Looks like we have a predator in our midst!!

[TPX]

Found these tracks in our barn yard last week, within 40 yards of our house.  Calving start in a month and we are just hoping this cat was just passing through. 

 

[Will]

Here in Northeast Oklahoma we are not supposed to have big cats.  But we saw one last fall and I have a neighbor that has caught it twice on his game camera. Sure makes you a little worried about calving season.  Were are you located?

 

[nkotb]

Officially DWP denies the existence of big cats in NW Kansas, however, two years ago we sold a horse that was attacked in the new owners barnyard.  It was killed and torn in two.  There were big cat tracks and the local DWP agent said it was a mountain lion.  I saw the carcass and tracks, I've never seen a coyote kill a large horse, nor do this much damage to a horse that was already dead.  From the drag marks, it looked like the cat chased it into a corner in the barn, killed it, then drug the two pieces outside.  He/she drug the rear about 500 yards, and the front about 75 yards from the barn.

 

[BroncoFan]

Seeing those tracks, makes me wish I had a pack of hounds again.  Can you buy a permit in the state that you live in?  If so a predator call might do the trick.

 

[Davidsonranch]

So I'm the State Trapper for my county and also the Lion damage control agent.  I run hounds and most of my lion work is in the snow.  After zooming in on the pic, Although not positive due to pic quality, I'm pretty sure you have a large dog traveling through, like black lab or bigger. 
You can see distinct toenail indentations at the top of each toe.  Lions and bobcats walk with their claws tucked up like a housecat.  A lion will usually only leave toenail marks if they are jumped or running.  And even then they are hard to see some times because they are so sharp and pointed.  Those look to be larger rounded toenail marks.  Also the two tracks side by side is not cat like.  A lion walking puts is back feet exactly in his front tracks 90% of the time. 
I don't want to count a lion out but I'm pretty sure those are canine.  Where are you at?

 

[knabe]

my uncle has spotted mountain lions in south central kansas near hazelton for a few years now.

 

[TPX]

We live in south Saskatchewan, Canada about 30 miles north of Montana. We are pretty certain it's a mountain lion due to the fact we have spotted one numerous times about 3/4 of a mile south of our yard in a area were we have a spring that runs 24/7/365 in a very well wooded and sheltered area. We are not allowed to shoot a mountain lion unless it's a problem animal and one farm visit is not a problem animal yet.

 

[Gargan]

Are wolves known to be in your area?

 

[TPX]

Are wolves known to be in your area?

We do have wolves in the area but they are very rare and fairly new to a area in just the last couple years.

 

[BK]

I would agree with Davidson ranch I know that lions do not leave claw prints in their tracks and lion tracks are as wide if not wider then they are long . I agree that it is a large dog or small Wolf maybe ..

 

[BroncoFan]

I'm looking at that picture on my computer and it looks like a dog track.  Good sized dog.  Better not be a wolf.

 

[Mueller Show Cattle]

I would have to agree that it does not look like a cat track. I have seen a lot of cat tracks here in Wyoming, on our ranch and up on the mountains. All the tracks I have seen did not have any claw marks in the track and those are large claw marks in the track. Cat tracks are as wide as they are long like BK said. I have never seen a wolf track even though they have been seen and later killed in my area, would say that is a very young wolf if it is one from talking to ranchers were I elk hunt which is wolf country.

 

[ejoe326]

We are in Illinois.  We have heard Bobcats and now there are numerous reports of a mountain lion a few miles away.  Add in some reliable, as well as unreliable, sightings of a pair of wolves and I am concerned.

The neighbors start calving before we do and unfortunately calving is not when they practice their best management.  So perhaps the mountain lion will be full before he hits our place.

We have PTZ cameras with a long reach that record when they detect motion.  I haven't seen anything besides the usual coyotes in the past few years but it will be interesting to see this year. 

