Cougar tracks

[yetti462]

I saw the image that the Deputy had. It was the rear half of the cat pulling a road kill dear into the woods. The Deputy, who I know well, said that he saw it before he was able to get the picture and it ran into the woods. He said he then blacked out and waited by the carcass a few minutes. It then returned and he had his camera/phone ready. When he turned on his headlights he was able to catch the image. This was on SR37 between Avoca and Washboard Road.

Makes you wonder if the cat was someone's pet turn free. Why else would the most illusive, most efficient predator be on a road side eating on a carcass. A known killer like cougarilla could knock off a calf, deer, anything it wanted in a more secure environment.

 

[Hkindiana]

Makes you wonder if the cat was someone's pet turn free. Why else would the most illusive, most efficient predator be on a road side eating on a carcass. A known killer like cougarilla could knock off a calf, deer, anything it wanted in a more secure environment.

Cougers are opportunistic eaters, just like bald eagles. Eagles prefer to kill their own prey, but they will eat road kill too.

 

[JeremiahJohnson]

Cougers are opportunistic eaters, just like bald eagles. Eagles prefer to kill their own prey, but they will eat road kill too.

Only the young do that. Mature cats only eat what they kill and are the only ones to eviscerate.

 

[JeremiahJohnson]

I saw the image that the Deputy had. It was the rear half of the cat pulling a road kill dear into the woods. The Deputy, who I know well, said that he saw it before he was able to get the picture and it ran into the woods. He said he then blacked out and waited by the carcass a few minutes. It then returned and he had his camera/phone ready. When he turned on his headlights he was able to catch the image. This was on SR37 between Avoca and Washboard Road.

He should report it here: https://secure.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/8113.htm

 

[joe138]

I believe he showed the image to local Conservation Officers.

 

[JeremiahJohnson]

I believe he showed the image to local Conservation Officers.

It has to go through the channels. There's one guy for the whole state responsible for "confirming" sightings and data...can't remember his name...but he's the one that reviews the data and follows up when something is submitted. So far, IDNR only has ONE confirmed sighting and it's the one in Green county where they set up their own cameras on a livestock kill sight.

 

[AtTheMurph]

My wife saw one in Hendricks county 10 yrs ago or so standing under a street light. I went out and found the tracks that lead right into my neighborhood.

A friend jumped one pheasant hunting in Warren County near the Wabash about five years ago.

Had a friend who was a Putnam County Sheriff who sat and watched one for 30 min outside Greencastle 25 years ago and another in Boone County who saw one out in a field about 10 years ago. My guess is that one made it's way down White Lick Creek to the pace where my wife spotted it. Supposedly a horse was attacked by something "cat like" in Fayette, about half way from where my wife saw it and the spot in Boone County.

Figured it would follow the creek bed since it provided good cover and sneak attack spots to catch a meal.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I remember reading about that one in the paper. That year, there were a number of sightings around Lawrence county.

Yeah... about a month or two after that I was headed northbound on 37 (at night), about 100 yards south of the Washboard intersection I saw what looked like a roadkilled cougar in the edge of the median. It was dark and rainy and didn't want to stop on the highway that night so I told myself to stop in the morning. I forgot until I was on the way home from work the next afternoon. Whatever was there had been cleaned up, all you could see was the blood-spot. I can say for certain that roadkill deer don't get cleaned up that quickly. I'm certain I saw a cougar but because I failed to go back immediately I can never prove it.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Yeah... about a month or two after that I was headed northbound on 37 (at night), about 100 yards south of the Washboard intersection I saw what looked like a roadkilled cougar in the edge of the median. It was dark and rainy and didn't want to stop on the highway that night so I told myself to stop in the morning. I forgot until I was on the way home from work the next afternoon. Whatever was there had been cleaned up, all you could see was the blood-spot. I can say for certain that roadkill deer don't get cleaned up that quickly. I'm certain I saw a cougar but because I failed to go back immediately I can never prove it.

Funny how we had all of those sightings that year and then all of a sudden, nothing (or next to nothing). If memory serves, that year was a pretty bad drought year and I remember someone writing or saying that might have been a reason for the uptick in sightings -- they had moved from their territories. I don't know, just what I'd heard. And I'm open to the possibility many/most of those reports were erroneous...but I don't think they all were.

 

[two70]

Only the young do that. Mature cats only eat what they kill and are the only ones to eviscerate.

That's not correct, although they prefer to make their own kills, adult cougars will scavenge too.

 

[JeremiahJohnson]

No, not in a prey rich environment like here in Indiana. Avoiding starvation is not the natural state...not sure where you're hearing that. I can turn you on to a wildlife expert who lives in Colorado - he's where I get my cougar info. I talked with him a great deal after my sighting couple of years ago.

In Indiana setting up a bait will draw buzzards, coyotes, all sorts of meat eating scavengers, but not cougars. Find an eviscerated and cached kill and you've got yourself a cougar - set your camera there. I've only found cached bobcat kills so far.

 

[indiucky]

We just bought a couple of box canyons near Hoosier National Forest and it sure enough LOOKS like Mountain Lions would like it....





I saw what appeared to be bobcat tracks in the soft dirt under this overhang....

 

[yetti462]

^^^^Any arrowheads under there?

 

[indiucky]

^^^^Any arrowheads under there?

Maybe....My neighbor has the "penthouse" in his backyard...I mean literally you step of his back porch and this is what you are looking at...As he was showing us the bedrock mortar he has when we glanced down and there was one laying on top as pretty as you please...He said he is back there daily and it's the first one he has found in years...He said when he bought the property forty years ago there were so many holes dug (from looters or state archeologist's) that he had to have a bulldozer come in and push the dirt back in before he could build his house....

The state sent in teams from IU back in the 1960's to excavate and map these rock houses...The valley is full of them but this is easily one of the largest...

 

[phatgemi]

If you don't want to share the exact location can you share which township or general area? Lawrence Cnty is a big area...

He probably is so reluctant because its close to his shroon patch!!!

 

[CountryBoy19]

He probably is so reluctant because its close to his shroon patch!!!

Meh, revealing the township is still a VERY broad area that couldn't possibly narrowed down... IMHO, he's just trying to play it off super-secret to feel special... I see it all the time... guy at works gets to work on a special project and he pretends the DHS was there guarding him the whole hour he worked on this project and that he can't say anything about it... lol.

 

[JeremiahJohnson]

Confirmation of Cougars in Tennessee: TWRA confirms cougars in Tennessee


I'm really getting serious this summer placing trail cams. I want to prove there are cougars in Indiana with real pictures.