BigGameHoundsmen.com

my brother and his buddies have been looking for 3 days here in 121 and havent found 1 lion track

So I have read and processed most of the information written on this subject and am kinda on the fence. So I dont know what the deal is over in the 200's. But I can tell ya this in region one west of kalispell I was thinkin the numbers were good. So first week I tree'd quite a few cats, well I too have been one of the people that have put on a bunch of miles in the last month and.........notta. I have been stuck for over a month. So I'm not certain that they are gone but I have put a bunch of miles on my feet and on rubber and it sure seems like they ARE gone. So I spoke to some people that have done well outside of kalispell but the further out I have gone the fewer cats there are? I thought for awhile that maybe they were bunched up in diff drainages. But I've been there and they aren't. Another thing that I've found that is really odd is that CATS ARE RUNNIN NOT TREEIN!!! So whats ya'll opinion on that. I thought my tried and true dogs were runnin deer goin hot and heavy for hours. Walked out and found that the cat was actually runnin not runnin a couple hundred yards and goin up runnin for hours and hours. I ran one today from about 7am untill I caught them up at noon. Again thought they were trashin actually shocked two of em. Nope runnin cat again. Why? Ill give my .02 its the dogs. They are harrassed and harrassed and a dog is a dog. If the big dogs are runnin them and they deal with that they are not gonna tree. Dont think these wolves dont kill the cats cause they do. 3 years ago I caught a female with 3 kittens. First time I have seen 3 in 20 years of runnin. So wanted to take some pics so the next week looked that cat up again and found where the wolves had treed her and killed one kitten. Well pretty soon she had none. They story was written in the snow folks. So not only are they killin our dogs they are killin our dogs prey. So shiit fellas whats the answer here? Sorry for hijackin a bit but I think it all pertains to the subject. Take care

Increasing cat harvest will have no measureable effect on your deer and elk numbers I would guess. Its frustrating the way that most states set cat harvest numbers. They have little to no recent data about the number of cats in an area yet still feel qualified to raise a quota? I wish they understood that we pay their salary to manage a resource with sound science not some haphazard guess about what is best for cat numbers. Anyone with a biology degree, leaving their emotions aside, would understand the non negotiable impact wolves have on any ecosystem they are a part of. You have to understand, most of these "biologists" I went to school with and aside from a few, they were a bunch of hippies who have an agenda.

There is little question the wovles also play a role in lion and kitten survival rates as well as repoduction rates of females. This has been well documented in more than one lion study. They have been documented stealing lion kills and lions have been documented abandoning kills when there are wolves in the area. The real question is, when will they choose to manage wolves using sound science instead of cadering to the liberal media. Wolves have a much larger impact than just the killing of hounds. They play a much larger role in the ecosystem and have a large effect on lion populations as well.

As far as a cat running for seven hours. I have a real tough time with that one. A lion simply is not built to run for hours. They have small lungs and a high percentage of a lions muscle mass is fast twitch muscle. They are built for strong, quick, agile bursts but not for endurance. Most cats can physically only run for a few hundred yards before they must stop. I would say something else is going on (cat is treeing up and bailing or something) but I don't think a lion can phsically run for miles and miles. Just like a cheetah, fastest animal on the planet, but only for two hundred yards, after that, a yorkie could probably run them down.