Near miss on a cougar

[nube]

Just checked my coyote snares the other day and found a big Cougar track that walked right around one of my baits and kept going. He walked right past a couple snares. Not a big thing but I will tell you it isn't more than 8 miles outside sherwood park is what is interesting lol

[Hydro1]

I was expecting a near miss on being attacked or something.. Glad it wasnt.
With all of the talk about predators being around edmonton its not surprising a cougar finally showed up.
Didnt touch your bait at all?
What do you have out for bait?

[PCP_ECOM]

Originally Posted by nube

Just checked my coyote snares the other day and found a big Cougar track that walked right around one of my baits and kept going. He walked right past a couple snares. Not a big thing but I will tell you it isn't more than 8 miles outside sherwood park is what is interesting lol

x2 had one do the very same thing walked by 4 snares tried to steal beaver,which I wired down LOL, then went on it's merry way,never came back

[nube]

Originally Posted by Hydro1

I was expecting a near miss on being attacked or something.. Glad it wasnt.
With all of the talk about predators being around edmonton its not surprising a cougar finally showed up.
Didnt touch your bait at all?
What do you have out for bait?

There wasn't much bait left. It's all ribs and backbones with little to no meat left on it. There were some coyote carcasses nearby and it did not even look at it. Funny thing is that the cat just walked right on by everything and didn't investigate anything really. Was amazed to see a cat track like that out here. Wish I would have taken a picture now

[waterninja]

If you had snared it and the snare held, do you think Fish and Game would have let you keep it? Can't remember seeing a thread where a cougar was accidentally caught.
Would have been really interesting if it was still alive in the snare. Would be pretty tough to hold down covered in a blanket, or with a forked stick. Even with a restraining pole it sounds dangerous. Would proper thing be to call esrd to come deal with it?

[Torkdiesel]

I've never had a big cat touch any of my bait, a few walked by on the trail but that's it. I did miss one a few years ago in a blind trail set for wolves, would have been interesting finding that big boy in a trap. I would think the coyote snare would hold the cat and kill it fairly quickly, from everything I've heard they just pull tight like a lynx and choke themselves out in short order.

And no waterninja you cannot keep any cougar caught in a trap. F&W has never let it happen yet.

As a side note we did kill a big tom 3 years ago with a no. 3 soft catch on his front foot. He had broke the anchor chain and only looked to have been caught for a few days as he was still in good shape. Sure beat the chit out of a couple of those dogs with that trap on his paw though.

[Tfng]

I'm glad you didn't have to deal with a cougar in your snare. I've seen a cougar here a few years back. It attacked a few horses over the summer and I saw it in deer season. It must have moved on or someone gave it the three S's. It wasn't all that far out of town either.

[waterninja]

Originally Posted by Torkdiesel

I've never had a big cat touch any of my bait, a few walked by on the trail but that's it. I did miss one a few years ago in a blind trail set for wolves, would have been interesting finding that big boy in a trap. I would think the coyote snare would hold the cat and kill it fairly quickly, from everything I've heard they just pull tight like a lynx and choke themselves out in short order.

And no waterninja you cannot keep any cougar caught in a trap. F&W has never let it happen yet.

As a side note we did kill a big tom 3 years ago with a no. 3 soft catch on his front foot. He had broke the anchor chain and only looked to have been caught for a few days as he was still in good shape. Sure beat the chit out of a couple of those dogs with that trap on his paw though.

Not trying to stir anything up here Tork, but you have me scratching my head. I assume the tom was dead when you found it, and the dogs you are referring to are on the Oneida Victor #3, but doesn't that trap only have 1 dog?

[fish_e_o]

Originally Posted by waterninja

Not trying to stir anything up here Tork, but you have me scratching my head. I assume the tom was dead when you found it, and the dogs you are referring to are on the Oneida Victor #3, but doesn't that trap only have 1 dog?

sounds like the cougar was run with dogs and treed

[bill9044]

Originally Posted by waterninja

Not trying to stir anything up here Tork, but you have me scratching my head. I assume the tom was dead when you found it, and the dogs you are referring to are on the Oneida Victor #3, but doesn't that trap only have 1 dog?

I think tork was hunting cougars with dogs. And shot a cougar with a trap on its foot.

[Torkdiesel]

Originally Posted by waterninja

Not trying to stir anything up here Tork, but you have me scratching my head. I assume the tom was dead when you found it, and the dogs you are referring to are on the Oneida Victor #3, but doesn't that trap only have 1 dog?

No worries WN. The cat was very much alive when we found him up in the tree. The dogs I'm referring to where of the howling type. But good guess on the NO. 3 soft catch, it was in fact a Victor. It did seem to have a really good hold on the cat, if it had been secured more adequately it likely would of held that cat. At no fault of the trapper of course, I'm sure the 180 pound tom is the last thing he expected to get caught in his lynx set.

[Dr Death]

Had a large Tom claim my wolf bait this year. Closed my snares just in case. Resident quota was filled so called a good friend/outfitter. Had his non resident client coming in a few days. Got the cat. Opened the snares...still no wolves.

[waterninja]

AHHHHHHH.......I can stop scratching.
The alternative (didn't think of treeing scenario) that i was thinking is that you had some dogs with you while checking trapline (which didn't make sense), and the tom fought with the dogs before you killed it (which also didn't make sense).
That must have made for a good story around the campfire.
Some trapper must have wondered what the heck happened to his trap.

