You Might Not Believe This One...

[Desert Hounds]

I wasn't there to see...excellent story, if you decide to write a novel titled "The Houndsmen and his Dogs" I will be the first to buy it.

[B-N-Trees]

I enjoyed the story and I've got a few that no one on here would believe either. Good work!

[WAcoyotehunter]

Sounds like a good day in the mountains. I would never have believed glassing for tracks would work until I tried it in that big open country. It can be done, but I still have to get closer to be sure exactly what I'm looking at.

[liontracker]

There is definately an inordinant amount of negativity on this board!LOL Sorry for your loss and handicap. Just remember that a closed mind is a wonderful thing to lose...

[Catch]

This female is an absolute specimen. She is in the 130 pound class and muscled up and ripped. In my mind, she is a serious Booner factory. Long live the Queen!


Great story, I believed every word of it until the 130 lb female part. Huh, that isn't happening. Shave about 40-50 lbs off the steroid freak, take 1 3/4 miles out, and then your story will be believable.

[jed]

There is definately an inordinant amount of negativity on this board!LOL Sorry for your loss and handicap. Just remember that a closed mind is a wonderful thing to lose...

Is it negativity or reality?

[nhunter84]

Come on Lion Tracker, under the new topic of "you might not believe this" lets hear an honest to God true story. Your fiction stories are a good read, but you must think that all of us on this forum have never hunted a day in our life...

Really 130-150 pound females? lion tracks at 2 1/2 miles? etc. etc. etc.... Just dont add up in my book

+1 for reality

Sometimes you dont have to add all the made up stuff to make a good story, though it helps. Lookin forward to your next one. Keep the stories coming.

[BLACK RHINO]

Not coming to liontrackers defense persay. As I have had alot of laughs watchin the shows go on this forum. But he did not say 130-150lbs. Said 130lbs. And I do find that close to believable. Run tracks up in Alberta Canada. And body wise just as the difference in whitetails from Texas to here. Body wise ours have to be bigger to maintain A core body temperature. Ones we have weighed ourselves. 120lbs. and 121lbs. on A scale shortly after the kill were the largest females of the few females we have harvested. We were very surprised. had A hunter that his taxidermist claimed one as 131lbs. but wasn't there so who knows for sure. I would find the distance for spotting tracks as questionable, But spotting with glasses across A reasonable distance, Sure, just like runnin roads, it is the pattern that you are lookin for. Spend all day backin up lookin at tracks that are not what I want. And when you find one you know before you even hit the brakes. Good luck N good hunting.

Rhino.

[Catch]

Not coming to liontrackers defense persay. As I have had alot of laughs watchin the shows go on this forum. But he did not say 130-150lbs. Said 130lbs. And I do find that close to believable. Run tracks up in Alberta Canada. And body wise just as the difference in whitetails from Texas to here. Body wise ours have to be bigger to maintain A core body temperature. Ones we have weighed ourselves. 120lbs. and 121lbs. on A scale shortly after the kill were the largest females of the few females we have harvested. We were very surprised. had A hunter that his taxidermist claimed one as 131lbs. but wasn't there so who knows for sure. I would find the distance for spotting tracks as questionable, But spotting with glasses across A reasonable distance, Sure, just like runnin roads, it is the pattern that you are lookin for. Spend all day backin up lookin at tracks that are not what I want. And when you find one you know before you even hit the brakes. Good luck N good hunting.

Rhino.

Break out the Canadian weed! Alberta doesn't even hold a chance to Stanley Idaho. I live 2.5 hours from Stanley, which is the coldest place in America. I have never seen/heard of a 130 Female Puma from that cold hell hole.

Your theory is No Bueno guy!

[BLACK RHINO]

Catch. LMAO. Luckily I don't live in the U.S. And I definitely don't live in the coldest place in Canada. And can guarantee that butt F Idaho is not the coldest place in North America. I know it is further North then either of us. Or maybe if it is not in "America" lol. it doesn't exist, or is not relevant. And is not my theory. Is one I read about in A game management study. Just like any thing else. You can believe it or not. Your choice. I really don't give A rats. When I read it it was presented in A fashion that made it believable. Have read nothing that gives me any reason to doubt the theory. It's ok have A few more And excuse me for having A opinion. Didn't know that you know every thing there is to know about the physiology of "American Puma". Cause you have seen it all, N know it all, And if you have never seen it in your coloring books then it doesn't exist. See it is easy being ignorant. I love this place. More Then you can shake A stick at. I gave my opinion. And now I can sit back and watch the regular SHOW GO ON... Good luck Gents.

Rhino.

