lion, camped out?

[longshot]

One of the ranches that I hunt for hogs with my dogs has a mountain lion lion camped out for about a month or so.

There have been several sittings of her and ranchhands are reporting loud women like screams coming from the cliffs.

She was last heard screaming, Sat night while feeding on the gut pile of 2 dead Audads shot previously that day.

The deer population is desolate, normally whitetail are abundant and all of them seam to have dissappeared last october.

I have been asked to remedy the situation and my knowledge of cats is limited
I have hog dogs that dont have much treeing experience however I have 2 Jagd terriers that will prob trash on her track if I can get them on a warm one. I have a dogo that will bark treed on house cats and squrriels.

My question is do you think I will have better luck trying to call her in with a varmit call and red spot light or should I try my Jagds and Dogo to see if they can make it tree.

I also thought of making several passes with the curs and Jagds on a normal hog hunt to see if the dog pressure would be enough to encourage her to move on down the road.

I would like to here from some of the more experienced lion hunters.
Longshot

[dryground]

I would say calling if you don't have a good track. But keep your dogs close by so if you call it in and don't get it you can try your dogs on it. But if you no were it is hangin out at run your dogs thru the area you never no what mite happen. Lions are dangerous to call so be careful.

[Big Mike]

Heard Screaming?????

In 20+ years never heard a lion scream. I know people who have raised them and have never heard a scream. Of all the lion hunters i know none of them have ever heard a scream. Wonder Why??

Sounds like the ranch hands are hitting the tequilla a little early!!!

You can call them if you set up on a kill or close. Lions wont come from very far like a coyote but if you set up close enough you can get them in.

Hell thow them Jags and curs out there they'll catch it if they hit in hot enough

[twist]

Gotta say I have only heard it once but yes they do scream like a (women). Been years ago had a female treed and 3 cubs and a big Tom. jumped them off a deer kill the tom treed in the same tree as one of the cubs , jumped him out and treed him again about a 100 yards from first tree. after walking out from that tree he screamed just like a human. YES they do scream. later, Andy

[Arkansas Frog]

do you have porcupines, they have a horrifying scream.

[twist]

frog, are you serious you got to be kidding

[sourdough]

Heard Screaming?????

In 20+ years never heard a lion scream. I know people who have raised them and have never heard a scream. Of all the lion hunters i know none of them have ever heard a scream. Wonder Why??

Sounds like the ranch hands are hitting the tequilla a little early!!!

You can call them if you set up on a kill or close. Lions wont come from very far like a coyote but if you set up close enough you can get them in.

Hell thow them Jags and curs out there they'll catch it if they hit in hot enough

I am with Big mike, 20+ years I have never heard one but this is NOT the first time I have heard some one say they had. Take a few hounds to that gut pile and find out. I will bet you needs some running dogs to catch it.

BIG MIKE x10

sourdough

[Yard Dog]

Just my opinion,

Whats to remedy here?

Somebody saw a lion eating a gut pile, so, big deal.

Its been there a month, so, big deal.

Dear population have been down since October, okay.

She was heard screaming, okay.

Just a few questions myself:

Have you found any dear kills? Did that lion eat all the deer in a month and a half? If that lion has been eating all those deer then why is she eating gut piles? She must be prety fat. How do you know its a she? Can you just go buy a kill tag down there or is your rancher buddy claiming depredation? Has it attacked any livestock? Do you want to kill that lion for a trophy or are you just killing to get rid of it?

Not wanting to sound rude but some of this stuff kind of matters in my opinion.

killing for killings sake is frowned upon pretty good out here (just read the post on the 3 cats killed in Montana) and I would bet that if theres no deer around that cat will move off on its own, or keep eating gut piles, so.....


Just my thoughts.

[larry]

Not sure i buy the screaming thing either, I have heard about a 50lb juvie chirp like a bird. i guess i could see one eating the liver and heart out of the gut pile, but i don't think yer gonna find a lion eating any guts. It's not hurting hte deer pop, habitat is the determining factor in that. i would try to run it with dogs, if you think it's livin there freeecast the dogs around and se what you come up with. You''l probably never see the thing again now that you want to.

[bowhound]

15+ years of treeing lions, never heard one scream as well ... just in the movies. then this year my dad was sneaking along thru woods after elk and had a female jump outta some downfall onto a log and scream at him, likely had kittens around. only time i've heard of it.

[Mike Leonard]

Lion screaming is an interesting subject: Funny I was thinking about that yesterday while up close to a lion that was a bit tired of being barked at by some pesky dogs. Now this lion did the usual low hiss not very loud, and it also made that Haaawk! Couger growl with a little spit when it slapped it paw on the limb both of these are common noises of a cougar that has been bayed. Now then for those that have heard a healthy cougar in battle with a pack on the ground when they get ahold of some hide you might say that sounds a bit like a scream or a squawl at times. I have sat and listened to two subs across the canyon from each other whistle at each other to keep contact going and it was a bit like a short calf call of an elk, and then hear the mother give a short quick whistle to gather them up I guess.


I think possibly the explaination lies in the description of what some folks call a scream. To some she may be screaming and to others maybe just breathing hard. LOL!


I will say damn fox can make some of the weirdest sounds at night and I have had people swear their was a bobcat or a lion stalking them and it was just an old dog fox trying to stir up the natives. LOL!

[Catman]

Frog I've heard porcupines as well. Guaranteed they sound like a woman screaming.
Never heard a lion scream .

[DerekE]

I used to have 4 red foxes I raised from kits. They made noises that if I heard in the woods I never would've known what it was.

Yard Dog,
Deer leases in TX are big business to the point of being ridiculous. The prices are high and the season is too long. Landowners literally make more money off of leasing for hunting than they can on cattle. The deer hunters probably think the lion is running their deer off so they want it gone. I'm just guessing but that's a pretty common frame of mind among deer hunters around here. A guy called me from east TX yesterday with the scenario I just described and they want to pay me to bring dogs and try to catch a lion they've seen on their deer lease. They told me I could even have the lion, they just want it gone.

[Yard Dog]

Yea, thats what I thought......

Just a hunch, but I bet if they do get it killed it will end up going 65-70lbs...

[sourdough]

There is no doubt that lions are vocal and communicate by a number of sounds Chirps, whistles, growls, hisses. There was an old mercury cougar commercial years ago and the trained lion jumped up on the roof of the car and let out a scream now I have never heard one make that noise but I have seen tons of them use the same body language what I mean by that is they do open their mouth and show their teeth with no sound. I don't know if it is their way of showing you what they have in the way of protecting themselves. I sure don't know! But I do think that the sound was edited in.

A fox can make a pretty healthy sound, that's for sure. I had a game enforcement officer tell me a story a little while back. He and another officer were on a stake out on a creek. Their had been some tent campers, camping, they had been leaving trash and making a mess of things, the forest service ask them to leave as they had been there for quite some time and were believe to be squatters, thinking that they might be up to some illegal activities they followed them, the couple turned back to the creek and proceeded to get drunk they watch them try to set up their tent and they got into a huge fight, being that they had moved, there was nothing they could do about them setting up another camp. The officers seeing they were super drunk figured the couple would not do anything that night. The game officers would return the next night. They started to walk in on the camp from some distance away through the timber and heard what they thought to be a woman screaming in the direction of the camp after witnessing the fight the night before they thought the man was killing the lady, as they moved through the timber they noticed the sound was moving with them not fast but at an equal pace. as it turned out it was a fox. so there are a lot of animals out there that use vocal sounds to communicate. It's funny how imaginations allows people to think the worst. only a beast the size of a lion can make such a sound?

sourdough