Free: Contests & Raffles.
This formula of a cougar killing a deer a week is too simplistic. My Father had hounds and I started going with him chasing cats in the 60s. He had been at it since the 40s. I later took to trapping so I have seen a lot of cougar kills over the years. My Father had a theory about cats and with my observations I have pretty well embraced it.When a cougar makes a kill, it fills up and then goes off to lay up and digest. When it gets up it goes hunting. If it kills something it never goes back to the first kill. If it is unsuccessful, it goes back and eats more. Rinse and repeat. I have seen quite a few cougar kills with only one feed taken off them and others almost totally consumed. For those reasons I think in higher ungulate populations cougars kill a lot more than once a week. In lower populations it could be less than once a week. Plus, they kill other stuff. Our prey population on the Peninsula has suffered across the board. I especially notice beaver as I am a trapper. Bottom line, what has changed that I see in my area over the last 60 years? Not habitat, not bad winters, not excess human activity. What has changed is a massive increase in cougar and to a lesser extent bear. Deer, elk, beaver all way down. When did that trend towards reduced prey numbers happen? It started in the 80s when they went to managing the cougar population with draw tags and accelerated in the 2000s after hounds were out of the picture.I'm not sure what is so hard to understand about this. Cougar numbers are above the carrying capacity. If you add in other predators, one could say predators carrying capacity has been exceeded. Accepting this and doing something about it is unfortunately a political choice.
Interesting comments, but there are a few on here that seen the "herds" back in the 70's into the early 80's. What you see today is a very small fraction of what used to be. These same "guy's", some who spent more time outdoors then indoors "seen" lots of "no! not in the Methow" critters! Even know of a few who had jobs where they were told to speak up when they saw certain animals, they didn't, thank God!! Prolonged the logging for a few extra years!To "those"(you know who you are ) on here in this debate, remember Elias Peters??? What did he kill when he lived at the Mazama junction? I've forgot the year, maybe one of you could refresh my memory!
Hmmmmm, this thread was linked in a recent one. Those who posted here should re-read it.https://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,202003.0.htmlQuite interesting how most of the talk about population decline is because of human activities, fires/doe tags/etc. Only 1 person mentions wolves, no one mentions cats. Hound hunting was banned in 96, that gave cats 10 years to populate. What is your opinion on how the population '16, compare to population '23?
More of Fitkin being mis-informed..https://methowvalleynews.com/2023/09/21/praise-criticism-for-proposed-winter-wildlife-closures/?fbclid=IwAR1WILfY7n2HmzTi7--FRCwrrjKEkM3oIhicAxUZeBTuz8HLmQVELHCDMsI_aem_ATpOccKVdFafEo29z5qzPgrVFXs5SdJQwqJ_-kA4evJlT4aVnOMVtkK4CX2HZ_zxySQ&mibextid=9R9pXO
Quote from: mountainman on September 26, 2023, 11:09:08 AMMore of Fitkin being mis-informed..https://methowvalleynews.com/2023/09/21/praise-criticism-for-proposed-winter-wildlife-closures/?fbclid=IwAR1WILfY7n2HmzTi7--FRCwrrjKEkM3oIhicAxUZeBTuz8HLmQVELHCDMsI _aem_ATpOccKVdFafEo29z5qzPgrVFXs5SdJQwqJ_-kA4evJlT4aVnOMVtkK4CX2HZ_zxySQ&mibextid=9R9pXOProtection of critical winter habitat is a good thing and the non hunting public have a large impact especially on mule deer. Lack of critical winter habitat is the single largest threat to their future existence. I have no misconceptions about the impacts of cougars and wolves but development and fragmentation create more constriction and opportunity for predation than a closure.
More of Fitkin being mis-informed..https://methowvalleynews.com/2023/09/21/praise-criticism-for-proposed-winter-wildlife-closures/?fbclid=IwAR1WILfY7n2HmzTi7--FRCwrrjKEkM3oIhicAxUZeBTuz8HLmQVELHCDMsI _aem_ATpOccKVdFafEo29z5qzPgrVFXs5SdJQwqJ_-kA4evJlT4aVnOMVtkK4CX2HZ_zxySQ&mibextid=9R9pXO
Quote from: mountainman on September 26, 2023, 11:09:08 AMMore of Fitkin being mis-informed..https://methowvalleynews.com/2023/09/21/praise-criticism-for-proposed-winter-wildlife-closures/?fbclid=IwAR1WILfY7n2HmzTi7--FRCwrrjKEkM3oIhicAxUZeBTuz8HLmQVELHCDMsI_aem_ATpOccKVdFafEo29z5qzPgrVFXs5SdJQwqJ_-kA4evJlT4aVnOMVtkK4CX2HZ_zxySQ&mibextid=9R9pXOProtection of critical winter habitat is a good thing and the non hunting public have a large impact especially on mule deer. Lack of critical winter habitat is the single largest threat to their future existence. I have no misconceptions about the impacts of cougars and wolves but development and fragmentation create more constriction and opportunity for predation than a closure.
Quote from: Tbar on October 29, 2023, 08:35:33 AMQuote from: mountainman on September 26, 2023, 11:09:08 AMMore of Fitkin being mis-informed..https://methowvalleynews.com/2023/09/21/praise-criticism-for-proposed-winter-wildlife-closures/?fbclid=IwAR1WILfY7n2HmzTi7--FRCwrrjKEkM3oIhicAxUZeBTuz8HLmQVELHCDMsI_aem_ATpOccKVdFafEo29z5qzPgrVFXs5SdJQwqJ_-kA4evJlT4aVnOMVtkK4CX2HZ_zxySQ&mibextid=9R9pXOProtection of critical winter habitat is a good thing and the non hunting public have a large impact especially on mule deer. Lack of critical winter habitat is the single largest threat to their future existence. I have no misconceptions about the impacts of cougars and wolves but development and fragmentation create more constriction and opportunity for predation than a closure. I cannot disagree, IMO there’s a much larger problem, they have 4 legs and their populations are growing AND spreading.
