Cougars on Camera
An Arkansas man claims to have caught a cougar on a game trail camera. No image is shown, so I can't make any comments on the identity. (News source.)
A Virginia man also got a pic of a big cat on the Isle of Wight. For once, I think someone got it right -- it is distinctly a cougar profile. Assuming it's a real image, it looks like the real deal. (News source.)
Labels: cougar, eastern cougar, field techniques
posted by Chad Arment @ 3:06 PM
1 comments
links to this post
1 Comments:
Chad,
My husband and I are from South Carolina's Upstate area, and we love to hike on Sundays in Jones Gap State Park or Caesar's Head State Park.
Back in late June, we were hiking the Rim of the Gap Trail in Jones Gap when we came upon an unusual track marking on the trail. It was isolated - we'd not seen one like it anywhere else on the trail at that point, and careful attention to the ground is necessary to avoid rocks, stumps, tree roots, and snakes. We didn't see another like it anywhere on the trail for a 1/4 mile thereafter, before we got spooked and turned around. However, we did notice that the paw looked very much cat-like. Upon looking up the Wikipedia on Cougars, we felt it was a perfect match with the picture of a cougar paw that is featured on the page.
An isolated finding? Perhaps. That was, until Sunday two days ago. We were hiking the Pinnacle Pass trail, a rather challenging and deserted trail that juts off the Rim of the Gap trail. About 1.5 miles into the path, we and our dog were all stopped dead in our tracks by the distinct, deep, throaty, and cat-like growl that came from the wooded ledge above our heads. There was no mistaking this sound - it was a large feline, exactly the sound you'll hear on any number of windows media file recordings of cougars or mountain lions. At the exact moment that we heard this, we saw just about all the birds in all the trees above us fly away very quickly. Our dog, who is usually fearless, retreated in the opposite direction, as did we. We moved about as fast as you can imagine one moving down a rocky trail like that. We feel lucky that the cat gave us the warning to get away - we feel it is highly possible that the cat had young nearby and that we were unknowingly treading on thin ice in that regard.
Anyhow, just wanted to confirm for you - from our point of view, there is no doubt, cougars ARE in SC!
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home