Mountain Lions and Bobcats and Lynx

[Chicky2]

Ok, so obviously we are having a cat problem. A big one. We lost our beautiful white cat, and our neighbor (he's an idiot, but that's another thread, lol) lost around 50 chickens so far. My dh got one bobcat, and we *almost* got a lynx Saturday that was about to pounce on our bait chicken, but dh shot before he was ready and missed. A few days before that I missed a mountain lion that was salivating over my 4 yo dd. I definitely need more target practice. Dh is a great shot, he just got itchy I guess.

Anyway, have any of you enlisted the help of the state wildlife dept. in trapping a cougar, and how did it go? We're considering getting some help w/this, because there are at least 2 cougars out there. I am pretty certain the one I saw was a female, and a 150 pound male has recently been spotted up creek. Gettin' a bit nervous about my kids and my goats!

[Oubliette8]

I'm afraid I'm no help on the cougar issue, but I did a quick google search and Lynx aren't known to occur in Texas. If you have one out there, I bet the wildlife department would be interested in knowing. Lynx are threatened in the US, so it would be interesting for them to know they have spread to your area.

[Chicky2]

Originally Posted by Oubliette8

I'm afraid I'm no help on the cougar issue, but I did a quick google search and Lynx aren't known to occur in Texas. If you have one out there, I bet the wildlife department would be interested in knowing. Lynx are threatened in the US, so it would be interesting for them to know they have spread to your area.

Actually, lynx are in Texas, esp. north Texas, which is where I am. They are not nearly as common as the bobcat, but they are here. I am positive it was a lynx, too, because of the black tipped tail and the fact that it did not have black markings on its flanks, plus it was way more fluffy than a regular ole bobcat, esp. around the face.

I spoke w/the man who is in charge of recording big cat sightings in Texas. He said my claim about the mountain lion is very valid, and highly recommended we get the wildlife dept. in our area to set up traps for us/teach us more about trapping properly. I told him about the bobcat and the lynx too, and he said that our county has had more reports of them lately than the others around us. My mom is only an hour and a half north of us, just over the Red River, and her dh trapped a lynx last month.

So, I have a call in to the local dept. and the biologist will get back w/me tomorrow.

[mamadelbosque]

Honestly, if you live in an area where there are big cats and such, I 'd check into getting an LGD to help guard your livestock/property. I can't imagine living somewhere with livestock where there were critters that wanted to eat them and just expecting to trap and/or shoot them anytime they showed up. Just sounds like a loosing battle for everyone. Unless you expect for said mountain lions/bobcat/lynx/coyote/etc to all just be exterminated from your area. Which is really uncool, IMHO.

[Chicky2]

Originally Posted by mamadelbosque

Honestly, if you live in an area where there are big cats and such, I 'd check into getting an LGD to help guard your livestock/property. I can't imagine living somewhere with livestock where there were critters that wanted to eat them and just expecting to trap and/or shoot them anytime they showed up. Just sounds like a loosing battle for everyone. Unless you expect for said mountain lions/bobcat/lynx/coyote/etc to all just be exterminated from your area. Which is really uncool, IMHO.

Oh, we certainly do not expect to just shoot or trap everything--that would be pretty unreasonable. We have been looking into getting a Great Pyr. for our purposes. We have not felt a pressing need until just recently. We only have 2 goats, and are set up really well to take care of them during the day, and they are locked up securely at night. BUT, we have just recently lost our neighbors whose dogs, along w/our dogs have always kept the big stuff away (cougars and coyotes), so now all of the sudden we are experiencing all the critters that have been going around another way, I guess. Plus I have another idiot of a neighbor who lost interest in caring for his chickens and stopped locking them up, so they've been attracting lots of predators. And yet another neighbor next to them who decided to let every cat they could find come live there and they couldn't be bothered to get any of them fixed, so now there's even more bait, I guess. Seriously, what are people thinking?

[A_Random_Phrase]

Sign at the road: "Wild cats: Free lunch - Here!"

[tatangel19]

Oh my! Sorry, I have been up for several days and couldn't help myself.

[Chicky2]

Originally Posted by tatangel19

Oh my! Sorry, I have been up for several days and couldn't help myself.

Ha, ha!

[talia rose]

we just visited a local sheep farm and i asked about predators, as we had a young mountain lion take 2 of our chickens. He had a great pyrenees (beautiful!) dog as a guard and never had any issues. We are seriously thinking of getting one...wondering if they are chicken friendly.