Big cats in East TN

[Number9]

TNGUNS...

Any of your deer look like this one....

http://huntdrop.com/uploads/hunts/black_deer.jpg

 

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[ibjeepn]

That's cool !

 

[kuger]

TNGUNS...

Any of your deer look like this one....

http://huntdrop.com/uploads/hunts/black_deer.jpg

There is a herd of deer in the river bottoms of the Book Cliff's Utah that Melanism is prevelant....possibly the inbreeding you spoke of?Very interesting

 

[Number9]

"In going over the scientific literature, Baccus and Posey have been unable to find any record of melanistic deer being documented anywhere prior to 1929"

Read more: Rarest Whitetails Of All?

 

[Number9]

Something to think about... humm?

Taken from a hunting forum...

"No. I used to live fairly close to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Every year they have a big deer hunt on the reservation there because it gets over populated with deer. Before you can take your deer out of there they take a geiger counter and check the deer for radiation. If the deer is too radioactive they won't let you take it home."

Down river from the National Lab, you may run across a frog with two heads or other weird animals...
this may be a reason when someone from east Tennessee sees an animal with a mutation it's viewed as "oh..well".

 

[kuger]

that is very interesting.I should have said near Green River Utah,near the Book Cliff's.
I broke a leg there and stayed at some nice folks place in the 90's.The wife had just killed one,and they showed me pictures of more from the past.Never thought about it again till you showed that picture.These were Mule deer ...not that it matters

just came across this...interesting as well
http://www.buckmanager.com/2008/07/21/more-black-deer-spotted-in-texas/

 

[TNGUNS]

Now that is a new one on me. I have seen piebald deer and pics and tails of full albino deer but nothing black. I live only about an hour from Oak Ridge. Some sure enough monsters have come from there.

 

[Number9]

The odds of a human being born with the characteristics of albinism are only about 1 in 20,000.

In town there is a lady who is albino, I would guess she maybe between 55 and 65 years old?
She has never been married. The story goes that she said... "I'm keeping my virginity for the devil."
She doesn't own a car and doesn't drive. She walks everywhere she goes.
She wears total white, bonnet, veil, long sleeved full dress, gloves, socks, and shoes are all solid white...
even a white parasol.

The bottom line is, you never know what strange things you'll see in this old World!

 

[coinshooter]

We'll probably see one of those idiots looking for Bigfoot get eaten by one of these cats one night while they are out roaming in the wilderness hootin and hollerin.

 

[bluarc1]

I will be 69 yrs of age next Jan. I will be the first to tell anyone that I do not go into the mountains alone for any length of time. I will drive up and scout out some places but I make plenty of noise when I do. I went to a river area near where I live and came up on a fresh kill of two adult sheep blood still fresh. I told the property owner he buried them and the next day they were dug up and almost nothing was left but fur strung all over the place and the bones were picked as clean as could be. I 'm talking clean no meat at all left even the hide was gone. When I am coming up on boulders and alone I make very loud clapping. My neighbor also sets up trail cams and comes up with deer bear hogs racoons and lions, mostly at night. You guys wouldn't believe the size of the lions here in Calif. Add another foot in length and drop the belly another six inches to give it a bigger girth to that big boy in the picture. That is how big I have seen them here at the 5-8 thousand foot elevations. At the upper elevations I have also seen a pack of three Gray Wolves and they say they aren't here too, but they are here I have seen them. I was up there working for the better part of two years and having nothing better to do after work I would drive around to sight see a lot. I have only seen one live rattler up there it was not a diamond back the head and about 6-7 inches of the head were black and it had chevrons all down the top of the body 1-1/4 inch diameter and close to 5 feet long.

 

[bluarc1]

Kuger, I read it as "ON" the dumpster, not in the dumpster. Maybe it jumped up there to get a better view, (for high ground).

 

[Bum Luck]

I've seen wolves here in southern Wisconsin, and ran across a cougar kill after all the neighbors told us they'd seen it. There have been multiple sightings of cougar through the last 15 years around here. It can't be the same one, but must be multiple animals.

There have been a resurgence in wolf populations here, but more in northern Wisconsin.

There have been hogs, from time to time.

This is in semi-rural farm country.

I'm out there alone, for 8-10 hours at a time, in remote places (for here anyway). I'm working, not hunting, and so I'm not paying as much attention as I would normally.

 

[Number9]

This story is hard to believe... could it be true!?

A cougar in Connecticut | Life | Science News

 

[kuger]

Kuger, I read it as "ON" the dumpster, not in the dumpster. Maybe it jumped up there to get a better view, (for high ground).