 

[Pleasant Grove Farms]

we have a group of cows with fall babies right almost in front of our house; we saw a coyote pacing the fence between our house and the yard of cattle; our dog was barking up a storm and one really aggressive, mean cow was charging at the predator through the fence;
we have coyotes on the prowl all the time; we hardly ever loose a calf, hardly ever.  Our cows are aggressive and protective of their calves; they have to be.
we are in South Dakota.

 

[chambero]

Mountain lions are pretty much everywhere in the lower 48, they are just nocturnal and its very rare to see one.  Their population density in most place isn't very high, but they are around.

Wolves are not.  They are confined to the Greater Yellowstone area and north/west where they've been reintroduced and northern Michigan.  I hear folks claiming they've seen them in Texas, Oklahoma, etc and that's just not correct.  Coyotes can get pretty big.

That track might not be a mountain lion, but you've almost certainly got them in your neck of the woods.  I'd worry more about wolves in your calves though.

My best friend's greatest hunting ambition is to kill a cougar.  He went to northern British Columbia a few years ago and the hunting was bad due to lack of snow.  But his guide refused to even turn his hounds out if he didn't have a fresh track because supposedly there were so many wolves around that they'd kill the dogs in short order if he just let them run.  All my buddy saw in a week of hunting in that part of the world in the dead of winter was a couple of rabbits.  Needless to say he didn't appreciate my teasing when he got back.

I could never catch him, but a in our horrible drought of 2011 I know we had a cougar that decimated the calves in one of our pastures.  We lost like 11 of 16 calves over the course of about a month in one 160 acre pasture.  Calves were born, you'd see them for a few days, and then they'd just disappear.  When coyotes kill and feed on a calf, they never drag them off.  You can almost always find remains via buzzards hanging around the leftovers.  Not that year.  Not a trace.

 

[justintime]

We live straight east of TPX, and we have had cougar sightings during the summer and fall. We also have had timber wolves not that far east of here, and I saw a picture of one shot by a farmer and it certainly caught my attention. The dead wolf was hanging from the farmer's front end loader on his tractor, and it was bigger than the 6'1 man standing beside it. He saw 3 in his pasture and was able to kill one. I have always heard that if moose move into your area, timber wolves will also be there within the next 10 years. We see an occasional moose here, but 40 miles east of here there are so many moose that they have had a hunting season for them for the last 3 years. Our area is very open with few trees and quite flat, so you have to wonder why moose would move in, but I suspect part of the reason is that there are fewer farms and many areas where there are several miles between farm yards. We have also seen what we call " bush wolves" which are a cross between large dogs and timber wolves. They look like an overgrown German Shepard and are major killers. Several years ago, I lost 5 new born calves one morning. When I did the morning check I found the 5 new calves with their mothers and all were doing good. I went and brought some hay bales into the pasture and the cows left their calves and went to the hay. Within a few minutes, I found all 5 newborns dead and the bush wolves were ripping them apart. Of course, I did not have a gun with me, and I made a flying trip into the yard to get one, but they were no where to be found when I went back. I got a hold of a guy who had some hounds that he used to hunt coyotes and he was able to kill several of them and we have not seen any for several years around here, but I have heard reports of some not very far away.

 

[caledon101]

We are in southern Ontario and have co-existed with coyotes for many years with no problems thus far. Others have not been nearly as fortunate.
I admit that it always concerned me though. Not uncommon to see coyotes trotting right past the herd with no response from the cows. We are loaded up with wild turkeys around here and possums are not uncommon now either. Maybe the coyotes are happy eating them instead of messing with calves?? I was advised that if you don't have an issue with the coyotes in your area to just leave them alone. If you shoot them they will only reproduce larger litters or, worse yet less desirable coyotes may move in to the area.
Lions are established in southern Ontario now so I am told.
The deer population in the USA and throughout NA is out of control. They say we have more deer today than before the white man arrived. It makes sense; top predators such as timber wolves and bears were common in all areas and kept deer populations under control. That's all changed of course. Motor vehicles probably kill more deer than just about anything else today??
I can't imagine the challenge of trying to raise livestock adjacent to mountain lions, wild hybrid dogs or timber wolves. Almost impossible to defend against it.