HELP Cougar on my farm

snag_point

snag_point

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My farm borders a small river, with a typical eastern Washington river bottom. We have 3 cougars passing through. A female and a young cougar, and a 1 to 2 year old male. Last month my son walked around the house and the cougar growled at him when he was only 15 ft away. He 3 weeks ago he watch a neighbor lady about 1/3 mile from my place rake leaves. He is on a 5-6 day cycle coming by my place. I got a fx3 with all the typical sounds. I have been calling for 2 weeks in the am.
this afternoon I went a up river to call it's a wooden and tall grass and blackberry vines, about 12 acres. Then fields roads and houses.
As I get to my calling spot I hear a cat roar about 200 yds away, and then a calf came running my direction and then by me. I waited, no cougar following. I set up my caller and sneak up my tree to my stand. 5 min. later i use a rabbit in distress call. 3 min I hear him kind of whistle wolf sound about 150ft away. I see some grass wiggle about 15ft away from a small clearing. But he hung up and would not come in.
1. Could he have a kill, and the calf got to close so he roared?
2. Thus he wouldn't leave his kill.
3. Just hanging up.
4. Bad luck

I thought I would call in morning on the other side of the woods and post my brother so he can see up the woods, there is a strip to watch, then I will call and watch my stand.

Any ideas and help would really be great. I have declared war on this cat He has the potential to hurt someone. The neighbors are upset. They are worried about their stock and pets and kids. Thanks Jon
 
Very cool!

You've been calling this/these cats for 2 weeks every day??

The cat sure seems mighty comfortable. If he does have a kill right now it's a good opportunity.

Here's a thought... I'd stalk the kill. If nothing is on it, set the call up near it, sneak away, wait 20 minutes frozen like a statue, and then use vocals on the e-call.
 
Hi Steve, I got your cd. I confess I have not had the time to put it in the caller. I wish I had loaded it. Will he blow out totally if i stalk the kill or will he just move aside?
 
I just step out of my house 200ft to one of my stands. I call about 4 days a week. Hope he swings by one of them. He loves the wooded area I called in today. It's about 1/3 mile up river from my place. My friend who lives on a hill overlooking the woods hears his screams about once a month.
 
Whatever you do ...... don't use male lion sounds .....

You'll scare the daylights out of the whole passle of them.

The safest coug sound would be kitten looking for mom .....

If you have a kill by one of these cats ... and it's still feeding on it ...... I would set up your call about 100 yds off from it and position yourself offset from the call.

Your cat(s) are typical .... it busts you and just sits in safety.

It might seem lame ..... but it's not .... a good very emotional rabbit is safe and effective ..... and a bird sounds are also good bets on these cats.

I also ranch in Central Wa. and have fought cougs over our livestock since '05 ..... PM me if you care to.

Three 44s
 
this sounds like a perfect opportunity to meet some of the houndsmen on this forum, Im sure they would jump on the chance to help you out, and let you see what their dogs can do. Not sure how many live close to ya, but It would be fun to watch and youll solve your cat problem. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

Good luck with it

Dave
 
SP, it depends, if you belly crawl in just close enough to confirm it on one side, and the cat is laying up on the other side, then you may not have been busted. The idea is 1. Determine if it is a kill. and 2. Try to catch the cat on it. It's a crapshoot.

During daylight hours (which we're limited to) it's likely the cat won't be on it, but nearby lounging off a bellyful. Get within 100-150 yards and run the vocals on my CD, or similar ones, and likely the cat on the kill will come over to check you out.

Three44's is exactly right, you don't want to challenge. The sounds I gave you are ideal.

He's also correct, if you get busted, you'll likely never know it. As constantly as you've been trying for them, I'd say the chances are really high that they're used to you, see you most every time, and know what you're trying to do. Time to change up and throw 'em a curve!

It amazing to me that they're hanging around like that. I've heard of that happening only one other time. One cat, a big male, on 730acres of timber, hayfields, and berry fields. It was COMPLETELY unmolested, and stayed for a little over a year. Killed a deer every week or so. (This is first hand from the farm foreman. Very anti-hunting, aristocratic landowners.)

kal52, if SP can demonstrate to Fish & Wildlife that there are Cougars there, and they're a threat to stock and people, then they will bring in a contracted houndsman. Other than that, dogs are out of the picture in WA.
 
man thats too bad, that would have been pretty cool.

