Has anyone had any experience with a cougar on your ranch?

Question

We're buying a property that has a cougar in residence. This is a big place with plenty of deer, but still, we have livestock.

Ranch has been vacant for many years, will he simply move out when it becomes active again?

If not, what can I do for precautions to keep the peace between him and us? And don't say shoot him, not going to happen unless he's attacking in my backyard. Anyone co-existing with a big cat??? :) All suggestions welcome. (Except shooting him... LOL)

Answer 1

It is the nature of cougars to avoid humans. As killer apes, we just don't smell right to them, and our doings get on their fragile nerves excessively. It is the exceptions, the wounded, the lame, the "defective", which pose a problem for people. If your Felis Concolor proves to be a problem, simply inviting local hunters to "take care of it" will be a lemonade party with one dead cougar faster than you might think dignified! So It'll all work out, probably. Regards, Larry.

Answer 2

Honsetly, either you will have to bother it til it decides it wants to leave or you will have to let it kill some of your livestock so fish and game will finally relocate it.

Answer 3

There's no co-existing with an animal like that (I know, been there). First it will start by killing the young and slower livestock and then get a little braver and start to move in closer to the homestead and start killing pets and God forbid kids.

Your options are get someone to trap it (but chances are you wont) and relocate or hunt it.

I'm sure everyone is going to say shoot to kill and if you decide to try and co-exist and someone gets hurt/killed, remember we told you so.

Answer 4

You said "Dont tell me to shoot it, beause i wont unless it attacks my livestock..."

WHY GIVE IT THE CHANCE?

Answer 5

Yeah right, if I saw a cougar on my property I would shoot it dead as soon as possible. I have kids and dogs to worry about.

Go ahead and "co-exist"...until he rips your face off....

Answer 6

I own a small south Texas ranch that is only visited some hunting weekends.  We have cougars there.  The hunters reported seeing a big cat chasing does last season.  No problem.  They take what they need to eat, usually fawns, taking them up a high tree and eat them.  In the past I've had livestock and never had problems with predatory critters.  Plan to start living there (God Willing) by first of next year.  Big cats only become pesky during extended droughts or other 'lean' seasons.  They are not as much of a menace to humans as some people would have you believe.  Be careful of small pets, though.  Coyotes are more likely to cause problems here than cats.

H

Answer 7

I've spent a lot of time in mountain lion country.

If you want them to leave, you have to make it very undesirable to live there.

Get pepper spray, at least. I hear that air horns are pretty effective, too. If you don't want to kill it, get a shotgun with bean bag rounds just for deterrence options.

The critter will be most active in around twilight and daybreak, but generally likes the night better than the day for stalking/hunting.

Larger people typically don't have to worry about lions, but be careful if you are small or have children... easy pickins'.

Your pets will likely be toast and some of your livestock will look pretty tasty (and easy) to a lion.

I appreciate your desire to live in peace with a lion who resides on your property, but wild animals are not known to be great diplomats.

The lion has got to understand that the territory is YOURS and not his or you might have some real problems.

If you are a jogger or bicyclist, the odds of a bad encounter will skyrocket. That stuff exicites the chase instinct in them.