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[Stan Hillis]

Originally Posted by Harold Pickens

Stan, does the Georgia DNR admit to cougars in your area, or are they like most other eastern states that deny it.

They used to deny it. I haven't spoken to any of them about it in years. Not sure what their position is now. You're absolutely right about the trail cam evidence being overwhelming these days. Trail cams have been good for lots of things.

Panther numbers have been on a gradual increase here since the late 70s, IMO. Bald eagles, too.

Best, SRH

[Tom Flanigan]

I’ve noticed a somewhat interesting situation on the property. Throughout the fall and early winter there were many coyotes on the property. Now, for some reason, they seem to be gone. We have a lot of snowmobile and horse trails throughout the property. I have been all over the property on a snowmobile but have not seen a coyote track since we got the heavy snows. The deer tracks are thick in every area of the property, but no coyote tracks. I’m at a loss to explain it.

[Dean Romig]

Look around the deer yards, if you have any in the area.





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[Tom Flanigan]

Originally Posted by Dean Romig

Look around the deer yards, if you have any in the area.
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We don't have deer yards. The snow is not high enough for them to start yarding up. It's been about fifty years since I've seen deer yards on the property. We lost a lot of deer that year, the only year I can remember with major losses.

I caught one yearling deer. She wasn't hard to catch. I wanted to save her so I placed her in the barn with a lot of feed. She died the next day. Stressing her out to catch her probably didn't help. I wouldn't do that again.

[Richard Flanders]

There has been a number of reports of cougars here in Alaska. Can't remember if there are any pics.

[charlie cleveland]

I bet the rabbit population is down the reason the coyotes have moved on to other places or else distemper has killed them off....charlie

[Tom Flanigan]

It's hard to figure Charlie, with as many deer as there are in the area. Rabbit populations were pretty high this year as were squirrels. I would imagine that a lot of their food is rabbits and squirrels. But with all the deer I would have expected them to stick around all winter. I'll be watching to see if they return in the spring.

Turkey season isn't that far away and I'm already geting excited. I generally don't shoot turkeys in the fall although I get pleanty of chances when bowhunting deer. But the spring gobbler season really gets me going.

[Bruce Hering]

If I may suggest.... perhaps your population was hit hard by mange. That could provide a heavy die off if the weather has been bad enough. We have seen it here in Southernmost Illinois.

[Tom Flanigan]

Could be Bruce. I have mixed emotions about them leaving the area. On one hand I am happy that they are not taking any deer, but on the other hand, I have a feeling that they are helping to keep the deer herd in check. But I do hate the thought of them killing deer. It's probably a bad way to die.

I am the only one who seriously hunts the property. There's no way I can keep them in check, especially since I don't like to take the does. None of the land around the property is hunted, so if we get a bad winter, I can envision some problems. Starvation is a bad death. I have seen large scale starvation once, I don't want to see it again.

[Dean Romig]

Here's a big blonde female I saw today. She looks very well fed and had no fear of me.



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