[nhunter84]

The 150 pound female I was referring to is one that he claimed was killed in the same area that he hunts. I am not totally disbelieving what he says just with all the different things doesnt add up to a whole truth anyways. I also believe you can effectively glass lion tracks from a distance just not sure about that distance and without having checked them out by walking there not sure if anyone could say it was a lion track from 2.5 miles for certain.

Still like reading the stories. Keep em comin tracker.

[Catch]

Catch. LMAO. Luckily I don't live in the U.S. And I definitely don't live in the coldest place in Canada. And can guarantee that butt F Idaho is not the coldest place in North America. I know it is further North then either of us. Or maybe if it is not in "America" lol. it doesn't exist, or is not relevant. And is not my theory. Is one I read about in A game management study. Just like any thing else. You can believe it or not. Your choice. I really don't give A rats. When I read it it was presented in A fashion that made it believable. Have read nothing that gives me any reason to doubt the theory. It's ok have A few more And excuse me for having A opinion. Didn't know that you know every thing there is to know about the physiology of "American Puma". Cause you have seen it all, N know it all, And if you have never seen it in your coloring books then it doesn't exist. See it is easy being ignorant. I love this place. More Then you can shake A stick at. I gave my opinion. And now I can sit back and watch the regular SHOW GO ON... Good luck Gents.

Rhino.

Just like your female theory, you are wrong again. Are you sure you will give that guarantee?


Hear you go guy. So if your theory is true, Idaho should have 200 lb. females.

On any single day, the mountain town of Stanley, Idaho, is most often the coldest place in the 48 contiguous states.

The top ten spots for the most number of days with the lowest temperature in the contiguous US between 1995 and 2005: Location Days of Lowest
Temperature in US
Stanley, Idaho 398
West Yellowstone, Montana 337
Gunnison, Colorado 170
Truckee, California 161
Alamosa, Colorado 142
Saranac Lake, New York 128
Jackson, Wyoming 109
Berlin, New Hampshire 92
Fraser, Colorado 91
Wisdom, Montana 91

[WAcoyotehunter]

See Bergmanns rule... In general, animals that live in colder climates are larger bodied than cogeners from warmer climates. I'm not sure what the correlation might be within a small geographic area (like a county). I suspect if a genetic line tended to remain in a colder area it would be larger than a genetic line in close proximity but that stayed in a warmer system...say high country vs. low country. ?

I'm not going to jump all over the orignal poster for claiming to have seen a 130lb female. It's possible.

[liontracker]

Well alrighty then...let me answer some questions real quick. First of all, I wrote what I saw that day, no more, no less and all true. I went back with my GPS and shot the lookout point that I glass from. Then I went down and shot the females track. Actual distance was 1.93 miles, not the 2 miles as I had estimated, but close. We have a tremendous amount of variation in conditions here. A few days after the storm, the dirt was showing in the tracks at the lower elevation already. The track was on a side slope facing directly at me and was easy to see. I actually spotted it with my naked eyes first, it was so obvious. The point where I could see a clean track in my sled track was 1500 feet higher and 6 miles away. The snow was still powder up there. The big bobcats were sinking 5-6 inches that day and I was punching clear to the dirt, so I would think that a big tom would have sunk at least 12-16 inches. This female, walking with her feet splayed out like that was only sinking 8-9 inches. I could see in the tracks that she was walking kind of hunched up in the back because her hind feet were under her more than they would have been at a normal walk. I determined this because I could see way more than normal of the mark left at the rear of the track made by her hind hocks. I assume her posture was for better balance and control with those improvised snowshoes she had. That is the second lion I have tracked down without dogs. It is not impossible to do. The split second I saw her track coming out from under that ledge with the dirt in it, I instinctively knew by the color of the dirt (getting darker around the edges of the track from moisture) and still on top of the ice crystals, that the track was only seconds old. 120 to 150 pound females in this country are very real, not common but very real...just like 180 pound plus Toms around here. However most females around here will go 80 - 100 pounds. I believe there is more than Bergman's rule going on here as to sizes. I think it has more to do with top genetics to start with. Then the food supply. Colorado has the largest elk population in the country and these lions kill 8 elk for every 1 deer. Less energy expended and 4-5 times more food produced. Then there is the issue of security zones. We have vast tracts of land that are never hunted and Reservation land. That allows lions chance to live to old age and reach there maximum potential. Lastly, we have relatively mild winters right here and that lets the lions winter over in top physical condition. More later I suppose. Thanks for reading and paying attention to the details.

[Patrick]

"Actual distance was 1.93 miles, not the 2 miles as I had estimated, but close."

You are probably being much too hard on yourself by assuming you made a 3.5% error. I can easily see how with your "estimate" being line of sight, and given you were at at a lookout pt - it would be longer than the calculated distance based on coordinates. Next time break out your transit, and I bet you will find that your estimate within a percentage point.