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Thread: Cougars

  1. #71
    Alan Klein's Avatar
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    Re: Cougars

    Quote Originally Posted by Drew Wiley View Post
    What has notably changed is how cougars' attitudes towards dogs have changed. I remember when they were so terrified of barking that even a poodle could tree them. Now, more and more, they view isolated dogs as dinner. But if there are plenty of deer around, that's what they instinctively prefer. The highly animated twitchiness of goats, however, has always magnetized them in a manner domestic sheep do not. In certain areas, they specialize in wild bighorn sheep instead of deer.
    I can assure you that my poodle never treed a cougar although I would have loved to see that.

  2. #72

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    Re: Cougars

    I am allergic to all cats, but I have to admit there is something to be learned from the critters:

    “Observe your cat. It is difficult to surprise him. Why? Naturally, his superior hearing is part of the answer, but not all of it. He moves well, using his senses fully. He is not preoccupied with irrelevancies. He’s not thinking about his job or his image or his income tax. He is putting first things first, principally his physical security. Do likewise.”
    ---Col. Jeff Cooper
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  3. #73
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Cougars

    .... he sleeps all day, barfs on the rug as soon as he does wake up, then tickles your nose in the middle of night with his whiskers when he wants you to play with him. The only kind of bird he ever ate came in a can, except for a helpless fledgling that landed on the lawn. He also messes up the whole pile of IRS paperwork whenever possible.

  4. #74
    Old School Wayne
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    Re: Cougars

    Quote Originally Posted by Heroique View Post
    I’m not so sure riding mountain bikes on a road open for recreation near Seattle is taking on too much risk. As for your source, it sounds like it might be one of the day-after sensationalist accounts I remember being everywhere in the metro-Seattle media.

    Here, for contrast, is the key part of a considered look of the incident by the Sierra Club:

    While the pair initially scared off the lion using what Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) police say was correct behavior—yelling, standing their ground, and even hitting it with their bikes—it returned and attacked again, biting Sederbaum. Brooks fled, and the cougar released Sederbaum, who went for help, whereupon it returned to Brooks and killed him. “The cyclists realized they were being stalked and adjusted their behavior accordingly,” Earthwatch chief scientist Cristina Eisenberg says.

    I keep thinking bear spray – but it sounds like this beautiful animal was a very rare, especially aggressive, take-no-prisoners cougar.

    Says it right there.."Brooks fled...and it returned to Brooks and killed him". Never run from a cat. Or "flee" as the case may be.

  5. #75
    Mark Sawyer's Avatar
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    Re: Cougars

    When hiking in the woods, always carry a laser pointer to distract the cougars...
    "I love my Verito lens, but I always have to sharpen everything in Photoshop..."

  6. #76
    Land-Scapegrace Heroique's Avatar
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    Re: Cougars

    Quote Originally Posted by Wayne View Post
    Says it right there.."Brooks fled...and it returned to Brooks and killed him". Never run from a cat. Or "flee" as the case may be.
    There's truth in what you say, but the Sierra Club’s finding is both men would likely have been killed by continuing with the rules. And remember, Sederbaum was saved by the fleeing.

  7. #77
    Drew Wiley
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    Re: Cougars

    Most Sierra Clubbers these days wouldn't know the difference between a cougar and a Shetland pony. I'll bet a cougar would rein in its chase instinct if I waved the spike end of a Ries tripod at it. But the whole point is, not to stir up that instinct in the first place. Those guys were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not their fault for being ignorant how to best handle a sudden panic situation. Call it a freak accident if you like, certainly a tragedy, but so rare an occurrence that it barely puts a blip on the statistics.

    It wasn't that long ago that a hiker in Olympic NP was killed by a mountain goat on a popular trail. That too was a statistical anomaly, but differed in being entirely preventable. Billy goats can be territorial and belligerent, and that particular one was known to stand its ground and not cede the trail. There was ample opportunity, apparently, to either detour or back off before a confrontation.

  8. #78

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    Re: Cougars

    I saw a mountain lion once while mountain biking (in the state park next to UCSC, where deer are common and lions are present). It avoided me. Actually I barely saw the lion at first, I just noticed that something moved off the double-track ahead of me. After I passed some distance, I happened to stop and turn around and saw the lion re-emerge from the bushes and cross the track.

    I've never seen a road lion while road biking, but given the decreasing quality of people's driving I consider that significantly riskier.

    Lion attacks are extremely rare and may involve a sick or weakened animal that has not been able to hunt its natural prey, or a juvenile.

  9. #79
    Vaughn's Avatar
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    Re: Cougars

    Memo to self -- sharpen Ries spikes...right now the lion might die of laughter.
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  10. #80
    Alan Klein's Avatar
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    Re: Cougars

    Quote Originally Posted by Heroique View Post
    There's truth in what you say, but the Sierra Club’s finding is both men would likely have been killed by continuing with the rules. And remember, Sederbaum was saved by the fleeing.
    What's the expression? Always go hiking with someone who runs slower than you.

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