Somebody have an answer?

[S&W38spc]

My dad has been hunting a certain area for 30 years. Not once has he ever seen a cougar. We see the scratching tree it uses, (it, or they, made a new scratching post next to the old one) but that is it. I asked my dad,  cougars  are meat eaters right? We haven't seen a one anywhere stalking anything. And why haven't we seen them in the trees! I just don't get it. Why don't we ever see them where we hunt??  Maybe we'll see one if we try to use a call to call it in.. haven't done that before

[CamoDup]

They mostly hunt at night     I'm sure they have seen you and you had no idea your being watched. Stealthy little critters

[jackelope]

Most hunters will go their entire hunting career and not see one.

[Limhangerslayer]

I don't think you are looking at scratching trees.   

[throttlejocky20]

Cats are stealthy critters with the amount of people in the woods compared to the amount of people who have seen one you would almost think they are a myth. I spend alot of time in the woods all year  and at 29 i have only seen 5 one of which i was lucky enouf to put down! They are there and i would bet they know you are too!

[littlemac]

I have been fortunate in the past several years to see cougars in the field.

However, a good friend who ran trap lines for years and worked for the timber companies for 30 years has never seen a counter alive in the woods.

A fortunate few (relatively) ever see one in the field.

[Doublelunger]

they're very elusive creatures.  There are more out there than most people would believe .I spend a ton of time in the woods.  I work for the forest service and 99% of the work I do is in the woods, and I spend all the free time I have in the woods.  The only cougar have ever seen in person was on main street in Republic WA at 1 in the morning.

[huntnnw]

I spend as much time outside as anyone and hunt in high density areas for cougars and have seen 2 in my whole life

[deerslyr]

ive hunted for 10 years and never seen one, lots of time in the woods as well. Have seen there tracks in my tracks on the way out though. Prolly just curious to see what I was

[coachcw]

tie your pet goat to a tree and wait . you might just see one !

[deadwoodbuck]

hunted the woods over 30 years myself...only seen 3 thats one every 10 years.  get yourself a game cam and a bunny.  tie the bunny to the tree and put the camera in position for a cool shot.  not sure you really want to be deer hunting where there are cats.

[Bean Counter]

I've seen more cougars than bears in the wild.

[Kowsrule30]

Been hunting for 18 years... Seen over a dozen cougs.... I've killed 7... One was in my back yard so don't know if that counts... Funny part is I never saw one coug until few years after hound hunting was banned.... Go figure... My Dad has been hunting over 40 some odd years... He's only seen one and killed it... Kinda a team effort though.... I don't count it toward mine... One year I saw 3 different cougs in one drainage... Had to drive back to town to get another tag... When you hear them whistle/scream it's freaky!!!

[BLUEBULLS]

I've seen 14 now. All but 2 were from a vehicle and I don't road hunt. I imagine there have been plenty that have seen me. I've found tracks on mine several times. I've yet to kill one, most have been in the summer when they need to kill more deer.

They're smarter than I am

[Jonathan_S]

ive seen three,even shot one  ..but like stated loads of time in the woods,prolly more luck than anything

a biologist named Rocky Spencer (he was the guy who got killed by the chopper) who knew more about cougers than any one alive said that for every 24 hours spent in the woods at least one cat has watched you

Spooky!  Probably true.  I get that feeling that something is watching me once in a while.  It's too strong a feeling to just be there on it's own.  One time while walking up a North facing mountainside in NE Washington, my wife and I both froze and looked at each other.  We KNEW something was hunting us.