Comments on: NC Cougar: State Says “Highly Unlikely”

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:48:49 +0000

Spinach Village is right. Typical of the authorities. Deep down I believe they DO know about panthers running around the state, but prefer to let them roam undiscovered in order to “protect” it from hunters and people who will appoint themselves their “guardians.”
One thing—
Can we stop with the “shoot, stuff and display” hunter comments, please? I’m not a hunter and I’m basically against MOST hunting, but that comment was “beyond the pale.”

By: dwindell

dwindell — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:24:59 +0000

Crapple-
While I agree with you to a certain extent, the hunting of a species that is threatened in a certain area (such as mountain lions in NC) is absolutely abhorrible. Deer and other abundant species should be moderately hunted for food, but your ‘circle of life’ argument does not apply here.

By: tropicalwolf

tropicalwolf — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:39:50 +0000

Once someone shoots one we’ll the the “other” typical response:

“Gee, I guess they were right…”

By: crapple

crapple — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:53:27 +0000

k, i know nobodys reading this article anymore, but: Hunting is a GOOD THING. Nature, in healthy populations, always produces a surplus. Only a certain amount of deer ( or whatev) can survive the winter( there is only so much land and good food). That surplus, one way or another, will die ( but not from old age )
from starvation, wolves, or disease. And a bullet to the heart is a lot less painful than slowly starving to death or dying from disease. And for wolves? there not evil, nothing in nature is, but they kill slowly: claw and bite the haunches and legs until it can’t run- then dig into the guts and legs and feast, while the animal would die slowly. Once again, much more painful that a bullet to the heart.

Also hunting is a law of Nature: For one to live,Another Must Die

the circle of life

By: Bob K.

Bob K. — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:28:22 +0000

I’m not the least bit surprised. Cougars can travel - what - 60 miles in a day? Yet its impossible for these magnificent, elusive, yet powerful predators to find their way back into their former haunts on the east coast?

By the time I left NJ in ‘05, the deer population was out of control, and the black bear population was booming. Soon after I moved out here to Washington, I read a report from Jersey, written by someone in Monmouth County who had seen a cougar chase several deer. No reason not to believe it (I pay no attention to “official” denials), and I’m quite gratified that these animals are recolonizing the eastern portion of their original range.

By: deblane144

deblane144 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:14:44 +0000

Our son was living in FL and we drove back and forth in 2000-2002. On the way home in Jan. of one of those years we saw a dead mountain lion on the side of the road. My husband was driving and saw it. I made fun of him, so he got off at the next exit and we went back. It was a mountain lion, young, skinny and dead. He wanted to take the head- he likes skulls etc., but I wouldn’t let him. It was the size of a english setter- definately smaller than my 80 pound husky. After we got home (MA) I looked it up on line and realized that there were not supposed to be Mt Lions there. It was on rt 95 not too far after the border with SC. Also my uncle retired after being a game warden in the white mountains of NH, and while he had not seen one, he said they were still there in the woods.

By: DWA

DWA — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:31:03 +0000

The Eastern cougars are invisible because WE INVISIBLE THEM.

I’m looking into having “invisible” put into the dictionary as a verb.

No reason to discount the sighting at all. (Except a response that clearly labels the observers incompetent.) And we know that any response to the question “What do you mean ‘highly unlikely’? Give us a probability and defend it” would be, well, highly inadequate.

WE INVISIBLE THEM.

By: DavidFullam

DavidFullam — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:53:42 +0000

Let’s shoot, stuff and display Gilbert. Hope this was the real deal, I live in Charlotte and hadn’t heard this story until today.

By: Spinach Village

Spinach Village — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:27:08 +0000

Typical response by George Strator, indeed.

It’s nice to here about cougar sightings peppered all over the map including North Carolina. Thanks for sharing

….boy do I hate this following attitude, and I do definitely find it barbaric:

“But Janssen’s nephew, Sean Gilbert of Corpus Christi, Texas, says he knows what he saw.

“If that had been back in Texas, I would have shot it,” Gilbert said. “I know that sounds a little barbaric. I would have had it shot and mounted. In Texas, that’s a trophy.”

————————

Ugh.. When Native Americans used to hunt they showed way more respect for the animal that they killed.

As a Christian I find hunting for sport reprehensible, and disrespectful of life and also God who gave life.

By: dwindell

dwindell — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 12:45:37 +0000

Thanks for posting Loren….

I think there’s legitimacy behind this story. As you know, the “Beast of Bladenboro” is said to range from Greensboro NC to Bladenboro NC, and Chapel Hill is well within this range. This ‘beast’ has been said to kill dogs/livestock and is reported as cat-like in appearance. I feel like there is a good chance of a small resident population of big cats in the peidmont of North Carolina. There’s plenty of sources of food (deer, wild turkey, etc) and the coyote population around here is booming. The state officials aren’t recognizing the animals, but there’s a good chance, IMO, that this story is true.