Mountain Lions

Tennessee Deer Sporting & Deer Hunting Community Forum

Help Support TNDeer | Tennessee Deer:

B

blueridge

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 5, 2010
Messages
416
City & State/Province
hickman
Has anyone ever went mountain lion hunting?When?Where?Cost?Any info would be helpful and appreciated.
 
The Mountain Lion population is spreading east into several nearby states.

Missouri has had several wild Mountain Lions confirmed in the last few years.


http://www.easterncougarnet.org/bigpicture.html

http://www.cougarnet.org/centralmidwest.html

http://www.cougarnet.org/missouri12-06.htm

http://www.cougarnet.org/cmw-desc/texas-mo-1-99.htm

http://www.cougarnet.org/cmw-desc/carter-mo-12-94.htm

http://www.cougarnet.org/cmw-desc/reynolds-mo-11-96.htm


http://www.cougarnet.org/seast-desc/pul ... -99-00.htm

http://www.in.gov/portal/news_events/53876.htm Here are some pics of this cougar.
http://www.in.gov/dnr/images/co-dnr-lion1.jpg


There have been over 150 Wild Cougars confirmed by Biologist since 1990 in midwestern and eastern states.

Most Biologist think cougar are moving east, and one day a small cougar population may live in several midwestern states.
 
I can give you a guys name in Colorado. He will work as hard as anyone to get you on a cat. Not sure what they are charging this year. I know I shot a big cat with them last year, He texted me a photo of a big cat they got this year and said the hunting was great this year so far.
 
proxs said:
Most Biologist think cougar are moving east, and one day a small cougar population may live in several midwestern states.
Click to expand...
I believe young roaming males are going to show up with increasing frequency in Tennessee. But without resident females, don't know if there will ever be much "population" in Tennessee. Also suspect that natural mortality may be very high on these young males, some of which may just make a giant circle, and if they survive their journey, may end back up closer to where they began their journey.

I suspect many years before we have a "population" of resident cougar in Tennessee, there will be one in Southern Illinois around the Shawnee National Forest. So far, don't think they've had any female cougars in Southern Illinois.
 
I spoke with a Wildlife Biologist last summer in Missouri. He said he thinks that within 10 years there will be a small mountain lion population in southern Missouri.
 
Wes Parrish said:
proxs said:
Most Biologist think cougar are moving east, and one day a small cougar population may live in several midwestern states.
Click to expand...
I believe young roaming males are going to show up with increasing frequency in Tennessee. But without resident females, don't know if there will ever be much "population" in Tennessee. Also suspect that natural mortality may be very high on these young males, some of which may just make a giant circle, and if they survive their journey, may end back up closer to where they began their journey.

I suspect many years before we have a "population" of resident cougar in Tennessee, there will be one in Southern Illinois around the Shawnee National Forest. So far, don't think they've had any female cougars in Southern Illinois.
Click to expand...
"Increasing frequency" implies that they either have been in Tennessee in modern times, or are here now, yet to my knowledge there has never been any evidence that confirms this, kills, substantiated pictures, tracks, scat, etc. I believe that is the official TWRA position, that they don't exist in Tennessee. They have requested that anyone who has actual evidence of their existence should come forward. It is my understanding, that no one ever has. So a fair, non-confrontational, statement to anyone who can prove their existence is put up or shut up. All that we ever hear is stuff like,"my brother-in-law's cousin works with a guy whose uncle saw a black one crossing the road a couple of years ago in the Hatchie bottoms".lol
 
There is a small Sporting goods shop, over along the North Carolina/ Tennessee border. One of the people who works there has a cougar mounted that he said he killed back in the mid 1980's in the Mountains of Far Eastern Tennessee, near the Smokey Mountains.

I know a retired wildlife biologist claimed to see a cougar in the Smokey mountains National Park back in the early 1990's.
 
If and when mountain lions arrive officially would they open a season for them immediatly?From what I've read they can be detrimental to deer,elk,and even humans when all else is gone.
 
blueridge said:
If and when mountain lions arrive officially would they open a season for them immediatly?
Click to expand...
They will be considered a highly protected species, and divert much of TWRA's funds to their protection. Additionally, they could possibly effect our deer seasons.

Let's say a breeding family was "discovered" on the Catoosa WMA. Certainly possible that WMA could have human activity, such as deer hunting, reduced to help an endangered species.

Endangered species? Who is to say the once thought extinct Eastern Cougar was ever totally extinct? While I think that is the case, the possibility exists they were not. A breeding pair of cats shows up, if identified to be of wild origin, they will be highly protected.

Maybe it's best to just not get in too big a hurry to officially find any in Tennessee.
 
Wow that would suck big time!Not to mention the possibility of being hunted on those early morning and late evening walks.I prefer to be the predetor when at all possible.I hope they don't return any time soon.
 
