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Cougar attack on livestock in Wisconsin

WONEWOC, Wis.
The DNR did confirm that a cougar attacked a heifer on a farm in Wonewoc, WI in Juneau County. A turkey hunter hearing a cow being attacked went to investigate and witnessed a cougar, on the head of the young heifer, dragging it into the creek. The heifer did somehow survive the attack and was spotted later. It was wounded but alive.

DNR investigated the scene and the animal and did confirm that the tracks, bite marks, claw marks, and wounds indicated it was indeed a cougar. I guess an experienced hunter's eye witness account might have had something to do with that also.

The hunter even shot twice in the air to try and scare the cat off of the heifer, but the cougar did not seem too concerned. It is plain what they think of the threat level of a human.

Here is a gem of wisdom from the DNR...

"DNR officials said it's not likely that the animal would attack humans, but if people do see it, the best thing to do is make lots of noise and back away slowly while keeping an eye on the animal."

I believe there are people that would argue that point about attacking people. Keep an eye on the children and pets in that area. The DNR is going to put out trail cameras to see if the animal is still in the area.

Hmmmm, let's see, someone saw one ? According to the DNR, that equals about 15 !!!!

:biggrin: I never thought of it that way. I suspect the DNR will be requesting a couple million dollars now to study the cougar problem in Wisconsin.

All kidding aside, there have been numerous reports of cougar sightings in Northern Wisconsin. The DNR always kind of brushed it off telling people it was this or that instead. But did point out, :fighting0007: not to shoot them. How can they be concerned about shooting something that they deny exists?

The puzzle is where this cat showed up. Juneau county is a lot further south then where I would have guessed the first incident would have shown up. My money would have been in the Northern end. in the forest country or along the Mississippi. There was one sighted south of Superior last year. It was captured on a trail camera.

Well, you have had confirmed panther sightings, tracks, bodies all over the state of Iowa for the last 15 years. You have had the same from one end of Illinois to the other over the last 7 or 8 years. So, i dont think panthers showing up in any part of Wisconsin should come as any great surprise.

Once you get any stable population of panthers in an area, and they figure out that a cow is easier to catch than a deer, i think that you are gonna hear more stories like this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cayugad (Post 3628649)

I'm not sure what the laws are in Wisconsin.In Pa everything that was once indigehous to Pa is protected unless there's an open season on them.There's more to it than just protecting something that isn't really there.

The WI DNR were trying to collar a big male last year north of Rice Lake WI. They had some coyote hunters tree the beast three day's in a row. The beast got tired of being shot in the A$$ and wouldn't tree after that. The hunters thought the DNR was such a joke they wouldn't track the big cat after that. There have been no reports around here after that.:s2:

The state of OK was very protective of their cougars, despite that numerous attacks on livestock. After farmers raised hades with the legislature, the law was changed to allow the shooting of cougars that are a threat to livestock or humans. You are supposed to notify a game warden when a cougar is shot.

Couple of years ago i was tracking a wounded hog down an erosion gully when the hair on my neck literally stood up. Turned and there was a big male cougar sitting on the bank about 10-15 yards away switching his tail and licking his face; looking at me like i was lunch. The cougar took a 240 grain XTP from my .50 muzzleloader in the chest.

Well the Wisconsin DNR gets something in their mind, they will what they want and to heck with the hunters and residents. I remember that one they had by Rice Lake.

I saw one cross the highway near my house. My brother was in the truck with me that day, and we both yelled cougar when we saw it. But the DNR told me I was probably seeing a deer.

My buddy and I both chased this cougar around for quite a while near Holcombe. This was probably about 12 years ago. She was about 120 lbs. and looked pretty darn healthy and hung around the same area for quite some time. The first time we saw her was at this bar off of Hwy 27. When we got enough courage to go after her, she left with some other dude. We saw her at a few of the other local bars but when we found out she had kids we just gave up on her.

Some buddies and I were just discussing this last night. It's a shame it takes stuff like this happening before they will entertain logical ideas about management of these predators. All they need to do is come up with a good, consistant hunting system and this stuff would never happen.

How can you set up a management system for a population of only a few animals at the most?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DougE (Post 3632951)

How can you set up a management system for a population of only a few animals at the most?

I was only kidding about the management system. That is why I put a smiling face next to that comment. I agree there is a very limited population of cougar in the State. Its funny, I walk in the woods with bear and wolves and really that does not bother me too much. Even with some of the close encounters I have had with bear. But if they reported a cougar in my immediate area, that animal for some reason really bothers me.

I think it all boils down to that primal fear of large cats many people have. Maybe it was too many Tarzan movies, or too many trips to the zoo. But really a mountain lion is dangerous.

