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Outdoor topics => The Outdoor Board => Topic started by: Paul_H on August 02, 2002, 08:57:12 PM

Title: Cougar Attack
Post by: Paul_H on August 02, 2002, 08:57:12 PM
Here is a story that ran on our local news.It took place on Vancouver Island,B.C


Friday, August 02, 2002
 
 
  
VICTORIA (CP) - A 61-year-old man won a life-and-death struggle with a cougar outside a small northern Vancouver Island village, killing the animal with his 7.5-centimetre pocket knife.

Dave Parker was jumped from behind while walking on an industrial road two kilometres south of Port Alice, a village of 1,300 about 370 kilometres north of Victoria. He underwent surgery Friday to repair his wounds and was recovering in the intensive-care unit. "He's out of surgery and in stable condition," Lianne Peterson, a spokeswoman for Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, said Friday afternoon. "He'll remain in ICU.

"I don't know much about the surgery other than plastic surgeons were involved.

Peterson said Parker's family has asked that they be left alone while he recovers.

Parker, a retired pulp-mill worker, was attacked Thursday evening by a 45-kilogram adult male cat, conservation officer Ken Fujino said.

"It was thin but by no means starving," Fujino said from Port Hardy, the nearest sizeable town.

"There was no indications as to any physical injuries that we could see that may have provoked the attack."

Parker was being mauled but managed to get to his folding pocket knife.

"A lot of people carry knives out here, or bear spray," said Port Alice Mayor Larry Pepper, a friend of Parker. "People are quite conscious of the fact there's cougars here."

Pepper said Parker managed to turn on the attacking cougar and slit its throat.

Despite extensive wounds, Parker managed to walk about a kilometre to a forest mill's log-sorting area. Late-shift workers rushed him to Port Alice's tiny hospital.

" Because of the seriousness of his injuries they took him by ambulance to Port Hardy and flew him down to the hospital (in Victoria)," said Fujino.

Pepper said Parker liked to hike and was in good physical condition.

RCMP Const. Jeff Flindall said police found Parker's knife next to the carcass of the dead cougar.

"It is a pocket knife and it is approximately three inches long," Flindall said from Port Alice.

Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: Jeff on August 02, 2002, 09:02:13 PM
Quote"It is a pocket knife and it is approximately three inches long," Flindall said from Port Alice.


Thank god, a measurement in there I can relate too. (Shut up Kevin thats not what I meant.)  I hear metric and have a hard time relating the number to the actual size.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: Paul_H on August 02, 2002, 09:13:48 PM
I don't like metric either.On the news,they said he was just over a 100lbs,and six feet long from nose to the tip of his tail.

I was looking for a picture of it to post.The old guy cut quite a hole in the Cougars throat.(see Jeff,size isn't important)

If I can find the picture of the cat's carcass,I'll post it.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: Jeff on August 02, 2002, 09:20:06 PM
6 feet don't seem very large. There is a tomcat that gets in our garbage here that I bet pushes 3 and a half. But I wouldnt want him on my neck either. :o
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: woodtick#2 on March 06, 2011, 08:27:47 PM
I live in Rhode Island and about a week ago a woman sighted a mountain lion about 2 miles from my house.  D.E.M. (Department of Environmental Management) came out and looked at the track in the snow and confirmed that the woman did see a mountain lion.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: fishpharmer on March 06, 2011, 08:48:26 PM
Welcome to Forestry Forum Nathan!  Nice deer you have there.  My dad and grandmother both had seen cougars on seperate occasions here in MS.  The state game biologists still say we don't have any.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: PineNut on March 06, 2011, 09:08:54 PM
I have heard of them in Mississippi but the game biologists are not going to admit that they could be here unless they see one themselves. If too many people see one and then the biologists see one, they will probably not admit it unless they see one first.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: Ironwood on March 06, 2011, 09:23:59 PM
Jeff keep a fixed blade , they "draw" quicker.

Someone has t osay it,....Personally, being attacked by a good looking cougar wouldn't be bad :D Sorry could not resist. Glad he is Ok, that is one to tell your grandkids.

