Found this lion kill Sunday. He was somewhat covered up. Kill looked to be about 4-6 weeks old. Still had some skin on a lower leg, bits of red meat on the spine/pelvis.
Dogs opened up when they hit the lion scrape at the kill site.
Would have been a nice buck to take home, huh?

Hmm.

Musta been a trophy huntin' cat...

Seriously, I always figured that a predator took what he could find... Like most meat hunters do. That buck was likely in the wrong place at the wrong time, and depending on your rut time, could well be deconditioned due to stress.

Still was a dandy buck...

quote:

Musta been a trophy huntin' cat...

That's what I was thinkin' too.

no one who understands the predatory habits/practices of a mountain lion would say mtn. lions only take unhealthy prey. they take what ever they think they can bring down!

however, that buck might have had any number of injuries/health issues, thus making him easier prey.

i suspect both the mtn. lion and the deer were healthy. the deer just lost!

quote:

Who says lions don't kill healthy deer?

Idiots? Animal rights wackos? The same people who contend that wolves eat only field mice? But I repeat myself....

In a video I saw titled "Cougar Killer" Jay Bruce state that lions kill a lot of mature bucks during the rut. He even had a similar situation in the video in which his dogs uncovered a trophy buck that had been killed by a lion.

john113wyo

Thanks for the pics, to bad that kill wasen't freshier and had a full belly, he wouldn't have gone far before your dogs treed him.

I've been chasing a huge Tom for four or five years now and I have it on film where he killed a bull elk, then dragged it 150 yards under a fence and then over some blowdown before starting to eat.

Are you getting much snow where your at?

Best of Luck

Steve

Agreed, some of the best antlers I have laying around are from kills we've found.

A bunch of mature buck mulies get killed by lions around my part of the US of A. I and several friends find them regularly. We have discussed it and and came to the conclusion that they single them selves out, they are more often alone than not. It's makes for less eyes watching for danger, easy pickings for a mature cat.

They--all predators--kill the unlucky. Simple as that,not the weak or the sick, just the unlucky ones....

This buck may have been tired from rutting, making him an easy target. The owner of the ranch that I hunt in Wyoming swears this happens all the time. Like someone said, wrong place at the wrong time.

I have a picture of a 5x5 bull elk one killed and started to bury. If I can find it I will post it.

quote:

Originally posted by neazor91:
This buck may have been tired from rutting, making him an easy target.

Agreed.

quote:

Originally posted by neazor91:
This buck may have been tired from rutting, making him an easy target. The owner of the ranch that I hunt in Wyoming swears this happens all the time. Like someone said, wrong place at the wrong time.

I don't think "tired" for any reason has any effect on the cat, do only tired ships get torpedoed by submarines?

Cats are be definition ambush killers, you get into the cat's kill radius and you are it's dinner PERIOD.

"Unlucky" us as good a definition as any.

Frankly I've seen enough african wildlife films where a predator has specifically chosen to NOT take an obviously injured or unhealthy prey animal... the "Uhh... I think that one is spoiled" look painfully obvious....

Or my Bird fed domestic cat seeing robins flopping around drunk in my garden after eating the slugs that crawled into bols of peer placed in the garden to trap them....

the cat looking at them and just watching , again with the "I think there's somethin' wrong with that one" look on....

AD

I'll stick with my ranchers explanation. The cats are on his ranch and he sees the results of interactions with deer first hand. I doubt if he watches many african wildlife films for explanations as to what's happening on his ranch.

quote:

Originally posted by SMACK!!!!:
A bunch of mature buck mulies get killed by lions around my part of the US of A. I and several friends find them regularly. We have discussed it and and came to the conclusion that they single them selves out, they are more often alone than not. It's makes for less eyes watching for danger, easy pickings for a mature cat.

That's also what I have heard and read in the past.

I have found s few mature Whitetails killed by Bobcat.A big cat around here might go 40Lbs.Don`t take much imagination to figure what a 100lb. plus cat can kill!!!

Big cats like big prey. A study just done in Canada showed that one Lion that weighed around 180 lbs. killed Moose and Feral Horses exclusively. Deer were too small for him.

If several deer are in range, a big cat will pick the largest.

Who is to say the deer was healthy or even alive when the lion started munching on it?

Not to disagree with you, but,there are lots of possibilities when we speculate back 4-6 weeks on an activity we did not observe

this is the only Mt. lion i have ever killed.
i found this cat the day before laying next to a 4-5 yr old cow elk that the cat had just killed.
no tore up ground,no signs of a fight or struggle.
ran the cat off the elk and came back the next morning with my "lion dog" and a license.
the amazing part of all this was the cat was aged at 12.5 yrs old,about 160 Lbs and had 2 broken off at the
gum line,canines and 4 haired up full term kittens in her belly,i found when i went in for
the tenderloins.
when a extremely pregnant grandma of a lion can
get the job done....

Wow! That's quite a Mt. lion. Congrats.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by LBGuy:
no one who understands the predatory habits/practices of a mountain lion would say mtn. lions only take unhealthy prey. they take what ever they think they can bring down!

however, that buck might have had any number of injuries/health issues, thus making him easier prey.

i suspect both the mtn. lion and the deer were healthy. the deer just lost!

I have read many wildlife "expert" who say that lions ONLY hunt the old and wounded. Just like cougars don't attack people and wolfs are just fluffy nice dogs.

Of course, most of those of us who live around cougars know a little different.

ravenr,

Nice cat. And terrific looking lion dog!

5 with one shot. I'll never beat that....

thanks john
hadn't really thought of the 5 with one shot angle.
the heeler is laying at my feet now,but at 12 yrs old he's probably chased his last lion.
he still is a pretty good early warning system for bears in camp thou, if you don't have to walk him too far into camp.
where in wyoming are you?