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Topic: A SERIOUS late night visitor (Read 2642 times)
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ZboX
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More fun with cougars! Two nights ago, my sister in law called (who lives less than a quarter of a mile away, also on the river bank) telling us she had heard a godawful sound like a woman screaming right at the edge of her back yard! Her backyard also borders on the river. So, that was most likely a war cry. Probably a buck taking one of them on. Then last night around sunset, my brother in law was doing some yard work down towards the river edge of their yard (their back yard is much bigger than ours), he started coming back up to the house, turned to look behind him, and about 50 yards away he saw what at first looked like a housecat hunkered down by the river bank. Then it stood up. It was a cougar! The rest of his family was in his back yard in front of him. He was between them and the cougar. He took off, and told his family to get back in the house. His running did attract the cougars attention, and as he was getting his family in the house (they all saw it) it started coming towards them! They all made it back in the house safe and sound. The cougar only advanced about 10 feet towards them. Most likely attracted by my brother in law's running. My brother in law says it was a large adult. Frankly I doubt that, as that behavior would more likely signify a youngster. But you never know. Some other things are different than last year. We now live on tribal land. So Oregon fish and game or any other state agencies have no jurisdiction here. So everyone in this neighborhood are talking with the Tribal Council to try and get a trapper out here. Hopefully that will happen before something bad happens!
Bert
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« Last Edit: August 07, 2007, 08:20:36 PM by ZboX »
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ZboX
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Well unfortunately there is an update to this whole saga. They are back. Seems we now know what happened to Miss Elvira. Last night I was in the bathroom and heard a raccoon climbing around in the pear tree in the back yard. So thinking it was maybe the momma raccoon and her babies we went out on the back deck with the flashlight to watch. Usually when they are in one of our trees we'll shine the flashlight on them and they'll poke there heads out of the tree to look at us. It's cute. Well seems this raccoon didn't know us that well so it beat a hasty retreat down the tree. But as soon as it reached the ground there was a very large low growl on the other side of the tree and then there was a lot of crashing through the brush sounds by something much much larger than a raccoon. The growl was very much like a large predator taking off after prey. Sorry but that's the best i can describe it in words. But we knew what it was and we beat feet off the back deck. This afternoon our neighbor 4 houses down from us found a raccoon carcass up in a tree behind her house. And it was fresh. That's typical cougar behavior. So it's getting dark, and we have three po'd cats in the house. And we aren't exactly happy with this either.
Miss Elvira was the only one of our cats that liked to go down the river bank behind our house. As stealthy as she was, if a cougar picked up on her sent, it would go after her just for the challenge. And no one has seen any deer in the neighborhood at all this summer. So, cougars being the opportunists that they are, will go after what ever else is available. Have I mentioned lately that we are thinking of moving back to Texas?
~;-)
Bert
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dawhip
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unfortunately, sounds like a very likely possibility :-(
{{{{Rox & Bert}}}}
d
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DJ Mike
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Man are you lucky! I know that we have mountain lions around here because when I am in the back country I see their footprints all over but in all the years That I have lived around here, I have only seen one once and then I couldn't get my camera out fast enough. I see bear track all the time too but not once have I seen bear around here.
In the sierras I saw bear all the time but its like they sence my camera. I started carrying my camera cocked and loaded on my hip like a pistol but if I saw one at all, it would run so damn fast I couldn't get a picture. When I didn't have a camera, one would walk right up to me.
My best bear encounter was near Lodgepole in Sequoia. It was my first day and I went for a day hike up to the falls to get used to the thin air and since I was in an area that I have seen many times, I didn't have my camera. Some people coming down the trail told me to keep a lookout for a bear near the trail. A little while later, I rounded a corner and there was the bear right on the trail eating gooseberries. I knew that it would be pointless, not to mention possibly lethal to try and move it from its food, I sat down on the rock next to it and ate my lunch.
I was so close that I could see the taste buds on its tongue and I didn't have my camera! What a sight though! It really liked those gooseberries. As it ate, its eyes rolled back like it was in ecstasy.
If you have never seen a high sierra gooseberry, it looks something like a little red porcupine. To eat one, you have to carefully push the spines in one direction so you can pick it, then holding it with the spines pushed down, cut it open with your thumbnails (you need long thumbnails) then you lick out the inside. Bears not only eat the spiny berries, they eat the twigs and branches that have rose like spines on 'em.
The best part was when a pack of tourists came around the corner to see the bearded mountain man sitting next to a bear, both of us eating our own lunches.
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ZboX
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Man are you lucky! I know that we have mountain lions around here because when I am in the back country I see their footprints all over but in all the years That I have lived around here, I have only seen one once and then I couldn't get my camera out fast enough. I see bear track all the time too but not once have I seen bear around here.
In the sierras I saw bear all the time but its like they sence my camera. I started carrying my camera cocked and loaded on my hip like a pistol but if I saw one at all, it would run so damn fast I couldn't get a picture. When I didn't have a camera, one would walk right up to me.
My best bear encounter was near Lodgepole in Sequoia. It was my first day and I went for a day hike up to the falls to get used to the thin air and since I was in an area that I have seen many times, I didn't have my camera. Some people coming down the trail told me to keep a lookout for a bear near the trail. A little while later, I rounded a corner and there was the bear right on the trail eating gooseberries. I knew that it would be pointless, not to mention possibly lethal to try and move it from its food, I sat down on the rock next to it and ate my lunch.
I was so close that I could see the taste buds on its tongue and I didn't have my camera! What a sight though! It really liked those gooseberries. As it ate, its eyes rolled back like it was in ecstasy.
If you have never seen a high sierra gooseberry, it looks something like a little red porcupine. To eat one, you have to carefully push the spines in one direction so you can pick it, then holding it with the spines pushed down, cut it open with your thumbnails (you need long thumbnails) then you lick out the inside. Bears not only eat the spiny berries, they eat the twigs and branches that have rose like spines on 'em.
The best part was when a pack of tourists came around the corner to see the bearded mountain man sitting next to a bear, both of us eating our own lunches.
Well I don't know about luck LOL! Don't get me wrong, cougars are magnificent animals. But, humans and cougars don't mix. Because we live on tribal land, the state fish and game and the sheriff dept can't do anything. But the tribe won't do anything either. It's getting to the point that someone in this neighborhood is going to have to take the law into their own hands. No, that's not good either as that will open up a whole can of worms. If we don't, sooner or later there is going to be a cougar/human encounter, and we all know who will lose.
Great story Mike. There have been bear in our neighborhood before. It's rare but it does happen. I wonder if bear like blackberries. The brush on the riverbank behind us is full of them. They are ripe now and one of my favorite snacks while I'm walking Rosco.
~;-)
Bert
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« Last Edit: September 14, 2008, 10:57:14 AM by ZboX »
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