[Torkdiesel]

Originally Posted by waterninja

AHHHHHHH.......I can stop scratching.
The alternative (didn't think of treeing scenario) that i was thinking is that you had some dogs with you while checking trapline (which didn't make sense), and the tom fought with the dogs before you killed it (which also didn't make sense).
That must have made for a good story around the campfire.
Some trapper must have wondered what the heck happened to his trap.

What it really made for was a trip to the vet for a couple dogs and a lot of stitches. And a cat getting shot by the guide because it treed in a 8 foot tall spruce tree because it couldn't climb and the Hunter didn't get to the tree in time. Other then that it was great lol

[waterninja]

Originally Posted by Torkdiesel

What it really made for was a trip to the vet for a couple dogs and a lot of stitches. And a cat getting shot by the guide because it treed in a 8 foot tall spruce tree because it couldn't climb and the Hunter didn't get to the tree in time. Other then that it was great lol

Well that's a good story also, though it sounds more expensive.

[Hydro1]

Originally Posted by nube

There wasn't much bait left. It's all ribs and backbones with little to no meat left on it. There were some coyote carcasses nearby and it did not even look at it. Funny thing is that the cat just walked right on by everything and didn't investigate anything really. Was amazed to see a cat track like that out here. Wish I would have taken a picture now

Yeah that's a little weird.
Coyotes and such I understand why they are around cities. But a cougar?
Do you have any trail cams you could set up around your bait? See if it might come back?

[Torkdiesel]

Originally Posted by Hydro1

Yeah that's a little weird.
Coyotes and such I understand why they are around cities. But a cougar?
Do you have any trail cams you could set up around your bait? See if it might come back?

Have deer = Got cougar

They aren't concerned with proximity to the major centres in Alberta

[dugh]

We learned the wisdom of not snaring too close to the bait. F&W said it was a 3 y.o. healthy male. Not exactly a successful bait set but highly exciting. We returned the next day to remove the snares, found more bait removed and buried in leaves/debris about 10 feet away, apparently there were two. We tip toed around taking down snares, stopping often to listen, heart pounding. That was southwest of Grande Prairie.
Doug

[sage 13]

Originally Posted by dugh

We learned the wisdom of not snaring too close to the bait. F&W said it was a 3 y.o. healthy male. Not exactly a successful bait set but highly exciting. We returned the next day to remove the snares, found more bait removed and buried in leaves/debris about 10 feet away, apparently there were two. We tip toed around taking down snares, stopping often to listen, heart pounding. That was southwest of Grande Prairie.
Doug

Ya thats to bad don't like to see that. I wish more people would learn to not set snares close to bait piles to help in preventing this.

[nube]

They should give trappers a quota of one a year for this type of thing. I also don't think setting close to a bait would help a whole lot would it? Isn't the goal to catch what is coming to the bait? And with the predator issues in this province and the number of cougars are we going to really feel that bad over a cougar getting caught?

[Torkdiesel]

Originally Posted by sage 13

Ya thats to bad don't like to see that. I wish more people would learn to not set snares close to bait piles to help in preventing this.

Do you think the cat would have made his own trail up to the 50 yard out point before he jumped on the wolf trail or do you think it would be closer to 25 yards ? Just trying to get a feel for how close is too close to set my snares going forward.

[H380]

Any one who has made an accidental catch of a cougar has done nothing wrong , sooner or later everyone is gonna have an accidental catch of some sort .Contact the authorities and report it as we are asked to do , case closed . Too bad a person isn't allowed to keep em , then again that would open a whole new can of worms .

[tomcat]

Originally Posted by Torkdiesel

Do you think the cat would have made his own trail up to the 50 yard out point before he jumped on the wolf trail or do you think it would be closer to 25 yards ? Just trying to get a feel for how close is too close to set my snares going forward.

It makes no difference whether you set close to the bait or far away. Cougar don't generally respond to bait/carrion, other than their own kill, unless starving. It's curiosity that gets them into trouble. If you have a good population of cougar in the area you will more than likely catch one, especially in lynx cubbies. Over my years of trapping I have picked up one or two in bait stations compared to 6 in lynx sets, with a 6-7 inch snare loop and using lure only, no bait.

[Torkdiesel]

Originally Posted by tomcat

It makes no difference whether you set close to the bait or far away. Cougar don't generally respond to bait/carrion, other than their own kill, unless starving. It's curiosity that gets them into trouble. If you have a good population of cougar in the area you will more than likely catch one, especially in lynx cubbies. Over my years of trapping I have picked up one or two in bait stations compared to 6 in lynx sets, with a 6-7 inch snare loop and using lure only, no bait.

Thanks tomcat, kinda what I was getting at

[Trapper mike]

Caught this one at a fence crossing coyote trail and it was only bout 600 yards from a house. Last thing I figured to get there.

[jmparker]

i caught one off of a coyote carcass pile. i had been tossing the carcasses in a pile near home and thought i might be able to catch a curious coyote or two. i put a few snares up and had nothing for a few weeks till a big ol male cougar decided to make the carcass pile his own. he took a dozen coyotes a few hundred yards off into the woods until he found a snare on one of his trips to the pile. took him in and f and w said it was one of the bigger ones they'd seen in a while. I thought the my cat problems were done for the year but now there are more tracks at the pile again so the snares have come down.

the part that bugs me the most is that f and w destroys the critters. i can understand trappers not keeping the cougars but surely something can be done with them after f and w gets them other than burning them. seems like a big waste