Cougar shooter charged

[Heffay]

http://www.startribune.com/local/138229689.html

Here's a pic of the cougar:

[Heffay]

Hmm.... google has failed me in a spectacularly successful way. DAMN YOU AUTOCORRECT!

[tman]

http://www.startribune.com/local/138229689.html

Here's a pic of the cougar:

If THAT's the cougar he shot, he certainly SHOULD be charged.



(sent from a "secure location" via scrambled phone)

[jdege]

I thought the DNR was saying there weren't really any cougars in MN:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/39748727.html

[MNman]

Cougars, yea their here, a friend of ours lives between Jordan and Belle Plaine. They spotted the cat and mentioned it to the DNR. The DNR warned them not to kill the cat, the neighbors were worried because the cornfield near by is cover close to their homes and they have small children. Not to long afterwards the neighbor, coming home from work, called our friend from her car, the cat was walking around her car and she was not able to get out of the car. She refused to get out until he came over {about a quarter-mile away}. This is odd behavior for a Cougar. I hike in the MN river bottoms which is north of where this cat was seen, that spring I found a deer carcass hanging in a tree {what was left of it} by Carver Rapids on the MN river in the Louiseville Swamp portion. I have not seen any sign since and this was about a year and a half ago. I saw five coyote kills {deer}
last winter which worries me more but you can't hunt in the area but you could around it.

[mmcnx2]

Two winters ago we had a deer kill in our back yard so the neighbor put out a few trail cams and within a wek we had a nice pic of a cougar hunting in out back yard.

[MNman]

Maybe its a good thing I would assume a cougar would feed on yotes as well.

[MNVET43]

My wife and I met a woman who lives and hunts around the central MN area. While up in a tree bow hunting for deer (the year before I believe) she said she videoed a mother cougar with two little cubs playing below her tree. She said she asked the DNR if cougars only move through Minnesota, why was there a cougar with kits? Don't know what the DNR responded with. A few short years back my eye caught a movement of a tan animal "loping" through grass by our lake. It was probably 300-400 yards away and I cannot say for certain it was a cougar, but that was my impression. In think it was maybe 2001 while driving back to Minnesota from Wis. Dells, WI that right during the middle of a sunny day I saw a cougar clear as can be running through a farmers pasture a few hundred years off of I94.

[photogpat]

I thought the DNR was saying there weren't really any cougars in MN:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/outdoors/39748727.html

Did ya read the article?

"Well over 95 percent of the sightings reported to us aren't cougars," said John Erb, DNR wildlife research scientist. Some are hoaxes, but most are just cases of mistaken identity, he said. Over the past 30 or so years, despite 50 or more reports yearly, sightings of only about six wild cougars have been confirmed, he said. Other cougars have been spotted, captured and even killed -- including cats in Willmar in 2006 and Bloomington in 2002 -- but officials believe they were domesticated mountain lions that escaped or were released by their owners.

There are plenty of cougars (fingernail polish aside)...there just aren't many "documented" cases of wild ones taking up residence. At least thats what I got out of that article after re-reading (again).

If someone has anecdotal sightings, I say...

[WolfTrack]

Sept 2009, from the Brrmidji area.
I remember keeping my ears and eyes more alert that the years since on my walks to and from my treestand locations. As this isn't that far from where I hunt.

http://www.crookstontimes.com/archive/x1789521844/DNR-confirms-mountain-lion-was-struck-by-car-near-Bemidji

[tman]

Sept 2009, from the Brrmidji area.
I remember keeping my ears and eyes more alert that the years since on my walks to and from my treestand locations. As this isn't that far from where I hunt.

http://www.crookstontimes.com/archive/x1789521844/DNR-confirms-mountain-lion-was-struck-by-car-near-Bemidji

The DNR was gonna analyze the stomach contents of that cat to see what it had been eating. They were trying to say it was just passing through from North Dakota. I wonder what happened there. I should ask..