Cougars

[Vegan Scot]

I don't romanticize nature, I'm just a borderline misanthropist

[Hellequin]

We had a huge Puma problem in Arizona (Sedona area, Lake Montezuma) back in the early 90's when I lived there. Granted it was very rual but every morning there would be large tracks on the deck around my house and once I had one right outside the patio door scream at me when I drew back the curtains! The only thing one could do was to pay attention, arm yourself for defence against an attack, and try not to make yourself a target. We would make a ton of noise when leaving the house or out on a hike. I'd say they were curious of human activity but with all the ranches around they were more interested in the calves and smaller animals. Long story long, I've always prided myself in being an active participant in the food chain but this was the first time that I wasn't always necessarily at the top!

[Lallans]

The postings seen here from people who have co-existed with cougars generally seem to confirm my vague idea that if cougars do attack, it's from behind (?) This is creepier than I'm used to, but I'm sure I will adapt if they do become common- which experience tells me they will because the recent recogition also means they're now a super-protected species and there's lots & lots of food for them. (I refer to deer, not children )

[wildrover]

The postings seen here from people who have co-existed with cougars generally seem to confirm my vague idea that if cougars do attack, it's from behind (?) This is creepier than I'm used to, but I'm sure I will adapt if they do become common- which experience tells me they will because the recent recogition also means they're now a super-protected species and there's lots & lots of food for them. (I refer to deer, not children )

And little rat-dogs, and stray cats, and ground rats and other varmints...

...Though I will admit, all the cougars I've come in contact with seem to attack from the top.

[Alan H]

I know full well what a minority I am here on X Marks. Perhaps all the more reason for me to voice my opinion from within the fray. Two quotes immediately sprang to mind while reading through this thread, both from the gadfly and defender of the American West, Edward Abbey.

"The rancher strings barbed wire across the range, drills wells and bulldozes stock ponds everywhere, drives off the elk and antelope and bighorn sheep, poisons coyotes and prairie dogs, shoots eagle and bear and cougar on sight, supplants the native bluestem and grama grass with tumbleweed, cow ****, cheat grass, snakeweed, anthills, poverty weed, mud and dust and flies--and then leans back and smiles broadly at the Tee Vee cameras and tells us how much he loves the West."

"We need coyotes more than we need, let us say, more people, of whom we already have an extravagant surplus, or more domesticated dogs, which in all fairness could and should be ground up into hamburger and used as emergency coyote food, to raise their spirits and perhaps improve the tenor of their predawn howling."

Perhaps the same could and should be said of cougars...

You'n me, brother. We're on the same page.

I vote for more cougars, coyotes, ants, butterflies, gophers, trees, bunch grass, grasshoppers, lizards, hawks and bats...

and a LOT fewer humans.

[Alan H]

I figure that if a coyote thinks I might make a meal, then I'm absolutely entitled to beat the crap out of the animal and convince it otherwise. I, too, am an animal and will act like one to preserve my life.

That doesn't change my opinion that there are WAY too many people. Too many people results in a huge destruction of biological diversity, and I am one of those wierdos that doesn't think that just because we're human, we're any more important or "worthy" than any other species that lives on the planet.

[wildrover]

I figure that if a coyote thinks I might make a meal, then I'm absolutely entitled to beat the crap out of the animal and convince it otherwise. I, too, am an animal and will act like one to preserve my life.

Three words:

FULL-MASK-SPORRAN

[jeremy j starche]

FULL-MASK-SPORRAN

I've already quit wearing a full-face sporran down to the local park when I practice...

... But those who were that last day could tell a story about a piper playing and a small terrier swinging between his legs, teeth firmly sank into my raccoon face ....

I can't imagine any sort of a wild cat trying to do the same ....

[Vegan Scot]

Three words:

FULL-MASK-SPORRAN

Can't remember who it was a while back who was talking about making a dress sporran with human hair but I say, why stop there? Full (human) mask sporran.

I keed, I keed...

[Lallans]

Noon hour news today states that a large BLACK cougar was spotted nearby my usual stomping grounds- seen by several witnesses and while in the process of "capturing a large rodent."

A black cougar? Is that a known colour variation or are we getting a little silly here? And the fact that the witnesses couldn't even identify the rodent victim makes me wonder if it wasn't a black labrador retreiver, if a mouse a black house cat, or perhaps it was even a free pet panther someone got tired of/eaten by.