I was Up at my mom's in Portland Tn. a couple of weeks ago, and the people who live next door came over,we were talking and he said 2-3 people close by had claimed they had been seeing a Mountain Lion. who knows! Just a couple of years ago i know the News had a story and i also ran into the person who had seen confirmed bear tracks at thier place in nearby Westmorland
 
Dale3,
Read my post and note the similarity between my ficticious account and your report,
"my brother-in-laws cousin works with a guy whose uncle saw......"
and
"the people next door(to your mom) said 2-3 people close by had claimed they had been seeing......."
My point was that the reports are usually three or four sources removed(heresay), and vague as to who these witnesses are.
And bears are in Tennessee, and individuals straying from their normal range is not unheard of. We have a hunting season and every state surrounding us, with the possible exception of Alabama(I don't know) has a population.
Big difference.
I'm not saying that an individual cat won't show up here someday, only that there has not been any credible evidence brought forward to prove that they are or have been recently present in Tennessee.
 
I hear ya, and know what your saying, thats why i put "who knows". He did name the people who claimed to have seen it, he knows them, my mom knows them, i dont live up there, I only know one of them by name.He's an older fellow, He's my Uncle's brother In-law. I know he's a life long hunter/outdoorsman/countryboy, and just a all around good person, which held some credit with me, that he was one of the one's who had seen it. As for the other poelpe he named, i dont know them at all. I have no idea if true or not, but one thing is for sure, and thats more than one person up there has seen something that they all beleaved to be a Mountain lion. Wheather it is or not, WHO KNOWS!
I'm not claiming its true, i do beleave these people are seeing something. I too would have to see a picture or dead Lion, or some other proof myself. I realy would not be shock if they were some here. Now as for BIG FOOT, i just aint buying that LOL!
As for the bears, that was my only point, that its a fact animals do stray from the norm.
 
proxs said:
I would assume parts of TN could be good cougar habitat, especially over in East TN.



Did You know they actually did a study in LBL to try to confirm Cougar a few years ago. I did not know this until recently. I guess the LBL staff got several credible sightings.

You would think that 180,000 acres without permanent residents and full of deer would be about as good a habitat as you could pick. But alas, apparently the study revealed zero animals. Unless, of course, there is a conspiracy to keep their existence secret from the general public. lol
http://www.easterncougar.org/pdfs/LBLCa ... roject.pdf
Click to expand...
 
A few years ago I investigated cattle being killed by a cougar report. A neighbor told the farmer he had actually saw the cougar. The same neighbor had 2 wolf hybrids. All evidence pointed to canine depredation. The number of sightings in the county sky rocketed. I even had a man from Southwest Tn (300 miles away) call the office and tell me he had saw the cougar near his house after it hit the news.

I even had a lady, Linda Howell, call from New Mexico asking about alien mutilations of the cows.
 
stik said:
proxs said:
https://www.uu.edu/forms/cougars/sightings.cfm
Click to expand...

that many sightings and NOBODY got a picture. yeah right!!! :crazy:
Click to expand...

I read several of those and in the ones i read, unless i had a camera in hand, ready to shoot, i wouldnt have gotten a picture either. That be like catching a photo of a wreck as it happened.
That many sightings and NOBODY got it right? I find that harder to beleave.
I'd say no dout that most all of us on here are outdoors type of people, and i know if i were to see a cougar, i would know it. Wouldnt you?
Now as far as all of those people in those sightings being the outdoor type, or getting a good look at what they saw, i dout it, but i read where some of them were outdoor type and hunters for many years. Just find it hard to beleave they all could be wrong.
 
With all of those reported sightings you do wonder if at least somebody in Tennessee saw a cougar. lol
On the flip side, years ago we were deer hunting in Hardy, Ark and one of the party casually asked us at lunch what a cougar looked like? We told him, and based on our descriptions, he announced that he had seen one that morning and had shot at it. It was one of these, "did you hit it", "I'm not sure" deals. So we all went to the scene and discovered a very dead doe that this guy had shot. Last I remember, does do not fit the description of a cougar. So, this was an "outdoor type" who had convinced himself that he had seen and shot at a cougar. ?????
 
I got a call one night from a guy that was following a truck with a dead cougar in it. He followed the truck for about 20 miles until it pulled into a driveway. He gave me the tag number and the 2 addresses matched. I went to the house and knocked on the door. A lady answered and said I've got to show you something, and I followed her to a utility building. Her husband was in the building skinning a coyote he had caught earlier. He then told me about someone following him to his driveway. The caller was a hunter so when he called I thought maybe there was something to it. I guess his mind tricked him into seeing what he wanted to not what it was.
 
Dale3 said:
It wasnt buck only season was it, and when he saw what he had shot it became a cougar? LOL
Click to expand...
As a matter of fact is was(bucks only). This was before the days that does were legal, certainly not in the Arkansas Ozarks.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top