther" here) and took a Polaroid of it in the trap. A game warden came by the little hole in the wall gas station/restaurant my FIL and MIL ran on an intermittent bases. MIL made THE best burgers in the whole area, and anyone who stopped and ate one consistently came back whenever it was open, just for her burgers. The warden was one of those. The young trapper asked him (baitingly) about whether there were panthers in that area, and the warden said that there were none, and that reports were all mistaken identities. Then the young trapper pulled out of his shirt pocket that Polaroid of the cat in the trap, and asked the warden "Well, how do you explain this?" The warden looked at it, obviously intrigued, and asked the young trapper who'd live-trapped it. The trapper said he had, and that he'd turned it loose after taking the picture. He hadn't set it out for panthers, but for coyotes or fox, I believe it was, and the warden said, "You did good. Not many people can trap a panther. Glad you let it go." And the warden had a really good sense of humor about it. But he was tight lipped about whether it was common or not.

    This mirrors what the DNR did with whitetails near that same time. They brought in some big bodied Wisconsin whitetails, and let some of them out (I found out much later) in that area, and all involved were sworn to secrecy about it. A warden much later I talked with told me about it when I told him the story of a huge buck I'd hunted and finally got to see after 3 years of hunting him and him alone. He explained that there's a phenomena that crops up occasionally where a 1st generation hybrid CAN be born that reaches huge size for that species.

    So that was pretty satisfying. I'm sure that deer weighed over 300 lbs. on the hoof, and may have pushed 400. I missed at very long range because on seeing that deer, I literally went into shock at its size, and the heavy, wide rack. I'd been called a liar, but even today, I can see that deer in my mind so clearly that it's like a mental polaroid. One just doesn't see something like that and forget it, ever! I knew the size of the brush piles and other things where he was, and nothing "computed" about him. It was "impossible" that he was that big! But .... there he was.

    The woods are full of exceptional things, I think, and I have no trouble believing at least some of the things folks report seeing. With folks' minds being so preoccupied all the time these days, it'd be no big trick for something with exceptional senses that didn't want to be seen, to be very rarely observed and perceived. We just don't really see what we look at any more. Indians used to be famous for their ability to spot game, as are most indigenous peoples, like pygmies, Aussie aborigines, etc., etc. And they LEARN to spot game because it MATTERS to them whether they see it or not, and it sometimes matters a lot. So .... they just learn to do it.

    "Modern" man doesn't find much import in this, so ..... he can be "blind" to seeing an awful lot. This helps any species that doesn't want to be seen, to go incognito. Stealth helps, as do great senses of smell, hearing and sight. But any long time and good deer hunter knows that we probably pass by many more deer than we run up or see.

    An old deer hunter once came by the little restaurant/gas station my MIL ran off and on, and he was wearing overalls and had some tobacco juice running down one corner of his mouth into his nearly white beard, and my FIL told me I ought to talk to him because he was an old deer hunter from way back. I went and introduced myself, and we got to talking about deer hunting. The look in his eye spoke more than words could about how much he loved it. I asked him, as a budding deer hunter, if he could give me one piece of advice about how and where to find deer, and he thought for a few moments, and looked up and told me this. "Son, an old deer, and especially the big ol' bucks, is just as likely to bed down right behind your house in a little broomsage patch or patch of low weeds, as anywhere else. And they'll lay right there unless you nearly step on them, too. They've learned that having people around isn't a threat, if they're close to their own home, and they just seem to know where they're safe and where they're in more danger. You just never really know what little ol' place they'll bed down in, and it might be right by the ol' shop out back."

    This rang true, and I've never forgotten it. Especially since I'd scared up a small group of IIRC, three deer in a little patch of weeds no bigger than 15' across right by the shop/shelter! It's amazing how animals of all sorts can lay right near us and never be detected, because they won't move unless, like the old deer hunter said, we nearly step on them. It sure lends at least some credence to the possibility that rare species who have long been reputed to be "smart" can exist and rarely if ever be seen.

    Vision and perception are not always the same things. I know I've long had trouble pointing out things to the young or women or non-hunters, even when they seem to me to be right out "in the open." I think it's just another case of not being "able to see the trees for the forest?" Sure keeps things interesting, doesn't it?

  4. #44
    Boolit Grand Master In Remembrance
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    Would you believe, in New Jersey of all states... the 2016 bear harvest was 607 !
    Regards
    John

  5. #45
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    NJ is well known for its bears. So is North Carolina and many other eastern states.

  6. #46
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Boy View Post
    Would you believe, in New Jersey of all states... the 2016 bear harvest was 607 !
    Wow, I was under the impression that liberals were successful at stopping Bear Hunting in NJ. I am so glad to hear Bear Hunting is going strong in NJ. I killed my first Black Bear this season in NC. To say thatI am hooked, doesn't even give it justice.
    [COLOR=#0000cd][I][SIZE=4][FONT=arial black]LeadPoisonTX[/FONT][/SIZE][/I][/COLOR]

  7. #47
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    Quote Originally Posted by LeadPoisonTX View Post
    Wow, I was under the impression that liberals were successful at stopping Bear Hunting in NJ. I am so glad to hear Bear Hunting is going strong in NJ. I killed my first Black Bear this season in NC. To say thatI am hooked, doesn't even give it justice.
    Jersey has long been known for great bears. It has nothing to do with politics - as with most things.

