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Cougar Sighting in Leander

TwiceHorn

By TwiceHorn
in Daily Texan

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wood

wood 11642

Posted
Posted (edited)
16 minutes ago, Dennis Taylor said:

maybe i misread it but my takeaway from that was the mountain lion was the alpha there

Could be. I took it to mean they just didn't give a shit & were just allowing the cougar to 'get some', but who knows...

Edited by wood
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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31705

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21 minutes ago, wood said:

Yeah as a mountain biker myself, this shit might have me rethinking some of the sounds I hear when riding that I usually dismiss as squirrels, etc. Big cats have been known to (rarely) go after MTBers iirc.

Well, as rugged as some of the Dallas trails are, I'm reasonably certain I need not fear mountain lions or bears.

Here's an amusing video taken by a roadie on one of the paved trails.

 

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elfenix

elfenix 34400

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4 hours ago, deadshank said:

Have seen a few coyotes in Briargrove Park.  Mostly around Buffalo Bayou on the north end and on the street that backs up to Rivercrest.  I once saw 2 coyotes in the right  side rough along the 15th hole at  Memorial Park GC.  

i used to live at the apartments on memorial drive at detering (the traffic light at the west end of memorial drive's express street portion west of downtown).  behind the apartment, buffalo bayou loops around a bit and there's a large area that is basically a private park for the apartment (it's low and floods a lot).  much of it is mowed but where the bank gets steep its wooded.  walking the dogs (a shih tzu and a bichon friese) late one night i saw a shadow moving just along the wooded area.  i thought maybe it was a deer, but then it came into a lit part and it was a coyote.  kinda looked in mine and the dogs' direction and kept on moving.  only other time i've seen one in the middle of houston was one crossing memorial drive in the park at about 3:30 am. 

that park area behind the apartment had a pond and from time to time a gator would be swept into it after a flood, only to be swept out by the next flood. 

while biking out in george bush park i came around a bend to a bobcat standing in the middle of the path.  there's also a ton of coyotes out there.  sitting in my parents' backyard you'd hear the yelping building as they were counting off. 

/cool stories

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deadshank

deadshank 24653

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Just now, Dennis Taylor said:

right, but what did 'snitches get stitches' mean? i was thinking the tigers were the would-be snitches   

Yes.  They didn't make a peep while this was going on.  The guy said they were just sitting on their haunches and watching the goings on.  Bemused, I guess.

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Reagan1k

Reagan1k 3026

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3 minutes ago, deadshank said:

2019 varmint talk not going away

Have we touched on badgers yet?

No, but we see a lot of porcupines in the trees when we run spotlights for our deer counts in Llano county.   They've been populating the hill country much more than in past decades for whatever reason.

Those and ring-tailed cats are my favorite nighttime sightings (other than the time I climbed into a blind in the dark which a ring-tail had previously claimed as his).  

That was a cluster-fuck as we both tried to bail out.

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kevwun

kevwun 15971

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We used to see porcupines fairly regularly at our old deer lease just outside of Brady, but we lost it 7 or 8 years ago.  Haven't seen any at the new one.  I can't remember the last time I saw a ringtail. I remember seeing them all the time while hunting when I was a kid.

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deadshank

deadshank 24653

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It's a civet cat.  Not a ringtail cat that some call a civet but a real, African civet.

He didn't hang around long.  I saw him 2 different times at the same deer blind and then other guys saw him 2 times at the very same deer blind.  Too quick to torch off a shot.  Hide nor hair since.

 

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Reagan1k

Reagan1k 3026

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5 minutes ago, deadshank said:

It's a civet cat.  Not a ringtail cat that some call a civet but a real, African civet.

He didn't hang around long.  I saw him 2 different times at the same deer blind and then other guys saw him 2 times at the very same deer blind.  Too quick to torch off a shot.  Hide nor hair since.

 

Yeah - that's the fella from which they make cat-shit coffee.  Feed-em the beans then pick the remains from their crap and roast them.  Coming to a Starbucks near you!

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SimonBolivar

SimonBolivar 10963

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1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

Well, as rugged as some of the Dallas trails are, I'm reasonably certain I need not fear mountain lions or bears.

Here's an amusing video taken by a roadie on one of the paved trails.

 

The gf and I were hiking at Mother Neff a few months back out on the prairie trail when we saw this brown shadow move up ahead. A fairly big solitary coyote (30ish lbs) runs across the trail about 10ft in front of us and the gf says "ohhh look a baby deer...oh wait no never mind it's just a dog. I wonder where the owners are at". I didn't have the heart to tell her.

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4Pete

4Pete 156

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1 hour ago, elfenix said:

only other time i've seen one in the middle of houston was one crossing memorial drive in the park at about 3:30 am.

I travel down Memorial a lot at night and have seen coyotes a couple of times between the Arboretum and the parking lots.  Usually on the south side of the road.