Very well could have.Its hard to say what a young cat that has been pushed away from mom maybe a little too soon,might do.They are the dangerous ones that might not have hunting down yet and are looking for an easy meal......there is nothing not on their menu.

I have spent more hours alone in country lousy with lions alone than a lot of people and never really am "afraid",but aware.Truth is,if one wants ya it will get you and there is not a whole lot you can do about it.They attack from the back and may spend a great amount of time and distance to get into the perfect position.Your best friend in lion country is a dog....any dog.Generally once a lion knows he has been seen,they wont attack....not to say they may not continue to "re-work",into better position,but that is very rare.I have often pondered at just how many lions have watched/followed me?A great many,I guarantee!!

 

[coinshooter]

Has anyone ever seen those shows they show every once in a while on the
hunt for the Chupacabra?
A lady actually shot one or hit it with her car.
She had kept it frozen and they determined it was some sort of cross-breed

Coyote and who knows what.
They showed this thing. It looked like a dog with really large teeth.
Funny thing was it was really black like those deer they you showed.
The skin was nearly hairless and really leathery.
Creepy looking thing.
All these things start messing with your mind when you are out in the boonies.

Down here in So. Cal. a friend of mine was walking her dog in the back country.
She said the dog stopped and the hair went up on the back of it's neck.
She looked up in front of her and a Cougar was laying on a branch in a tree.
It was asleep, but opened one eye, looked at her and her dog and closed it again.
She said she made a b-line in the other direction as fast as she could.

A few years ago my wife and I were at El Capitan reservior in Lakeside.
We rented a boat and went across the lake to a spot with a little stream that entered the lake. We got out of the boat and were walking around in this area that was somewhat secluded when I noticed some heavy duty claw marks on the top of a downed tree.
I looked down and saw what appeared to be some really large paw prints.
That's when we decided to get back in the boat.
I didnt want to become lunch.

 

[coinshooter]

When I was in college, I was getting my degree in Geology. One of the requirements was to
do a "Summer Field Work" in Mexico. We would all go down past Ensenada to the Sierra San Perdo Martir, which is the local National Park in Mexico. At the top of the mountain down there is a huge observatory, pine trees and it's alot like our local Sierras, except without much water. Our group would get split into two person teams and each tean got a 10 mile pie shaped area in which to do mapping of the rock types and try and figure out what was going on with the local stratigraphy. My partner was a girl. When we went out into the field, we would just use a compass to get our bearings and then mark our rock types, formations etc. on our maps.
At one point we got tired and sat down on a rock. I looked down and saw the rock had a horizontal crack in it.
It was then that I noticed a black and white striped tail with a rattle on it slide back into the rock.
I jumped up quickly when the rattling started.
We decided we would move on, but we were slightly lost, so we decided to head to an area of high ground.
My partner was first up the slight hill. When she got there, there was a dead tree.
I looked in the top of that tree that was leaning over slightly and there were two baby
Cougars meowing. The girl started saying how cute they were.
At that point, I freaked out when I realized what danger we were in if the mother came back.
I told my partner that we should leave as quick as possible.
I was scared for a good half mile or so.
That was quite a place.

 

[old digger]

Neat story Coinshooter, Thanks for sharing. Maybe those lions there in CA. are not afraid of humans, beacuse they are not harvested. It kind of like the Grizzly bears that wander outside Yellowstone and Glacier. When the bears hear gun shots, they will seek out and pinpoint from where the shot came from, looking for that free meal. I have heard many instances where hunters have been force away by the grizzlies. They have no fear of humans!

 

[coinshooter]

I saw one of those black cats just the other day. It was dark, but his eyes were really piercing.

 

[Number9]

Now that cat would make a good rescue panther home security system!

Like this one...

 

[Bum Luck]

This story is hard to believe... could it be true!?

A cougar in Connecticut | Life | Science News

Could it be true? It's in a national science publication with recorded DNA samples. Unless you have some Alternative Belief System, it is.

Maybe those lions there in CA. are not afraid of humans, beacuse they are not harvested. It kind of like the Grizzly bears that wander outside Yellowstone and Glacier. When the bears hear gun shots, they will seek out and pinpoint from where the shot came from, looking for that free meal. I have heard many instances where hunters have been force away by the grizzlies. They have no fear of humans!

You are absolutely correct. They are opportunistic hunters, like wolves, bears and other large predators. That acounts for the attacks on humans in California. If they see you as prey, you are.