Tracks in the Snow and a 3 year old

It had a little sarcasm in it though, the DNR in my area keeps telling people who spot a cougar that it was just a large feral cat.
They do not want to admit that there are cougars living in MN in fear that people would go out and shoot them.
They are a protected creature and it is against the law to shoot them even if they pose a threat to livestock or pets.

There actions to me points to a policy of trying to establish a colony in MN.

My thoughts on it are if you start seeing them become road kill there are more than just one or two in the state.

I met a wildlife officer that was telling me of all the bogus animal reports they get. Dogs being called wolves, house cats or bobcats being called cougars, and in a memorable incident- a black backed gull being called a sick bald eagle.

I think they should have more than eye witness testimony before confirming any animal.

MishMouse said:

It had a little sarcasm in it though, the DNR in my area keeps telling people who spot a cougar that it was just a large feral cat.
They do not want to admit that there are cougars living in MN in fear that people would go out and shoot them.
They are a protected creature and it is against the law to shoot them even if they pose a threat to livestock or pets.

There actions to me points to a policy of trying to establish a colony in MN.

My thoughts on it are if you start seeing them become road kill there are more than just one or two in the state.

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Encon does the same thing here in NY. Border patrol had one on their camera circa 2004 just wandering around in a field. Every now and again someone sees one briefly including me driving to work late one night and their tracks are around. Of course a couple years ago they made the announcement that the Eastern Cougar was extinct of all things. Funny, I guess nobody told the cats.
I just laugh with the feral cat angle. The one's that seem to always end up in my barn before they eventually graduate to my living room all weigh in at 10 lbs. The big boys with tail and all are around 10' long. I would say they are pretty hard to misidentify.
No wolves around here gut the occasional drifter but the coyotes swarm this place. Most of those are the size of small wolves. The older ones are terrified of horses who usually attack them on sight. Strangely the young ones will just wander around with them. Last month we had something I never saw before. One of them was wandering around behind my daughters horse gobbling the road apples as fast as they hit the ground. Weird and stupid.
Lot's of wild turkey around here too. They tend to come out in the fields more at some times of the year than others so you don't always see them. We had a mother and 11 chicks hanging around here all last summer right in the yard. Mother didn't like that dumb young coyote much . She marched right up to him one day and stared him right down. The one time he did half rush at them they flew away. That's the one time I ever saw a turkey actually fly any distance. Guess what they fly as well as any other bird.

drizler said:

Encon does the same thing here in NY. Border patrol had one on their camera circa 2004 just wandering around in a field. Every now and again someone sees one briefly including me driving to work late one night and their tracks are around. Of course a couple years ago they made the announcement that the Eastern Cougar was extinct of all things. Funny, I guess nobody told the cats.
I just laugh with the feral cat angle. The one's that seem to always end up in my barn before they eventually graduate to my living room all weigh in at 10 lbs. The big boys with tail and all are around 10' long. I would say they are pretty hard to misidentify.
No wolves around here gut the occasional drifter but the coyotes swarm this place. Most of those are the size of small wolves. The older ones are terrified of horses who usually attack them on sight. Strangely the young ones will just wander around with them. Last month we had something I never saw before. One of them was wandering around behind my daughters horse gobbling the road apples as fast as they hit the ground. Weird and stupid. .

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They are hard to misidentify... but it seriously happens all the time. My understanding is that the cats have a range of about 200 miles that they may roam at certain times of the year, so what constitutes a "local population" may not always be easy to define.

There's a lot of undigested stuff in horse crap. Now- I aint gonna make soup out of it, but coyotes are not dumb- they have mad survival skills.

These are some of the things that go through my head at 2:00 AM and I am unable to sleep.

What I picture when they say there are no breeding pairs in MN is the following.
Boy is starting to get romantic.
Girl cougar says to the boy cougar, "Stop honey we have to wait till we are out of MN !"

To the idea of none living in the state, do the cougars carry GPS so they know when they cross the state line?
And if so what carrier do they use to get such good coverage?

Or do they say to one another "Can't live here we are still in MN"
Do the deer in MN taste different than in the Dakotas?
Maybe the cougars are not Vikings fans?

A new bumper sticker for the MN DNR, "The Vikings are so bad that the cougars don't even want to live here."

Not much left of this Coyote after the Eagles, Hawks and Crows have picked the meat from the bones! A neighbor shot this one on the lake and another one that came up to check it out.

Lake Girl said:

Picked pretty clean ...

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Used to hear the wolf packs regularly around the back 40 at night. Some nights it would make the hair on the back of your neck stand straight up. Coyotes on the ice crossing the bay was pretty common. Moose on the road, one staring in the front patio door one afternoon (no deck there yet). Deer population growing in the area last few years. Lately though things seem to have slowed up a bit, not seeing much out in the sticks - then last week I have both feet on the brakes trying to avoid running over a coyote as it ran across a busy street on the north end of the city - ran right up the police station driveway.

We get the coyotes from time to time, it's the reason we make sure the birds are locked in at night. We had a mink get into our poultry barn last year, killed half the flock. It really does suck to haul beheaded chickens out by the barrel load to burn. We have seen some fishers on trail cams, and seen some tracks, but nothing near the barn.

Lake Girl said:

I enjoy my walks with my GSD but sometimes it can be like walking a turtle With the snow, tracks become a big item of interest that has to be sniffed over multiple times and followed. We can tell when the neighbour has gone out with his dog and track movements of the snowshoe hares, deer, fox. The occassional fishers have come close.

Hubby and I were gone for two days and when I talked to my daughter, she mentioned that the dog wouldn't go very far and all but drug her home on her last walk of the night. Since we got home after dark, I couldn't examine the tracks that the dog so badly wanted to follow... since the scent must have dissipated ... until today. Turns out we must have had a wolf pass through - came off the ice into the neighbours yard, crossed over ours and followed the driveway out. Paw prints seem to be a 1/4" to 1/2" bigger than my girl's prints (she's 27" tall). Not the first time, likely not the last...

Black cougars have been spotted about 10 miles west of us ... would prefer not to see any of those I did see one about 100 miles east of here on the highway. Thought it was a bear at first ... until I got close enough to see the tail that was about as long as the body Close enough for me! They have been sighted and not too far away.
http://www.cougarnet.org/uppermidwest.html

I have chased otters out of the yard in the summer and they weren't appreciative...

What's in your back yard?

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I kind of wish I had your problems... way to boring around here. Occasional whitetail deer and coyote is about it. A couple years there was a pheasant that hung around the house, that's about the most exciting thing I remember...

A flock of wild turkeys, on a back country road. First time I've ever seen turkeys this far north, it was a surprise. Camping this summer (nw quebec), a wolf came close to our fire, I grabbed the dog (he was 14 at the time) and put him the car. He used to go absolutely ballistic when he smelled bear or wolf, but fourteen is too old to tangle with any of those creatures. Not that I would let him get a chance anyway.

Deer are sighted all the time on the trans canada trail near the house, moose as well. When I snowshoe I've seen rabbits, a small ferret type creature, a pair of martens once (the dog made this funny hysterical bark, not in fear, it was a different excited bark), a couple years back. Passed a coyote once, walking at night, saw the silhouette in the moonlight.

There have been bear sighted pretty close too, my neighbor said, but I've not seen them myself. Lots of birds, ducks, geese, a hawk or two, a pair of golden eagles and even a blue heron this summer at the river. A lot of woods border where I live, so anything can happen.