So this happened in my neighborhood...

Yeah, that's why I'm glad I was able to get Miss Molly inside with the rest of the family. A PO'd bobcat can do a lot of damage. A mountain lion will be able to do a lot more due to the size.

 

I’ve had similar experiences here. Over the summer I was walking my dog on an old logging road above my house. We walk this trail all the time. The sun was setting as we were headed up. Then my dog just sat down on the road and wouldn’t go any further. I’ve never seen him do that before. When I petted him, he was shaking. Then the hair on the back of my neck stood up on end. There was something out there. I’m guessing a big cat. We couldn’t get back to the house fast enough!

 

WDNR can just blame the wolves for any killing the mountain lions do. As Horkn said, they've been here for some time.

 

I have no love for the big kitties. There are way too many of them on the Front Range.

 

I don’t know why the powers that be always insist on keeping things like this a secret. People have been seeing and photographing wolves, wolverines and grizzly bears in Colorado for as long as I can remember. DOW always just down plays the sightings, like the people who saw them are just crazy. All three of those animals are all over the place in Wyoming (directly above us) but there is no possible way they could just walk across the invisible border between Colorado and Wyoming... A wolf was killed by a car on I-70 near Idaho springs a few months ago. DOW called it a fluke, saying that it must have escaped from an animal sanctuary. But no sanctuaries were missing any wolves.

 

Huh. I hadn't heard about a wolf getting smacked by I.S. recently. But I've had my head elsewhere, haven't paid attention to local goings-on.
I know one got hit a number of years ago E. of town at the twin tunnels, but nothing recent. They called that wolf a "transient", an anomaly. Bullchit.
Friends I trust have spotted and tracked wolves on Guanella Pass , 20 years ago.

 

That's why you should carry a .22 pistol when hiking. Sure, most people will say it's far too small for a lion, but pop your wife in the knee with a round, and you can escape the lion with just a brisk walk.

 

If you want an interesting education about living w/the big cats,
check out;

The Beast in the Garden: The true story of a predator's deadly return to suburban America
--David Baron

People in Boulder thought is was cool to see them around.
A kid in Idaho Springs was killed one after noon out for a jog.
It is a fascinating look at our environment and how we can change it.

 

As long as the insurance policy covers that. Now, I'm sorta fond of my wife. And my dogs. I carry accordingly.
I don't like the big kitties, have I mentioned that?

 

Back in the early 90’s there was a snow storm that shut down CSU, so I went up to the xc ski place in Red Feathers. About 16” of new powder, but their trail packing equipment was broken that day, so they let me ski for free. I was on an outer loop and saw an owl take out a rabbit about 30 ft away. Then my neck hairs started, and big cats came to mind. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
Edit: Hadn’t thought of that for many years. It is the only time I’ve been really spooked like that in the woods.

 

Horkn has same issue as us in southern Indiana. People spotting them for years, and DNR would say it was a domestic cat or Bobcat.

They finally admitted it when one of their cameras captured one a few miles from where my farm is. Later that year, one was spotted a few miles south of me, feasting on a deer carcass in daylight.

No reported sightings past couple years. I think it’s great, but it does cause me to always have a pistol with me when I am cutting in the woods

 

It was Scott Lancaster who was killed. I've been in Clear Creek County since '93, I'm very familiar with what happened. I also know that most folks around here couldn't give a crap about Boulder, or the majority of people that live there. Boulder- 36 square miles surrounded by reality. Bunch of fricken idiots. but, just my opinion.

 

List of fatal cougar attacks in North America - Wikipedia
Both the 1991 and ‘97 ones were highlighted in the news for a bit. Interesting how few fatalities there are, really. The recreational pressure on the CO national forest was really accelerating when I left in 2001.

 

Yeah. I’ve got a buddy who’s a cop. Helped cover the wreck. Told me all about it. He said DOW brought the cavalry. He said it was an interesting scene. Not sure if it made the news or not. Probably not.

I agree. I know there are wolves here also. I saw one near Walden a couple of years ago when I was snow shoeing. I was in about 3 feet of snow and one ran through the snow across a huge meadow about 200 yards in front of me. It was HUGE. It was just TRUCKIN through 3 feet of snow. It wasn’t a coyote. I see coyotes every day. The snow wasn’t even slowing it down. It was a wolf. I’m not a dummy. I’ve spent my whole life outdoors and have never seen one before that. It was about 10 degrees out and I was about 8 miles from town. It was a wolf. I’d bet my retirement on it.

 

The fatalities list has been decreasing, but they don't list the recorded "threat" incident's. I guarantee a bunch of those don't get reported. The juvenile cats have a lot to learn, they get pushed out by the dominant ones, and they test their boundaries. They don't have a dominant predator to be wary of, so they do what they want. Of course, being cats, they don't rampage or anything, they pick a weak target.
A few juvenile cats have attacked people recently. They were dispatched, either by the victim or a tracking crew. But the simple fact they're into urban areas should be cause for concern. If they have to go into town, what's in the hills? Answer- all the big boys, established territory.

 

When my oldest brother went to Utah State for grad school, a hiker was snagged right off a trail in the Wasatch range. They found her body in a tree. Obvious what the suspect was.

 

Years ago (10)? I read about a wolve that was tagged in Michigans UP that was shot by a farmer in Missouri I believe that was getting into his chickens. He thought it was a coyote.
Can't believe he didn't smacked crossing a road someplace!

Gary

 

No lions here. Just ask the 2 people who had horses attacked and mauled about 4 miles from me. Claw marks were examined by a guy who studies ML at Penn State. 99% sure they were ML claw marks. A few weeks later another person from PSU stopped to ask if they could look around my property for tracks as they had a report of a sighting near me. Haven't heard anything lately.