I was the same way. I'm from Wi and was staioned in Co. It freaked me out for a little bit. Then u get used to looking over your shoulder.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matchbook454 (Post 3632009)

:lolabove::happy0157::happy0157::happy0157: now thats funny

We have seen a cougar by our home in Lena several times over the last few years, and were told by the DNR it was a large cat or bobcat we were seeing. A neighbor about 3 miles away finally got a very clear photo of the "cat" on a trail camera near his back yard where his kids play...Suddenly, the DNR, upon seeing visual proof of the cat, acknowledged that a cougar is indeed in the area. I will live by the 3 S rule if I happen upon it: Shoot, Shovel, Shut up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matchbook454 (Post 3632009)

Gotta love those Cougars! They are more vicious sometimes than the four legged ones. A couple Martinis and they are ready to attack! You have to watch your back up here in Chicago! :)

On a side note, I have a few small spots to bow runt right outside of Chicago and last December my trail cam pics went way down. After a decent snow I found some pretty interesting tracks I'd never seen before. I still never figured out what they were.

About 24 inches between tracks. Curious to see what I have on my trail camera when I put them back out this summer.

Robbi... near Lena. WOW!! they must have come out of the Nicolet Forest. I would have never guessed them over there, but then I would have never guessed them in some of the other places they are showing up.

Quote:

Wild Animal Attacks, Kills Horse

Wildlife Officials Say Evidence Points To Wolf

POSTED: 10:56 pm CST January 31, 2009

WATERTOWN, Wis. -- Residents in Jefferson County are on high alert after a horse on a farm in rural Watertown was attacked and killed by some kind of wild animal.
Amanda Saxby found the horse on Monday. She said, "It was horrifying to come down and see her in the condition that she was in."
Saxby described the neck injury to her veterinarian who then told her to call the Department of Natural Resources.

Based on the horse's wounds and what she was told by wildlife experts, Saxby thought the wild animal that attacked the horse may be a cougar.
"By the pattern of the attack, being in her throat area and her head area, that's characteristics of a large cat compared to a wolf would prey on an animal or take down from behind," Saxby said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture took over the investigation, but experts don't know exactly what killed the horse because the family had already buried it.
Wildlife officials documented tracks in the snow and looked at another one of Saxby's injured horses.
Saxby said that horse suffered paw marks across her rear on both sides and teeth marks and puncture wounds on the inside of her leg.
The USDA said the tracks resemble that of a canine, possibly a wolf.
Saxby may never know what killed their horse, but she said they're taking extra precautions.
She said, "We have completely changed our feeding schedules. We're making sure everything is done during the daylight hours and that multiple people come down at one time."
Just last year, a cougar was spotted in Rock County and eventually shot to death by police in a Chicago neighborhood.
The USDA said, recently, there have been no legitimate sightings of cougars in southern Wisconsin.

From what I have heard, The Lady went out to feed her horses and found one dead with the fatal wounds being to the neck and throat area... Another horse was wounded with deep claw scratches into both sides of its rear. the lady called the State Veterinarian. The Vet said he was quite sure that the injuries and bloody tracks in the snow were from a cougar... He asked the Lady to cover one of the best tracks with a 5 gallon bucket to preserve it. Then told her to call the DNR.
The DNR sent Warden David Walls to the scene. David looked at the track and the horses and said he was certain it was a Mountain lion.David said its the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture to handle this case and called them in... They waited a couple days before showing up and said that they could not consider the track evidence cause the track had deteriorated, and could not consider the wounds to the dead horse cause the family had buried it. They then said all evidence points to a wolf because the surviving horses wounds came from an attack from behind ( cats attack at the neck/ canine attack from behind ). Personally, its hard to believe that they could mistake the scratches in the horses rear as that of a wolf
Meanwhile, WISN reported the story about the Cougar, but for some reason changed the online version after the Dept. of Ag. released there findings...
Its interesting that David Walls thought it was a cougar... I have met david, he has been over here a time or two. I know he knows the difference between a feline and a canine track...? He also told some people a resident in Lake mills has a trail cam photo of a cougar.
I wonder why the story changed???

Last year the Wisconsin DNR started telling the wildlife rehabbers ( like my wife ) to prepare for cougers and said its possible they may recieve some cubs or injured cats for rehab, and admitted that we have a small population. I believe they even had a training coarse for couger rehab.

Quote:

Cougar spotted on trail-cams in Clark County; tracks in Bayfield County

© Leu and Krystal Vang
On January 18th, a trail cam on private land in Clark County captured an image of a subadult cougar (see image right). This location is approximately 44 miles southeast of the cougar sighting on December 27th in Eau Claire County. Then, on January 20th, another cougar was captured on a trail cam video image, this time about 12 1/2 miles NNE of the previous Clark County sighting. Assuming this is the same animal seen by police in Champlin, MN on December 5, 2009, it had been traveling at steady ESE trajectory. The straight line distance would be about 136 miles in 44 days. Assuming these two Clark County observations are of the same animal, this is the first time we have seen a major shift in direction of movement, and it appeared to be starting to move more to the north. This also makes it more likely that observation in Price County on January 29-30th are perhaps the same animal (see story below).

Then on February 15th, a citizen reported cougar tracks near his home, 3 miles south of Cable in Bayfield County. Snow had fallen overnight and he noticed the tracks while walking his dog that morning. While the tracks were confirmed by DNR biologists and followed for quite some distance, no further sightings have been reported in this area. This location is 55 miles northwest of cougar tracks observed in Price County on 1/31/10.