If they do contract a houndsman, is the owner/residents allowed to go and watch or is it business only type deal.

I would like to go along for the ride if I had to have one come in on my land.

Well good luck with the calling, and keep us updated

Dave
 
Hi, An update. Called this am, "Elvis has left the building!" Then I put my brother at the upper end were the woods necks down to just a deer trail between the alfalfa field and the river. I slowly went into the woods and worked my way to him. No cougar or kill. The two sounds the cougar made sound just like my foxpro cougar sound "Mt lions courting" Seems a bit early, but that would explain a lot of what and why.
Sorry guys I have a friend who runs hounds and we got my 1st cougar running one dog at 10 below in a ft of snow. I want to get this one with a call. snagpoint
 
They don't have a season to breed. They breed whenever. Does explain them hanging around to a degree, but that's still a long time in one area for them.
 
Rainshadow, These cougar I think run a area that is not much wider than the river bottoms and is about 3 to 6 miles long. They take side tours up little brushy areas between fields but their core area is the river bottoms. Like I said, I have notice a 4, 5 or 6 day cycle by my place. I have some track traps or you could say ground I keep raked so I can tell if they have been by. I would love to get a trailcam, but my $ went to foxpro.
ps I went to the mts today and cut three huge cat tracks to old to call them, but it was sure great to see those paw prints.
 
Hello folks,

SP .... so you are hearing "whoopy" sounds?

In '05 we had a big conference of cats .... and it was almost for sure revolving around a whoopy session.

If the kitten is still standing ...... that would be a REAL surprise!

Hello Rainshadow,

We found that sometimes ... and I think it just a necessary adaption to concentrations building that cats get more "cozy" than we are lead to believe by the experts ... and the flurry of activity as SP has discovered can happen. It did in our case ...... but has not surfaced since ....

An alignment of the stars sort of thing??

SP,

Keep up the scouting pressure ... and try that "eye candy" I mentioned ...... it will cause more evidence around your trail brushing spots .... even those Blinky gadgets are good .........

If your situation mirrors ours .... the Tom may not be so prevalent but the female may well revisit you in spades for some time.

Three 44s
 
Could be with the lack of hound pressure and the resulting population expansion (explosion), that they're heading out into different kinds of terrain to establish territories. That would quite logically lend itself to different types of habit patterns. It would be interesting if the creek and river bottoms out into the croplands of the Dry Side started having consistent Cougar traffic...
 
My hat is off to you for having the resolve to "call this/these" cats.If they were around my cattle,I would "catch as catch can" and I do mean that in a literal sense. Good luck,I hope you get them killed before they do any real damage.
 
Duane,

I can't speak for SP but he's under the same phoney laws with regards to hounds are we are here in Central Wa.

Hounds (off the Reservation) are a big NO NO!

And if you are in a populated area ..... there are more than enough stool pigeons to gag a maggot!

Rainshadow,

Read Explosion and no hounds ....... in spades! You would not believe what's going on in White Swan!!

Three 44s
 
Rainshadow, Yes we are having a growing cougar population in the low river bottoms on the east side of Washington. keeping cattle off the river, CRP, CREP, and other programs to improve the habitat for salmon has opened the door for wild life, much to my delight. The river by my place now has; turkeys, otter, raccoons mink, deer, moose. bobcats, coyote, cougar, skunks, possums plus all the normal ducks, geese, quail, pheasant, magpies, flickers, crows, ect. (A group of moose lives year around in our lowlands here, surrounded by wheat and wineries) Of course all this opens the door for our cougars to thrive. We've had them in my area for about 5 yrs. I enjoy having them around, however, they need to be managed and instilled with a fear of humans. Hunting with dogs helped keep that balance of man vs nature. Now in my area one can see the results of unchecked predator growth. This problem will only continue to increase. My 2 cents worth.
Snag point
 
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