Our High Desert Town of Apple Valley has another Large Cat visiting from our southern mountains. Our township covers 78 square miles, 11 miles N-S, and over 7 miles E-W, so there's plenty of room for the big kitty to roam around before going back to its natural habitat, the San Bernardino Mountains, which are Apple Valley's southern border. We are cautioned to keep our household pets and livestock safely contained on our properties. Hal
@Hal Pollner Beautiful! In Missouri, we heard them screeching often at night. Fish & Game officially declared there were no cougars known to be living in the Mark Twain National Forest, 7 million acres, which we were located in the center of. One morning as I stepped of the front stairs, I spotted movement behind the fence surrounding our front yard, obscured by a big tree trunk. Suddenly a face peeked out from behind it, that of a cat, it's face about the size of a dinner plate! It watched me a few seconds, then loped across the road, heading down toward the creek. It's color was grayish-brown, stood about 3 feet high at the shoulder. Definitely not a Bobcat. It was thrilling to see! Frank
I miss all the wild animals that we had in Canada the only thing I have ever seen here was some wild pigs.
When I lived in Missouri, we had a cougar, too. It was pretty good sized, because at first I thought it was a deer bounding down the trail in front of me; but then I noticed that it had a long tail, and knew it had to be a cougar. In Idaho , we had cougars, too, and I had a little Yorkie killed right in my back yard by a cougar. It was winter, so the bears were in hibernation, and the vet said by the way his body was crushed, it had to have been either a bear or a cougar. I had just let the dogs out to go to the bathroom, heard the barking, and looked out the window to see my beloved little Tonka lying dead in the snow. At the cafe, we would sometimes see cougar tracks outside in the snow, too, so I am sure that they were right up next to the restaurant during the night. I don’t miss those predators at all !
@Hal Pollner , isn't it a threat to humans as well? I'd hate to be walking at night (Or daytime) and meet face to face with a mountain lion. Will they try to capture it and release it into the wild away from humans?