Ironwood
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: woodtick#2 on March 06, 2011, 09:50:07 PM
Yes Rhode Island and Connecticut will deny any mountain lions present unless forced into doing so.  I have one rule that I never break...Always carry a knife
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: WH_Conley on March 06, 2011, 09:56:48 PM
We do not have them in Kentucky either. Even though a juvenile was captured a couple of years ago. Don't carry a knife, carry a gun, knife is a backup.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: woodtick#2 on March 06, 2011, 10:06:31 PM
Unfortunately around here carrying a gun is "frowned apon" probably put ya in jail
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: WH_Conley on March 06, 2011, 10:12:56 PM
"Frowned upon". Gee. The sheriff would probably ask why you only had one box of shells with you.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: woodtick#2 on March 06, 2011, 10:16:24 PM
Yeah its different up here, I live in the rural part of RI so leaving town with a rifle behind the seat is pushing your luck.  Just dubbing around here its fine but you would be pushing your luck anywhere else.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: chain on March 07, 2011, 06:23:05 AM
According to a MDC report this month there have been five confirmed sightings of cougars in Missouri since January '11, two of which were killed. Most cougars were to believed transient males from Nebraska or South Dakota. Supposedly no breeding population in State.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: rick f on March 07, 2011, 06:41:54 AM
Here is a link to an articale in our paper.  It is about the Feds taking the Eastern Cougar off the Endangered species list as there are no cougar's in Maine, Ya Right.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: clww on March 07, 2011, 07:04:12 AM
 ???
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: sandhills on March 08, 2011, 12:08:20 AM
As WH Conley says "carry a gun".  We supposedly don't have any mountain lions around here either, but a few years ago a law enforcement officer killed one while it was watching school kids play on the playground during recess, this was in a town about 40 miles from here  :o.  Most people around here raise livestock for a living so things like mountain lions and wolves aren't seen much and when they are you don't here much about it, right or wrong they just tend to disappear.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: SwampDonkey on March 08, 2011, 05:52:29 AM
sandhills, there is nothing wrong with protecting your livestock no matter where you live.  ;) Foxes take barnyard chickens around here, but nobody bothers much with hunting foxes. I saw a family of foxes all one summer by a neighbor's chicken coop. They would often be 200 yards away and playing in the grass as you drove by. The neighbors didn't seem to care when I mentioned the fact that the foxes were dining at their door step. :D

As to the cougars, someone in the NB government admitted that cougars are likely here. They are saying though that they are passers by and not a breeding population. But, I'm not sure I buy that. That's a lot of ground to walk over to just be passers by. A cougar like any animal probably has a territory. I've never seen one here or any sign. I have looked at some fuzzy video and pictures over the years and wasn't convinced either. There is a Youtube video I just saw claiming they had a video of a cougar cross a road near Blackville. I believe it's a house cat. Look at this and see what you think. ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrrDrDbdHiw
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: chain on March 08, 2011, 07:01:54 AM
 I feel compelled to inform you cornhuskers we Tigers know something that you don't know.  ;D   Now, according to the article in "Missouri Conservationist" March '11 issue,  an article discussing cougars in Missouri and where they came from....

I quote, "The most compelling and supportive evidence of this dispersal [of cougars] is demonstrated in the neighboring state of Nebraska. Recent confirmed sightings in Nebraska have increased from five in 2004 to more than 30 in 2010. Most of these sightings are near a small  but verified breeding population in the Northwest part of Nebraska."

Gotta blame someone, may as well be cornhuskers... :D
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: Norm on March 08, 2011, 08:14:04 AM
We had the same thing here, DNR says nope none here must just be a big cat. Gal on the ridge behind us had one on her game cam although I've never seen tracks or signs of them. Then a couple got hit on the highway and a couple got shot by hunters. All of a sudden well they are just moving through.

I have a simple rule on our farm. If it can eat me I shoot it before it can.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: crtreedude on March 08, 2011, 08:37:43 AM
Well, done here we don't have the government saying you couldn't have seen a mountain lion, or a jaguar, or an ocelot, or a jagaurundi, or a ... in other words, we have lots of large cats.  :D


The first time you see the paw print of a Jaguar it does make you wonder though, they can be up to ten inches across - and if I spread my hand, from thumb to tip of little finger is only nine. Do that yourself and imagine a print larger than spreading your hand. I would really not want that to take a swipe at me...
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: sandhills on March 08, 2011, 10:31:22 AM
Sorry chain, think you got me and Swamp Donkey mixed up ;D.  You can blame us for the big cats if you want, but I'm with Norm on this one, don't give em the chance to kill me first, I'll do my part to make sure we don't send you anymore, besides you already have all those Tigers to contend with  :D :D.  A guy in Spalding, a neighboring town shot a wolf a few years ago and made a big deal of it, they made an example of him and he got in a lot of trouble.  Now you never here of anyone shooting them, but of course they're aren't any here anyway ::).
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: Norm on March 08, 2011, 11:24:18 AM
The only way you'll know if I get one is if Patty's sporting a new coat.  :D
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: crtreedude on March 08, 2011, 01:26:32 PM
Well, this thread is timely. I just went out to one of the plantations because of a report of sheep damage in the trees. I saw a picture (not very good) and it seemed odd that the sheep damage was nearly 6 feet up a tree.  ::) So, I went to see. Well, unless the sheep have claws, I don't think they did the damage.  :D Definitely a mountain lion, or a young jaguar. There were about 12 trees marked, all about eye level for me.
Title: Re: Cougar Attack
Post by: Left Coast Chris on March 28, 2011, 11:23:47 PM
We have alot of Mountain Lions in N. Ca and for us that grow alfalfa or young trees they are excellent deer control.   :) :)