another reason to hate cats

[Poggins]

There has been a couple of big cats killed in Oklahoma , but our bobcats do their fare share of deer killing . Had a pic two years ago of a bobcat attacking a button buck but the little buck escaped , and have seen a set of photos of a bobcat killing a full groan doe , they may not be big but if given a chance they will take a deer .

[RyanR]

Cats are killers. They kill for food and they also kill for fun. Everything from house cats to lions have this behavior. They are very good at it. Very fascinating animals but, they do need managed like all other game.

[criveraville]

I have seen this pic before. Yep.. Certainly looks Texan. We have plenty of mountain lions down here. About ten years ago a big one was caught on security cameras on the Glen Rose football field. That's about 30 minutes away and the stadium is not in a wildlife friendly area. I've seen this picture before a few years back.

Cipriano

[osage outlaw]

I've seen that same picture posted at least two different times on an Indiana hunting forum.  Each time it was a different story and location.  And its usually a story like "somebody my wife works with got this on their trail camera"

[thomas h]

hey i never said i seen it or got it off a trail camera i just posted it for you guys to see .and was just wondering if there was any thing in southern mo like that, if  i offended any of you  i apologize to you  no detect was intended and i  just trying to be part of the forum  i got the picture off face book sorry i posted it and caused all this.

[RyanR]

hey i never said i seen it or got it off a trail camera i just posted it for you guys to see .and was just wondering if there was any thing in southern mo like that, if  i offended any of you  i apologize to you  no detect was intended and i  just trying to be part of the forum  i got the picture off face book sorry i posted it and caused all this.

Don't worry about it. I don't think anyone was offended. It was good conversation. Just makes you wonder where all these pics come from.

[Joec123able]

Lol wheather this pics fake or not it's not like a mountain lion hasn't eaten a deer before anyways and I dang sure wouldn't hate the thing for eating the biggest buck on the pplanet every animals gotta eat And wild animals need food more then we do

[osage outlaw]

You didn't offend me.  I'm not upset about anything.   Its not a big deal or anything personal.  I think its funny every time I see it pop up.  Its amazing how quick and far a good cell phone picture of a monster deer, or cat in this instance can travel.  A friend of mine shot a huge typical buck that scored in the 180" range typical a few years ago.  I saw the deer in person.  I showed a few guys at work pictures of it.  The next week one of them showed me a text message from a relative several states away.  It was the same picture of that deer with a total different state where it was supposedly killed.  It boggles my mind how the story behind a picture can change so much. 

Here is another favorite of mine.  I've seen this one posted several times with a different location each time

[JW_Halverson]

I do not know if the picture is fake, but I agree with PD.  Its a Texas deer at a Texas feeder.

Koan, do you know when the female were documented?  I was at a meeting with the MO state furbearer biologist in September, and he said all that had been killed or had dna collected from them were male.       

i'd say your info is more accurate...theres a ton of mis-information out there...ofcourse...its only been a couple of yrs ago that MDC said we didnt have any, lol. I have a hard time believing that theres only males.... Nature just dont work that way...

Typically the female young do not move far from where they are raised.  Often less than a couple miles.  Young adolescent males, on the other hand, are simply NOT tolerated by their mother, their aunties, sisters, cousins and in no uncertain terms by ANY tomcat related or otherwise.  Males are forced to wander further and further from their birth homes until they find or steal a hunting territory.  Some just get so used to wandering that they do so all their lives. 

If you had a very successful breeding population nearby, you could initially get a huge overflow of males with very few females.  Eventually, that will level out and you will have your breeding population established. 

Personally, I like knowing I am not the top predator in the woods here.  15 years of running around the Black Hills and the most I have seen are half covered kills and a few stray footprints.  Never a live cat.  Oh, and some REALLY REALLY big piles of dirt covering their poo.  They make 6 ft scrapes to cover a poo pile!  And sometimes that does not cover the stink.

[Poggins]

Having a certain animal and never seeing it can happen , I get a coyote from time to time on my trail camera , see bobcats less often fox are around but have only had a few pics of them , groundhogs , porcupines , badgers , and otters are here ( I've scraped them off the turnpike less that fifteen miles of my house , and seen badgers and groundhogs around my house ) but with three of us running game cameras , have never gotten one on camera .

And yes , news travels fast and the further it travels the more the story changes , people add their own stories to pics as a joke or to spread rumors. I often wonder how many huge bucks are taken and never shown just because of the rumors that start spreading as soon as one is shown off .

[Patches]

The picture did not offend me.  And I hope my responses were not taken as me being a smart a__.  I deal with wildlife issues alot and just want to get the most accurate information out that I can. 

JWH, you are exactly right about the females.  It is just a matter of time before one is documented in the MO.  The female territories are moving this way across Nebraska, and eventually they will be here. 

You guys were talking about the photo of the cat chasing the mule deer, I had an acquaintence from Northern Missouri swear up and down that was a photo taken on her farm, and called me every name in the book for questioning her intergrity.  I pointed out that it was a mule deer, and the lodgepole pine and sagebrush in the photo, and those plants do not grow here in MO.  She was not happy with me, and has not spoken to me since.   I would love to find a place with sagebrush and muleys in Missouri! And maybe some Pacific Yew also! 

[JW_Halverson]

If you are wishing, wish for sea run brook trout, halibut the size of barn doors, and no politicians of any stripe while you are at it!

By the way, last Sunday I saw my first FULL mountain lion track in the Black Hills.  It was a bit bigger than my palm, so I guess it was a young cat about 45 lbs.  It was printed in firm mud and then frozen, so it had not broken down at all.  Makes me wish I had a bag of plaster and some water with me!

[RabidApache]

I love predators. From bears lions coyotes wolves to skunks snakes and coons etc. Each has a part to play in mother nature no matter how big or how small and insignificant. You can't have one with out the other. It don't just end when a deer falls prey to predators. A deer gets eaten, it in turn lessens burden on other critters from turkey, song birds to even stream fish in some instances. More is not always better. High deer or elk densities are their own worst enemies.
Seems there's no space anymore for predators or at times their prey. Maybe its just my view from a Native Americans perspective.
 I myself would rather see a lion killed deer in the mountains and valleys then seeing one rot on the side of the road or stand in ones yard without fear from humans. Wild is where its at.

[JW_Halverson]

I'm with you there! 

[Loneviking]

Deer? Try wild horses! Here in Nevada there's lions that regularly take down wild Mustangs. These big cats are some of the most effective predators around.