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CHIEF

CHIEF 5111

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We have quite a few mountain lions, here in the Granbury area. The subdivision I live in is the first place that has low water below Lake Granbury, so its deep water for about 30-40 miles upstream. We have a sighting about every two months. Last sighting was someone on the golf course seeing a big mountain lion, lying in the shade on one of my buddy's back porches.

I sold a friend's home about a year ago that was river front, it was one of the first houses open to the river. It  was at the end of the BRA high fence, behind the dam on Lake Granbury. She doesn't smoke in her house, and was sitting on her back porch, when a female and two smaller cubs came strolling by, about 8-10 foot away. The mountain line and cubs looked at her and just kept walking. That evening, it had kinda freaked her out a bit, she went to the other side of her house to smoke. Her comes that same female with two larger cubs. Apparently she had stashed the young ones and picked up her yearlings.

We definitely have a breeding population, we see females with cubs quite a bit. There seem to be a lot more of them in Texas and in suburban areas than what people think.

 

CHIEF

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High Plains Drifter

High Plains Drifter 11092

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9 hours ago, Walden Ponderer said:

I actually saw a mama bear with cubs in Big Bend back in the early 90s. I was at the top of a ridge on Sierra del Caballo Muerto, and they were on the floor of the valley a couple of miles away, headed the opposite direction. Park ranger had told us just that morning that bears and mountain lions were back in the park for the first time in over a decade.

 

I saw one with cubs two or three years ago.  Up in the Basin, not too far from the lodges there. They are fairly common now. They used to be transients moving in from Mexico, now they have an established population.

 

 

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Dbeasy

Dbeasy 15296

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I lived in Plano and a bobcat and her three babies used my backyard fence as their daily track almost every day for about a month. It was bizarre. Rabbits would suddenly emerge from our bushes and crash into our windows, thinking they were fleeing to safety. Really weird.

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blacklab

blacklab 12006

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Was driving to work one morning around 6am and turned right on william cannon from 290 to go to Motorola.

I heard a thud and thought I hit a deer as I crossed the creek and wooded area. I stopped, got out, looked at the front of my car and didn't see anything. I walk back to the door and notice my door has a big dent in it. I look back at the road and 20 feet back is a deer laying in the road. He looked at me, got up and took off to my left. About 5 seconds later two mountain lions came out of the woods on the right and went after the deer into the woods.

I go into the office expecting my coworker to think I was nuts, and he said yep, one of the mountain lions was walking along the fence in his backyard the other day.

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wood

wood 11642

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12 minutes ago, blacklab said:

Was driving to work one morning around 6am and turned right on william cannon from 290 to go to Motorola.

I heard a thud and thought I hit a deer as I crossed the creek and wooded area. I stopped, got out, looked at the front of my car and didn't see anything. I walk back to the door and notice my door has a big dent in it. I look back at the road and 20 feet back is a deer laying in the road. He looked at me, got up and took off to my left. About 5 seconds later two mountain lions came out of the woods on the right and went after the deer into the woods.

I go into the office expecting my coworker to think I was nuts, and he said yep, one of the mountain lions was walking along the fence in his backyard the other day.

Welp, fuck. That's like 2 miles from mi casa.

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Dbeasy

Dbeasy 15296

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Was driving to work one morning around 6am and turned right on william cannon from 290 to go to Motorola.
I heard a thud and thought I hit a deer as I crossed the creek and wooded area. I stopped, got out, looked at the front of my car and didn't see anything. I walk back to the door and notice my door has a big dent in it. I look back at the road and 20 feet back is a deer laying in the road. He looked at me, got up and took off to my left. About 5 seconds later two mountain lions came out of the woods on the right and went after the deer into the woods.
I go into the office expecting my coworker to think I was nuts, and he said yep, one of the mountain lions was walking along the fence in his backyard the other day.

Sounds like you saw mom teaching her kid to hunt.
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BERT

BERT 4444

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11 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

I’ve been seeing s lot more coyotes (or the same ones I should say, just more active) along Shoal Creek just south of the 45th Street area (moving back and forth along the green belt).  People are claiming that the Bull Creek contruction is driving some into our area.  

Pretty cool to be jogging along and see one going along the creek in the evenings.  

No, those are gophers! They’re coming over from the Czervik Contructuon across the street 

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SameSame

SameSame 1712

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12 hours ago, Zepol87 said:

 

Kimbrough holla!!! 

You guys down there making a huge deal out of this like the people jogging seeing coyotes in Frisco? Those people are pussies

I don't think it's the seeing them that's the big deal, it's the them repeatedly chasing people down and attcking them that has folks rattled.  There was another attack 2 days ago.

 

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Deej

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11 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

I’ve been seeing s lot more coyotes (or the same ones I should say, just more active) along Shoal Creek just south of the 45th Street area (moving back and forth along the green belt).  People are claiming that the Bull Creek contruction is driving some into our area.  