  8. #48
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    There are no cougars in Louisiana.
    I have seen 2, and my wife has seen 3.
    We also have coatimundi in the area where I live.
    Last edited by farmerjim; 03-20-2017 at 12:45 PM.
    There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide. Ayn Rand

  9. #49
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    Quote Originally Posted by farmerjim View Post
    There are no cougars in Louisiana.
    I have seen 2, and my wife has seen 3.
    We also have coatimundi in the area where I live.
    How about jaguars? Wolves?

  10. #50
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    Quote Originally Posted by BrentD View Post
    How about jaguars? Wolves?
    No.
    Coyote moved in about 30 years ago. I have had alligators in my pond.
    There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide. Ayn Rand

  11. #51
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    Quote Originally Posted by farmerjim View Post
    No.
    Coyote moved in about 30 years ago. I have had alligators in my pond.
    Well, I seriously doubt you have cougars. when one says there are "no cougars" they are referring to viable populations, not the occasional stray or escapee, both of which the species is infamous for.

    The difference is lost on a lot of folks but it's a significant issue.

  12. #52
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    The first one I saw was a full grown one in my front yard. ( I live out in the country with lots of woods and swamp around me) The second one, also seen by my wife, was one year later and was a young one half the size of an adult, on the road about 1/4 mile from my house. I have not seen one in 15 years, so yes they are not a viable population, however I do believe the young one was born near here. The wife and I saw it a week apart on the road at night.
    There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide. Ayn Rand

  13. #53
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    But have you seen the legendary Bopotamus? Since they quit holding the annual hunt at Star Hill haven't heard much. GW
    "If you can walk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    Or walk with Kings, nor lose the common touch,
    Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,
    And, which is more, you'll be a man my son!" R. Kipling

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  14. #54
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    Quote Originally Posted by Goatwhiskers View Post
    But have you seen the legendary Bopotamus? Since they quit holding the annual hunt at Star Hill haven't heard much. GW
    No, but I have seen their tracks. over near Nauga airfield. Nauga field is off of hwy 966 just around the corner from me and is named for the little animal that they skin for Naugahyde (a google earth search will show it , The camp in the trees at the end of the runway had 4 feet of water inside it in the big flood. ). I was over at Ronnie's camp Saturday. He was cooking two of the 5 little pigs that he caught in his pig trap.
    I think these wild pigs are better than the farm raised ones.
    There is no difference between communism and socialism, except in the means of achieving the same ultimate end: communism proposes to enslave men by force, socialism—by vote. It is merely the difference between murder and suicide. Ayn Rand

  15. #55
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    Quote Originally Posted by kbstenberg View Post
    The Minn. DNR flatly denies the existence of mountain lions in the state. They say that any pictures of long tailed cats are Bobcats.
    No, that is flatly wrong. I don't know why folks insist on saying things like this.

    Here are three very reasonable discussions of lions by the MN DNR.

    http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mammals/cougar/index.html

    http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/mcvmagazi...minnesota.html

    http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/rsg/profi...ent=AMAJH04010

  16. #56
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    Quote Originally Posted by 44man View Post
    Maybe you live pretty close. Where are you?
    Sorry for not answering sooner but Dish did not want me as a customer for internet service which has been real bad since I got here. They could not maintain even their base speeds. I ended up using a signal booster, etc. for my cell phone and now am using Verizon's unlimited data. I live near the Hampshire County/Morgan County border near where 9 and 29 meet.

  17. #57
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    Quote Originally Posted by MrWolf View Post
    Sorry for not answering sooner but Dish did not want me as a customer for internet service which has been real bad since I got here. They could not maintain even their base speeds. I ended up using a signal booster, etc. for my cell phone and now am using Verizon's unlimited data. I live near the Hampshire County/Morgan County border near where 9 and 29 meet.
    I am close to Harpers Ferry, Little town of Bakerton. You are not that far. I am also near Charles Town. Some day we need to get together.

  18. #58
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    I'm near you two as well. Wife n I saw a mountain lion on the MD side of the river. No body from the State said it was possible except the rest of the people in the area who've seen it.

  19. #59
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    In Indiana bobcats are common now. I've seen six myself in the last three years. 10 years ago people thought you were crazy if you said you saw one. Last summer my 30 yo son told me he swore that a black bear cross the road in front of him early one morning on his way home from work. Wasn't sure I believed him, but I guess it was possible. A few weeks later one was spotted about 60 miles away and was tracked over a period of several months by the DNR. Still around as far as I know. Had an Elk get him by a car 40 miles away. Not supposed to be any of them in Indiana either. Go figure.
    Life member NRA since 1976

  20. #60
    Boolit Master opos's Avatar
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    We have bobcats and lions (along with deer, etc) in the mountains near San Diego but our real wild life experience is along the coastal beaches in the summer time (normally when school lets out)...don't need a trail cam for these...they are plentiful and they tell me available (I'm old so it doesn't matter any more)

    Click image for larger version. 

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