Anyone have the video of the two mountain lions in TenMile?

I'm old enough to remember when there no coyotes in TN.
At the very least, there were only a few in extreme West TN when I was a young kid.

Antler Daddy said:

oh well....old news now, but somebody should interview the guy. There is a story here. If the DA chose not to pursue it....that is on him.

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Agreed. Need that in a podcast episode

sgtwebb1 said:

I'm old enough to remember when there no coyotes in TN.
At the very least, there were only a few in extreme West TN when I was a young kid.

Mapping the expansion of coyotes (Canis latrans) across North and Central America

The geographic distribution of coyotes (Canis latrans) has dramatically expanded since 1900, spreading across much of North America in a period when most other mammal species have been declining. Although this considerable expansion has been well documented ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Great article sgtwebb1! Thanks for posting it.

sgtwebb1 said:

I'm old enough to remember when there no coyotes in TN.
At the very least, there were only a few in extreme West TN when I was a young kid.

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When I was a young kid, there were ZERO coyotes in extreme West TN.
There were also relatively few deer & turkeys in West TN.

In fact, most West TN counties did not have a deer or a turkey season until sometime in the 1970's.
Even much of Stewart County (Middle TN) wasn't open to turkey hunting prior to the mid/late 80's.
Similar can be said for much of East TN.

As to how the coyotes came to be in West TN, I'm sure it wasn't only via natural migration across the Mississippi River. I heard first-hand, first-person from a wealthy fox hunter how he annually trapped coyotes in western states, brought them back to West TN, released them for his dogs to run. Those conversations pre-dated my ever seeing a coyote in West TN, much less ever hearing anyone talk about seeing a coyote.

BSK said:

Great article sgtwebb1! Thanks for posting it.

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My dad killed a wolf in 1968 on Presidents Island. Dad nor the farmer that told him it was a wolf had ever heard of a coyote in Tennessee. TWRA said they came later. Of course it wasn't a wolf but it was 1968 and he called it up with a mouth call fox hunting. Nice trophy for him back then. He had the head mounted. We later learned it was a coyote.

When I see one in the back of a truck

sgtwebb1 said:

I'm old enough to remember when there no coyotes in TN.
At the very least, there were only a few in extreme West TN when I was a young kid.

Mapping the expansion of coyotes (Canis latrans) across North and Central America

The geographic distribution of coyotes (Canis latrans) has dramatically expanded since 1900, spreading across much of North America in a period when most other mammal species have been declining. Although this considerable expansion has been well documented ...

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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I remember seeing a coyote in Hardeman Co in the early 80's. It was coming straight at me and at the time I'd swear it was a big wolf, as I had never seen either a coyote or a wolf. I was on the ground and move just a bit to get my rifle in position and it saw me and ran off. I'll admit I was a little scared but was impressed it saw me.

Little brothers buddy killed the first 1 in Anderson county it made the paper but been so long ago forgot the year

I picked up the first coyote in Jefferson county in January 1985 after we had a huge snow and -20's for several days. The original'49er game warden swore it was a dog even after confirmation. The first one confirmed in Hawkins County was in winter of 83-84.

Sounds about right around that or a little bit earlier, time flies

When my family bought our land in Humphreys County in 1987 it was crawling with coyotes. Probably more then than there is now.

Can't remember the year but I think I might have killed the first Coyote in McMinn County.
I had never seen or heard about anyone else seeing one previously.
It was on a cattle farm that was owned by a fellow I worked with. Every year I would ask him if he would give me permission to squirrel hunt his farm but he always turned me down.
One year I asked him if I could hunt and he said " I'll let you hunt if you'll kill that Coyote that's been chasing my cows." I laughed and told him ok but pretty sure there aren't any Coyotes in McMinn County.
Sure enough, opening day of Squirrel season as I was walking along the wood line bordering one of his pastures I saw ole Wiley sneaking up on a calf. He was a little out of range for a .22 but I used a little Kentucky windage and put him on the ground. I carried the stinky varmint back to his house and he was more excited than me to see it.
From then on I never had to ask for hunting permission again.

I was running down a road in Shelby County in the mid-80's when several coyote pups came out of the grass a few feet away. I did not see the mother but I was spooked. I didn't know much about coyotes but I figured a mom might get protective if she thought someone was running after her babies.

I've lived in Alabama, Oklahoma, Louisiana and TN over the past 25 years and the same type of Mountain Lion stories circulate among hunters/residents of each state.

BamaProud said:

I've lived in Alabama, Oklahoma, Louisiana and TN over the past 25 years and the same type of Mountain Lion stories circulate among hunters/residents of each state.

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I heard mountain lion stories for 37 years. The best one was a farmer that had several 500lb+ calves to die. When I investigated lots of canine tracks. His neighbor claimed to have seen the big cat numerous times. I fielded a call from west Tennessee that the man said the same cat was hanging around his house about 300 miles away. This neighbor also had two canines that were supposedly wolf/dog crosses. Lots of hair from them on the fence around the pasture. After I asked about the canines and a visit from animal control the calves quit dying. But what was even better, I received a phone call from a woman in Taos, NM named Linda Molton Howell. Some how she heard about the calf killings. She informed me she was the world's foremost expert on alien cattle mutulation and that was what was killing the calves.
I guess the aliens carried the cougar off in their UFO.

Biggun4214 said:

I guess the aliens carried the cougar off in their UFO.

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mayberryrick said:

View attachment 222200

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Of course that what they'd say. That would cover up their plans of their ultimate goal to take our women and children and eat our livers!

Seriously, I guess it is related to the rattlesnake releases, huh?

The only cougars in the south are in Texas and Florida

Mud Creek said:

View attachment 222345

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Within 9 minutes of Biggun4214 posting his story you come up with this pic! Thats pro man...skills.