Cougars |
The next morning, we examined Jewele's body. He was stiff, and quite a bit of blood had
drained from his mouth, indicating internal injuries. But there was hardly a mark visible
on him. His fiber was about 2 inches long, which may have hidden some injuries. But his body
was intact, there was no sign of his killer having fed on him. There were only a few small
tooth marks on his head, ears, and upper neck. His neck, however, was loose and floppy, not
stiff like his legs, so it may have been snapped at the base in the initial attack. There
were already maggots coming out of a small slit wound in his brisket, so he must have already
been dead for a day or two before we found him. In fact, he must have died the very night
after I saw those muddy footprints.
We then searched the pasture for clues. We found a small amount of blood (a tablespoon) near the corner of the pasture where the edge of the forest met the paved road. There also seemed to be drag-marks in the grass along the fence, heading towards our house and away from the road, as if the killer were trying to find an opening in the fence so the prey could be dragged into and hidden in the forest. There were small hunks of Jewele's fiber stuck in the grass, as though mouthfuls of it were being pulled and spit out along the way. The ground was too rough for any footprints to show. It appeared that Jewele had been sleeping near the corner of the pasture, and his killer came down from the National Forest land across the street, jumped over the 4 1/2 foot tall combo panel fence, broke Jewele's neck, then dragged him 100 feet with his head or neck in its jaws, before either giving up or being frightened away by traffic on the road. The entire episode had not created enough noise to awaken us, nor did we hear the lamas alarm-calling. By early afternoon the carcass was starting to smell, so a neighbor with a tractor took the body away and buried it. When we did finally talk to the Government Hunter, he gave us a wealth of good advice, and suggested that next time, we leave the body in place, so that he could examine it and determine the identity of the culprit and how to catch it when it returned the next night to feed. We immediately mowed and trimmed the grass short outside the pasture fence, and cut down many saplings and small trees to push back the edge of the forest. This was intended to reduce the cover a predator could hide in while stalking our animals. I was fairly sure that only a cougar would have been strong enough to drag Jewele so far. The Government Hunter thought it could have been coyotes or even a pack of dogs. But I thought a group of smaller animals would have caused more damage to the carcass while dragging it than what we had observed. Also, mountain lions are known to drag their prey, whereas that is not a normal dog or coyote behavior. However, we had no evidence, and I had almost convinced myself that the Great Dane and Pitt Bull living next door had done the deed, when our next killing happened, 11 months later, which removed all doubt. |
I turned and took aim at the second cougar cub, but before I
could fire it spooked, bashed into the river fence, then scrambled over it into
thick brush and disappeared. I turned back to the first cougar, which was lying
down, obviously badly hurt, but still breathing. I shot it a third time in the
shoulder area from about 10 feet away, and finally in the throat, pointing up
towards the skull, from a few inches away. Then it finally stopped breathing.
I had not seen the cubs' mother, and the goats were still very upset, so I patrolled for about 10 minutes, then tried to lock the goats in their shelter. But they wouldn't both go in at the same time; in fact, Finn escaped into the yard and I had to waste time and attention getting him back into the corral! |
The officer showed up after about 2 hours. The cat's body
was already stiff. I asked if it was male or female; with rubber gloves on, he
had to look hard before he decided it was a male. He offered to let me keep the
cat. I considered having it stuffed and/or butchered (by Lester) for the meat.
But it was small enough that neither seemed like a good idea. So I let the
officer take it to ODFW for study. It was about 3 PM when he left.
I locked the animals in their barns a bit early that night, and heard elk blowing in the forest just behind the goat corral. "Good," I thought, "Elk wouldn't come here if there were still cougars around." BUT THAT'S NOT THE END OF THE STORY. The next day, at about 6 PM, I was looking out the window at the goats, who started snorting and stomping, and staring towards the forest in fear. Again, I got the .22 rifle and also the .38 pistol, and went out to investigate. I stood outside the goat corral, trying to see any movement in the forest, as the goats milled around, coming up to the fence to look, snort, stomp, then run away, then do it all again. This went on for about 20 minutes. Occasionally they'd look toward the road, so finally I went over and saw a small tan cat moving along the fence. I went closer, to see if it was inside or outside the fence. Outside. It was pacing back and forth, apparently trying to figure out how to get through. I tried to aim the rifle at it, but it kept moving constantly, and was hidden in the brush most of the time. Plus, I would have been shooting through 2 layers of fence, and if I only wounded it, I'd never find it again. And it was not DIRECTLY threatening my animals, so I decided not to shoot. I finally got a good look at the face, and it was a BOBCAT. It had long, dark jowl fur that came down to a point well below its jaw. Well, I went back and told the goats, "It's only a bobcat, I don't think you need to worry about him." But the peacocks kept honking, and the goats kept acting nervous and looking into the forest directly behind their corral, not to the right where the bobcat was. I spoke loudly to them, to let any predator know I was a human. No effect. I considered firing blindly into the trees. But I didn't. I've tried that before, only to find out that (A) it was a DEER, and (B) the sound of a gun does NOT make our local wild animals run away! After 5 or 10 minutes, I went back to see if the bobcat was still pacing the fence line. I saw something coming; but this time it was a COUGAR CUB! I got a very good look at the whole body, so no doubt about it. Damn! What was going on? I wondered if the cougar mom had gone through the goat paddock just to get to the river for a drink of water. The goats had occasionally looked in different directions, as if what they feared was moving around, just out of sight. This had all taken about 45 minutes so far, which was too long for a cougar just to get a drink. And it was getting a bit dark, as the high fog (marine layer) had moved in from the ocean. So I decided to put everybody to bed early, 2 hours before dark, so they'd be locked up in their barns where whatever-it-was couldn't get them. First the goats, then Rocky the crippled old patriarch peacock who sleeps in the garage. Then the male llama and alpaca gelding, because all 3 cougar kills before were geldings; then the female llamas and alpacas. Luckily, they all cooperated quickly. I called the Government Hunter again, who said he'd send a guy with dogs either Sunday or Monday. But it rained over 1/2" on Sunday which may have washed away the scents, and now it's Monday afternoon and I haven't seen or heard from the cats OR the hunters. I'm more and more thankful I took matters into my own hands! Now if we could just get a more powerful rifle that wouldn't break my shoulder with its recoil... Elaine "the pioneer woman" !!! |