Pretty cool to be jogging along and see one going along the creek in the evenings.  

Quite a few deer that wander out from Mabry. I'm sure those coyotes know it.

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hornimal

hornimal 80

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3 hours ago, HenryJames said:



Had foxes in our neighborhood forever. They live in the big cemetery on MLK across from Disch Falk.

 

I tailgated a couple of times between the back of the tennis courts and waller creek.  on a couple of occasions I would spot a pair of foxes playing in the bushes outside of the nursing school and in the tiny parking lot across the small bridge over the creek.

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Hate

Hate 20167

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I tailgated a couple of times between the back of the tennis courts and waller creek.  on a couple of occasions I would spot a pair of foxes playing in the bushes outside of the nursing school and in the tiny parking lot across the small bridge over the creek.


Go on....
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Dennis Taylor

Dennis Taylor 19105

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8 hours ago, hornimal said:

I tailgated a couple of times between the back of the tennis courts and waller creek.  on a couple of occasions I would spot a pair of foxes playing in the bushes outside of the nursing school and in the tiny parking lot across the small bridge over the creek.

Foxy nurses you say...

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Johnny Sack

Johnny Sack 8397

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21 hours ago, HouTex said:

I wouldn't shoot a cougar now, but that would have been my ultimate prize as a hunter when I was a teenager and into my 20's.  They are not endangered and they are not protected.  See https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/nuisance/mountain_lion/

Ranchers shoot them at every opportunity.  Some (all?) cougars will kill livestock seemingly for spite and not just for food.  

I have shot two bobcats when I was younger.  Had both mounted.  Since then I have probably passed on 100.  They are so cool.  Our rule is you can shoot one if you want to have it mounted.  No just shooting them and letting them rot.

I would not shoot a mountain lion.  We had one on our place in South Texas back in the early 2000s.  I found a dead doe in an oat patch missing a leg and covered with grass (like cougars do).  Called the game warden and confirmed the paw prints were a cougar.  Never have seen one in the wild.  They are rarer than you think.  The guy we hire to fly our ranch has been flying south texas ranches his entire career -- 25 years or so.  He has never seen one.

Edit: and pretty much almost every cougar, black panther or bear sighting where there is no photo proof is bullshit.  I can't tell you how many times goobers in east Texas try and tell me they saw a black panther.

There are bears in certain places.  One was killed when hit by a car near Bracketville 15 or 20 years ago.  They are common in Big Bend.  And now they are starting to see a few young males coming across from Arky and Louisiana here and there in East Texas.  I had a game warden show me a picture of a young black bear male taken just north of Milam, Texas near Toledo Bend.  The property it was taken on was right next to my father-in-law's land.  The bear population in Arky and Louisiana has really increased.  Young males will be the ones expanding the area as they seek habitat where they are not being run off by older and dominate males.  Of course it will take females moving to really matter and establish a breeding population.  But it will happen eventually as the population grows.

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NotActuallyALonghorn

NotActuallyALonghorn 4980

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The Louisiana Black Bear has been moving into East Texas for over 10 years now. We were certainly talking about it and some of the studies being done on them in my wildlife classes at the time. It may have been long enough for some breeding bears to start moving into the area. They aren't terribly uncommon in some places like around the Red River.

Around 2007 or 2008 my grandfather saw an animal running in the distance in tall weeds at our place in Panola County. He said it sort of resembled a hog, but was kinda bouncing up and down. The weeds were too tall in that spot to be a hog, so a bear seems reasonable. I later found some scat that was about human sized, but full of berries and seeds and stuff that bears would typically eat. I also found a pine tree that had a bunch of bark scraped off of it on a side facing a smaller tree growing just a few inches away. There was no sign of any other tree or anything falling in between the two, as well as no damage to the smaller trunk growing next to it. So it seems likely that there was a transient bear on the property at the time.

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TxEx99

TxEx99 31

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River Legacy backs up to the nature preserve and flood plain.  There are a ton of possum, racoon, squirrel, fox, coyote, birds, snakes, and rodents that the predator population has grown and there's still plenty of food for everyone.  Nice part is since it's a flood plain they're never going to build on it so there are miles of land for bobcats to roam and they've learned that the humans in the park and riding on the roads in bikes aren't going to bother them.  

Cool pics, y'all.

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31705

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2 minutes ago, TxEx99 said:

River Legacy backs up to the nature preserve and flood plain.  There are a ton of possum, racoon, squirrel, fox, coyote, birds, snakes, and rodents that the predator population has grown and there's still plenty of food for everyone.  Nice part is since it's a flood plain they're never going to build on it so there are miles of land for bobcats to roam and they've learned that the humans in the park and riding on the roads in bikes aren't going to bother them.  

Cool pics, y'all.

I understand that there are a bunch of wild pigs in there, too.  I have never seen anything more exotic than the bright green snakes I occasionally run over.  :(

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