Originally Posted by tredadda:
Really? I thought a criteria for a mountain lion is something like mountains. I am genuinely fascinated by a sighting there.
there's a subspecies of puma that lives in Florida. They were getting pretty scarce, but I've heard that they're rebounding.
mountain lions once made their homes in every habitat in the U.S. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
It wouldn't surprise me at all. It's pretty rare for them to make it THIS far east but we probably have 1-2 sightings a year. Of course, black bears coming this far south from Minnesota or Wisconsin is similarly rare and there's been 2 sightings - two different bears according to the DNR - in the last 8 months.
There are a lot of mountain lions in the Mark Twain forest. Black bear are seen pretty frequently too. Mo DNR was denying that there is a breeding population in Mo for along time but I believe there is. [Reply]
Mountain lion attacks on people have been on the rise for several years now. As have black bear attacks, and coyote attacks. Personally, I have noticed that coyotes seem less afraid of humans over the last 10 or so years. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
Mountain lion attacks on people have been on the rise for several years now. As have black bear attacks, and coyote attacks. Personally, I have noticed that coyotes seem less afraid of humans over the last 10 or so years.
Black bears have been growing increasingly unpredictable. They're generally the most easily scared off but they're also dumb as shit. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rausch:
Black bears have been growing increasingly unpredictable. They're generally the most easily scared off but they're also dumb as shit.
Around here they've been starving for years now. years of continual drought has forced them to be more aggressive looking for food. Consequently we've had some attacks in recent years, and a couple deaths, iirc.
When I first moved to AZ when I saw one, as soon as they saw me they took off. The last few years, they don't run immediately. Instead, they look me over. I've had them raid my camps a couple times in the last 5-6 years. This year we've gotten several times the amount of snow/rain than we've had in the last decade or more, so they might be a lot less aggressive, we'll see. [Reply]
Originally Posted by LoneWolf:
Sightings in Kansas are becoming quite common. My wife swears that she had a mountain lion run across the road about 1/4 mile from our house. There's a heavily wooded creek in the area and a ton of deer, but I don't trust her eyes enough that I believe her 100%.
Originally Posted by Frazod:
Well, if you adopt/rescue a kitten, there's no way of knowing how big it will get. We took in a kitten that was five weeks old. She never got any bigger than standard six month old kitten. Neat little cat; she lived to be 16. Sadly we had to put her down about six months ago.
We adopted two five week old kittens last June. They were tiny. The black one was only 400 grams (just under a pound) and the grey one was 500 g. They could easily fit in your hand. They loved to curl up and sleep under my chin if I was leaning back in my chair.
Fast forward to now and they are 11 months old. The grey one is 12.6 lbs and the tiny black one is now 17 pounds. The problem is that the black one still thinks he should be able to curl up and sleep under my chin. It makes seeing anything and even breathing difficult. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frosty:
We adopted two five week old kittens last June. They were tiny. The black one was only 400 grams (just under a pound) and the grey one was 500 g. They could easily fit in your hand. They loved to curl up and sleep under my chin if I was leaning back in my chair.
Fast forward to now and they are 11 months old. The grey one is 12.6 lbs and the tiny black one is now 17 pounds. The problem is that the black one still thinks he should be able to curl up and sleep under my chin. It makes seeing anything and even breathing difficult.
When we got Casey he was fairly tiny - about seven or eight weeks old. Had no intention of getting a new cat that day; we were just going to get food for the three we already had. The pet store had an adoption section, and he was alone in cage. He had been part of a litter of three, and shortly before we got there somebody had adopted his two siblings but not him, so he was alone for the first time in his life. I petted him for a couple of minutes, and then walked away. He started crying, and I went back and petted him some more. Well, the lady at the register, who was also part of the adoption service, saw that. So while we were getting the food she brought him up to the register. As soon as I put the food down, she put him on the counter by my hand and he ran right up my left arm and perched himself on my shoulder. $130 adoption fee and a new carrier later we had another cat. Yeah, she totally played me, but that's okay. He's the best cat I've ever owned. But damn, did he grow fast. We got him in the middle of May. Every day he got a little bigger, and by the end of June he was huge. I was starting to wonder if he was part Puma, but after that he didn't get any bigger.
He still tries to get up on my left shoulder, but it doesn't work out for him very well now. :-) [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
Mountain lion attacks on people have been on the rise for several years now. As have black bear attacks, and coyote attacks. Personally, I have noticed that coyotes seem less afraid of humans over the last 10 or so years.
The coyotes around here always run when I move towards them, not away from them. I'm usually carrying a gun, as well. :-) [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
The coyotes around here always run when I move towards them, not away from them. I'm usually carrying a gun, as well. :-)
We got yotes in the suburbs. I think they're becoming completely acclimated to seeing people. Last week a toddler was grabbed by a yote in broad daylight near Scottsdale of all places. Fortunately the dad was near and chased the thing off and the kid survived with some minor injuries.
In my neighborhood last year, a couple yotes apparently were stalking some young kids (11-13?), near sunset. They ran up to the door of my neighbor across the street, who works nights so he was home and awake, so he let them in. A couple minutes later, two yotes appeared on his driveway. He's not an outdoors/wildlife person, so he asked me what would be a good deterrent. I told him a fire extinguisher; all the noise and white stuff flying out of it would probably spook them off. And of course have a gun handy in case that doesn't work. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
We got yotes in the suburbs. I think they're becoming completely acclimated to seeing people. Last week a toddler was grabbed by a yote in broad daylight near Scottsdale of all places. Fortunately the dad was near and chased the thing off and the kid survived with some minor injuries.
In my neighborhood last year, a couple yotes apparently were stalking some young kids (11-13?), near sunset. They ran up to the door of my neighbor across the street, who works nights so he was home and awake, so he let them in. A couple minutes later, two yotes appeared on his driveway. He's not an outdoors/wildlife person, so he asked me what would be a good deterrent. I told him a fire extinguisher; all the noise and white stuff flying out of it would probably spook them off. And of course have a gun handy in case that doesn't work.
Yeah, my guess is like you said - they're starving. Around here, there's so much small game, we rarely have to worry about it. Sometimes they'll wander close and grab a cat but other than that, we have very few problems with them. [Reply]
Originally Posted by LoneWolf:
Sightings in Kansas are becoming quite common. My wife swears that she had a mountain lion run across the road about 1/4 mile from our house. There's a heavily wooded creek in the area and a ton of deer, but I don't trust her eyes enough that I believe her 100%.
They've been in the area for a while.
It was in the mid 90's (94-95 I think) when I was returning from Grand Lake and saw a road kill mountain lion laying on the side of the road just north of Vinita, OK. Then in the early 2000's I was road testing some antennas just north of Altoona, KS when one crossed Highway 75 right behind my car. It walked out to the middle of the road, looked both ways then sauntered off into the woods. I've seen deer crossing in the exact same spot several times so I assumed it was following their trail. [Reply]
