How, exactly, does one get one's foot bitten by a zebra? Only if you want to share....
Quote:
By Openeyes:
As for dealing with cougars on a practical level, (1) scaring them out of one's back yard does little good when residential areas are expanding so much that the big cats and other predators eventually have (2) no where to go but someone else's back yard.
So what to do? Either (3) shoot on site, or create a (4) protected area for them. It's apt to be a combination of both.
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1. Scare them out of your back yard
2. They have nowhere to go but someone else's back yard
3. Shoot on site
4. Send them to a protected area
Excellent points, I think, and they bring up huge issues.
1. Scare them out of your back yard: That quote is attributed to David Baron, who wrote
The Beast in the Garden, but I can scarcely believe he would say such an irresponsible thing, which could result in the loss of someone's life! First of all, he isn't quoted advising people what to
actually do to "scare the cougars," and they are becoming demonstrably unafraid of people as time goes on--see my post #4 above.
And, after reading
several stories similar to the following, one searches one's mind in vain for what to use after several pistol or shotgun blasts don't "scare the cougar." I assume it would be frowned on to shoot guns in Palo Alto back yards, and it might be also reasonably assumed that the cats
in the city would be
less afraid of humans and harder to scare than those encountered in the wilds.
Quote:
"October, 1994. Near dawn, Dan Parrish was out deer hunting with his father when he was confronted by a cougar in Oregon west of Detroit Lake about 45 miles east of Salem, Oregon.
Walking down a logging road, he stopped on a knoll which allowed him to see left, forward, and right into a clear cut. He waited there until he heard some cracking and popping behind him, and he hoped a buck was approaching.
Instead, to his horror, a cougar head appeared just 20 feet from him. He thought he should shoot, but found this female so beautiful, that he hesitated. Then he heard more cracking and popping sounds from the woods behind his adversary. A young male walked up to her side.
Parrish knew his .264 Winchester Mag with bolt action would not easily get off two shots in the time 2 cats could make the 20 foot distance between them, so he fired a warning shot into the air. To his dismay, neither cat moved, so he picked up a rock and threw it at them. Luckily, the male took off into the woods.
Dan continued tossing rocks at the lion, but he was so nervous he couldn't hit her. He took a photo as proof he had seen the lion he didn't want to shoot. He calmed himself down, and finally hit her with a rock. This angered the lion, and she lunged at him.
On her second bound, Parrish was able to shoot her in the chest. When she lifted her head, he shot her again in the neck and then fled to get his father.
Cougar Puma Mountain Lion in Western Oregon forests |
Please note that cougars can leap 20-30 feet in a bound, so she could have been on him in a few seconds from 20 feet. Also note that even many hunters are inexperienced with cougars and shake uncontrollably trying to shoot them, so the average person is likely to be even less resourceful in the presence of a big cat. Also note that some authorities advocate "hazing" cougars with bean bag guns to make them averse to humans. One hopes this doesn't "anger" the cougars in the back yards rather than scaring them away.
Cougars are wild animals and therefore unpredictable; telling inexperienced people to "scare the cougars" is patently bad advice, IMO. I'm hoping David Baron was simply misquoted.
2. They have nowhere to go but someone else's back yard:
Once a cougar has
habituated to humans, it is a
dangerous animal, IMO, and in many other people's opinions. It's analogous to sending offending clergymen somewhere else in hopes they'll stay out of trouble & to get them out of your own hair. It's completely counterproductive--we agree.
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