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Friday, October 13, 2006
Backyard Party!
We tried to capture a photo of the mountain lion last night, but instead caught photos of this wild party going on in our back yard.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Mountain Lions Redux
September 26, 2006
Just tonight I saw, outside my dining room window, what I thought was a mountain lion (maybe a young one). It did not have the tufts I've seen in pictures of bobcats. I looked up cougars and mountain lions and they seem to use the terms interchangably.
It was about two feet high and three feet or more long (our windows, three in a row, are three feet each and its length was all of one window and part of another), from nose to butt. I didn't see how long the tail was. It was no more than two feet from the window. The face was like what I've seen in pictures of cougars and mountain lions. It was orange colored with a smooth short-haired coat.
I wish I had had my camera with me so I could show the picture to someone. It saw me, looked me in the face, and then took off into the woods. When I first saw it out of the corner of my eye, I thought a cat was walking past the window, but, then, when I got a good look at it, the size and weight and bulk was definitely not that of a cat.
October 3, 2006
We saw the mountain lion again this morning, around 6am. My wife and her daughter exercise in the studio apartment of our house every morning. As her daughter was leaving, the mountain lion came from behind the house and crossed her path.
We are going to get a wildlife camera (the kind that hunters use that is motion sensitive) and set it up so we can try to get the picture of the creature.
October 3, 2006
Living this close to nature is FUN!
As a result of this morning's sighting of the mountain lion in our front yard (this is the second sighting on our property in the past week), we called the Arkansas wildlife commission.
Outcome of the conversation:
Officially, mountain lions do not exist in NW Arkansas.
Yes, what we saw was probably a mountain lion, but not an adult. Adults weigh in at around 160-170 pounds and can be 7 feet long, including their tails.
Yes, there are people who breed mountain lions (an endangered species that does not exist in NW Arkansas) to sell as pets.
Yes, it is legal to own a pet mountain lion, but you must have a permit. As a matter of fact one of our "neighbors" - who lives off the road that is the main drag through town, but further west than town owns one of the pet mountain lions.
Usually, the pet mountain lions are declawed (so how is it that our neighbor's horse was killed by some as-yet-unidentified CLAWED animal?).
Yes, when the pet mountain lion gets too big to take care of, the owners release them into the "wild" (which I interpret as they take them to country road where we live and let them go).
The range of mountain lions is 50 square miles.
No, they probably won't bother an adult human, even if the human is alone.
Yes, they have been known to attack small (ages 8 and under) children who are alone in the woods and do occasionally attack small animals.
While not strictly nocturnal, mountain lions are usually out and about after dark and in the early hours of the morning before sunrise.
There are plenty of deer in the woods to keep them fed and they will eat rabbits (we've noticed fewer rabbits of late).
No, it does not seem likely that the mountain lion would have attacked and killed your neighbor's horse. They don't usually go for something that large.
No, the wildlife department will not come out and trap the mountain lion and take it further away from civilization.
Yes, you are allowed to shoot and kill the mountain lion.
They will have a biologist call us to help us figure out if there is a way to discourage the mountain lion from roaming our property.
Just tonight I saw, outside my dining room window, what I thought was a mountain lion (maybe a young one). It did not have the tufts I've seen in pictures of bobcats. I looked up cougars and mountain lions and they seem to use the terms interchangably.
It was about two feet high and three feet or more long (our windows, three in a row, are three feet each and its length was all of one window and part of another), from nose to butt. I didn't see how long the tail was. It was no more than two feet from the window. The face was like what I've seen in pictures of cougars and mountain lions. It was orange colored with a smooth short-haired coat.
I wish I had had my camera with me so I could show the picture to someone. It saw me, looked me in the face, and then took off into the woods. When I first saw it out of the corner of my eye, I thought a cat was walking past the window, but, then, when I got a good look at it, the size and weight and bulk was definitely not that of a cat.
October 3, 2006
We saw the mountain lion again this morning, around 6am. My wife and her daughter exercise in the studio apartment of our house every morning. As her daughter was leaving, the mountain lion came from behind the house and crossed her path.
We are going to get a wildlife camera (the kind that hunters use that is motion sensitive) and set it up so we can try to get the picture of the creature.
October 3, 2006
Living this close to nature is FUN!
As a result of this morning's sighting of the mountain lion in our front yard (this is the second sighting on our property in the past week), we called the Arkansas wildlife commission.
Outcome of the conversation:
Officially, mountain lions do not exist in NW Arkansas.
Yes, what we saw was probably a mountain lion, but not an adult. Adults weigh in at around 160-170 pounds and can be 7 feet long, including their tails.
Yes, there are people who breed mountain lions (an endangered species that does not exist in NW Arkansas) to sell as pets.
Yes, it is legal to own a pet mountain lion, but you must have a permit. As a matter of fact one of our "neighbors" - who lives off the road that is the main drag through town, but further west than town owns one of the pet mountain lions.
Usually, the pet mountain lions are declawed (so how is it that our neighbor's horse was killed by some as-yet-unidentified CLAWED animal?).
Yes, when the pet mountain lion gets too big to take care of, the owners release them into the "wild" (which I interpret as they take them to country road where we live and let them go).
The range of mountain lions is 50 square miles.
No, they probably won't bother an adult human, even if the human is alone.
Yes, they have been known to attack small (ages 8 and under) children who are alone in the woods and do occasionally attack small animals.
While not strictly nocturnal, mountain lions are usually out and about after dark and in the early hours of the morning before sunrise.
There are plenty of deer in the woods to keep them fed and they will eat rabbits (we've noticed fewer rabbits of late).
No, it does not seem likely that the mountain lion would have attacked and killed your neighbor's horse. They don't usually go for something that large.
No, the wildlife department will not come out and trap the mountain lion and take it further away from civilization.
Yes, you are allowed to shoot and kill the mountain lion.
They will have a biologist call us to help us figure out if there is a way to discourage the mountain lion from roaming our property.
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