"Local Predators"...... ??

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They say there are no cougars in Tennessee... there are no BLACK cougars either, but boy, they sure love to leave tracks, fur and poop all over the place for the eggheads to deny existence of.

Nobody recalls in 1943 a circus train derailed and a pregnant black panther/Leopard high tailed it to the mountains. they're still out there and almost as elusive as big foot. (We got a couple of them too.)
 
Des Moines area.... I imagine the river, fair grounds, Ankeny, to Adel area is not uncommon.. The way the area has spread makes it prime habitat to roam through.. Also at a time west Minneapolis to all along the south shore of Lake Superior was having lost pet problems I said it was big cats, until I was told ...what do you know.... Kind of a lazy Y pattern from south Florida up the east coast, and fanning across the mid west to the Black Hills, Big Horns, Rockies is usual sighting territory it seems...

Up here the pattern in usually up and down the west side of the Rockies in BC or the east side in Alberta...
There can be a black variation at time... For a crude comparison it can be as un common as a white, whitetail deer, but not an albino.. Also, here for instance, there can be an almost black grizzly bear variant.. A very rare thing.. Quite frankly... Unfortunately most people reporting a black cougar or grizzly are seeing it in lighting that leads them to miss identify... I could have miss colored the last grizzly to cross our place late last summer.... But not the shape...

Yes... At 50 to 100 kilometers square can be an average range of a cougar, depending on time of year, weather, shelter, water, food... This even for transient animals.. IE young males searching a territory..
 
@Tim Horton You know a bit about Central Iowa. I'm actually a bit impressed.

One of the sightings in the DSM metro was along an old rail line that runs from the East side of Des Moines up toward Ankeny. That line services the Firestone tire factory and it adjoins a somewhat run down part of Des Moines with junk and tangled brush along the tracks. I believe that lion was the one that was shot.

A few years ago one was on the south side of Des Moines. It kept setting off the security cams in people's back yards. It was actually being tracked in real time by people calling 911 and the news stations. It eventually left town to the south.

There have been a couple car/lion accidents in the past 20 years too. One occurred down the block from an elementary school in Western Iowa.

This most recent cat is apparently running the Des Moines River from approximately the Fort Dodge area, down into Dallas County. It's not known if it follows the river into the metro or not. I'm guessing that Saylorville Lake and all of its trails are like a playground to the cat. The deer there are half tame and I would imagine they are easy pickings. The cat probably stops there because of the increase in human activity to the south...
 
i saw a new feral cat out by the wife's garden sheds last night when I was putting up the chickens for the night.
Wife is deathly allergic to cats, but as long as they stay out there getting mice and rats they are allowed to hang around.

Sadly though, when they wander off the property the coyotes get them, and if they do hang around the chance is good they'll get picked off by one of the owls.
 
@Tim Horton You know a bit about Central Iowa. I'm actually a bit impressed.
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Years ago.... In and out of Ames and area trucking livestock and race horses across the border both ways with the proper paper work..... Most of the time...
 
i saw a new feral cat out by the wife's garden sheds last night when I was putting up the chickens for the night.
Wife is deathly allergic to cats, but as long as they stay out there getting mice and rats they are allowed to hang around.

Sadly though, when they wander off the property the coyotes get them, and if they do hang around the chance is good they'll get picked off by one of the owls.
Barn cats have become hard to keep. My Pops had around 15 cats, 25 years ago. Now there are none. My daughter's mom had around a dozen, now they're all gone. Between distemper, coyotes, and hawks/owls, they just don't make it...
 
I'm afraid I was the cougar there.
Women half my age love me and I'm not even good looking or rich anymore.
It usually ends when they figure out I'm not housebroken, tamable or neutered.
 
For Mothers Day, the local bush community hall had a pancake and bacon breakfast... Was good and got to catch up with a lot of people we had rarely seen since covid..

One person on the other side of the lakes, but not that far from us reports having to put down an aggressive black bear the week before and also seeing a grizzly on one of there pastures...

This a bit early for all conditions considered for this year... Knock on wood, we have not seen anything yet, but I waiting for the other shoe to fall as the saying goes..
 
I'm afraid I was the cougar there.
Women half my age love me and I'm not even good looking or rich anymore.
It usually ends when they figure out I'm not housebroken, tamable or neutered.
That's a strange happening with me as well, it's a good thing my wife tolerates me hugging other women, she just likes to know who they are and how I know them, it seems strange that I know far more women than men, maybe it's a grandfather syndrome, they miss their grandad, some of the women are really good looking, enough to make my heart skip a few beats and that's not the best thing for a guy my age. It's a good thing my wife knows that I'm just being friendly and have no plans for anything else.
 
A mountain lion has been caught twice on a trail cam in the next county south of me. There has been a trail cam capture of a lion about 30 miles north as well and the DNR believes it is the same cat. There is a major river that runs between both areas and it is believed this cat is a younger male staking out an approximately 60 mile territory along the river.

The DNR says there's no breeding population in Iowa, but the big cats have been caught in the Des Moines metro area 3 times now with one being shot by police. I think they're here to stay and I'm not sure what to think of it. Several specimens have been DNA tested with all but one being consistent with populations from the Black Hills, and the other from the Kentucky/Tennessee area..
They do travel. One was tagged in the Black Hills and found in New York. Many of them have a circuit that they travel.

This is a book that was written about mountain lions and their attacks in Colorado.
https://www.amazon.com/Beast-Garden...=the+beast+in+the+garden,stripbooks,76&sr=1-1
 
Well, a pet is completely different from an entertainment animal but there is a point where you have to accept that you cannot fulfill the needs of a mature wild animal.
 
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