Cougar Article

[Horn Seeker]

http://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/recreation/article_d9cf046b-2c47-539f-a267-972e72e570b6.html

This is a pretty cool article about a cougar study done in Alberta I think... at least it was in Canada... some interesting points:

They collared and studied 54 cats and ID'd over 1500 kill sites.

Males in the study covered up to 600 square miles! Females were in the 60-125.

Up there, the males concentrated on MOOSE...with one cat killing 18 moose in a year!

Adult males took an average of 10,300 pounds of biomass a annually!

Of the 54 cats, the males ranged from 140-165, with the exception of one that went 180... he preyed primarily on Moose and Feral Horses!

 

[BuzzH]

Thats no shock at all.

I had a HS teacher that ran cats for studies in Yellowstone and the Salmon River. In some discussions we had I remember him telling me that adult males killed way more often than once a week. From the carcasses they found, they concluded that adult males were so good at killing they only prefered to eat the "choice" parts of their kills and that they rarely returned to a kill once it was cold.

Another interesting thing was an 80-90 pound female they collared and tracked in the Salmon River preyed almost exclusively on elk.

Despite the known facts of cat predation...some in MT, WY, and ID continue to blame wolves for the drop in big-game numbers.

I'm sure the trophy status in regions 1 and 2 in MT that have reduced lion harvests by 90% arent having an impact at all....

Not only are fewer cats being killed, but because of the new regulations, the WRONG cats are being killed (adult males). The trophy units in MT make absolutely no sense biologically.

 

[Frequently Banned Troll]

Buzz, the solution is an extra 2 day youth hunt on deer and elk, this time at the end of the general season.

 

[BuzzH]

Only 2 day???

I think it should be a full week to give kids some opportunity.

 

[Horn Seeker]

As far as them just eating the choice parts...we've seen it some years and not others. I believe its more a factor of the prey pops at the time. I spent almost every weekend from December through March huntnig bobs and cougs from 80-91 or so, and a lot of weekends since then..... so its fun to compare the bio's results to things we learned...or thought we learned... ;0) different areas, geographically, will promote different habits of course.

They are one bad ass animal, that is for sure.