So I wondered why all of the sudden I stopped getting any deer on my cams about 3 weeks ago. I thought it was just bucks starting the rut and moving out looking for other bucks to spar with and doe to chase.
Got a call from my neighbor yesterday saying that he found one of his animals dead and partially eaten in the pasture yesterday morning. He went out into the back country predator calling thinking it might have been coyotes. Some movement caught his eye and he watched not one, but two Mt Lions come out of the brush (siblings?) and jump up onto an old oak branch.
About 9:30 that same night, he called me again and said he was now missing another animal. Two kills in one day! That's a problem! I came over and we armored up and went looking for the missing animal. We followed the drag marks from the pasture fence to a hole in some brush. Let me tell you, it's a bit of a pucker factor when you decide to dive into the brush at night knowing you've got a fresh kill and a lion (or two) nearby!
Long story short, we didn't see any lions, and we didn't find the carcass until this morning, but I must have walked not 10 feet away from it in the dark. Nothing left but the gut sack and the head and legs. Anybody know anything about Mt. Lion biology? Do siblings stay together? How long do they stay with the mother? How long after a kill will they kill again? I'm thinking my neighbor may have seen the siblings and maybe the mother made the kill and dragged it up the hill and into the brush. If that's the case, we've got three of em.
Great.
(For my own privacy, and out of respect for my neighbor, I purposely haven't identified where this took place, or the livestock that were killed.)
Got a call from my neighbor yesterday saying that he found one of his animals dead and partially eaten in the pasture yesterday morning. He went out into the back country predator calling thinking it might have been coyotes. Some movement caught his eye and he watched not one, but two Mt Lions come out of the brush (siblings?) and jump up onto an old oak branch.
About 9:30 that same night, he called me again and said he was now missing another animal. Two kills in one day! That's a problem! I came over and we armored up and went looking for the missing animal. We followed the drag marks from the pasture fence to a hole in some brush. Let me tell you, it's a bit of a pucker factor when you decide to dive into the brush at night knowing you've got a fresh kill and a lion (or two) nearby!
Long story short, we didn't see any lions, and we didn't find the carcass until this morning, but I must have walked not 10 feet away from it in the dark. Nothing left but the gut sack and the head and legs. Anybody know anything about Mt. Lion biology? Do siblings stay together? How long do they stay with the mother? How long after a kill will they kill again? I'm thinking my neighbor may have seen the siblings and maybe the mother made the kill and dragged it up the hill and into the brush. If that's the case, we've got three of em.
Great.
(For my own privacy, and out of respect for my neighbor, I purposely haven't identified where this took place, or the livestock that were killed.)
