[s]Cougar[/s] bobcat calling.

[Kain]

Went out looking for a mountain lion today.  I really have no leads so I am just blind calling areas that look good to me.  Came across a few of these salamanders in the roads.  Not really near any water.    I think they were trying to warm up but were barely moving they were so cold.  So I had fun posing them and taken a few pics with my phone.  




I was behind a locked gate on some Weyerhauser land.  I think I made a total of five stands in about four miles.  The first two sets were only about 30 mins each.  I normally stay longer when Im calling for cats but I just wasnt feeling good about the stands.  The third stand was in an area I really thought looked good.  I got set up with my homemade e-caller and snuggled in with some moss covered boulders.  My back was to the road that I had walked down and the wind was more or less in my face.  I had put together a sequence that starts with some woodpecker distress and then goes into cottontail distress.  Then there is a few minutes of silence before Rainshadows Sub-adult cougar whistle.  About a minute of that and then some cougar purring sound I got off the internet.  The whole sequence is only about ten minutes long so I let it repeat.    Dont know if that is right but Im new to this.  On the third time through, in the silence before the the cougar whistles starts, I hear a noise behind me and to the right.  I am trying to stay calm and not jerk my head around to look.  I was not expecting anything to come up behind me and there is no way I can get my gun around that direction.  So I move my head slowly and just on the edge of my peripheral vision I see a bobcat.  It is a small one only about 15 feet away and it is staring towards the speaker.  The cougar whistles start and this bobcat hackles up and starts this growling sound like some kind of demon.  No way a sound like that should be able to come out of cat that size.  I am totally exposed and any movement will definitely get me busted.  The whistles turn into the purring and the bobcat had enough.  It turns and takes off.  I try to jump up and turn around but it is already gone.  It had come in on the road that I had just walk up.  Got some good pics of its tracks in the mud and one of its tracks in my boot print.


Didnt see anything else for the rest of the day but man was that exciting.

[littlebuf]

what cougar permit did you draw?

[Kain]

South Cascade boot

[stumprat]

Cool post Kain. Interesting reaction by the bobcat.

[littlebuf]

to bad you cant get into kapowsin, rasbo has a line on a couple in there but no permit

[Skyvalhunter]

Boy that is a nice boot track

[Kain]

Cool post Kain. Interesting reaction by the bobcat.

Im thinking it might have heard that sound before so I might be in the right place.    Cougar whistles dont sound threatening and even sound like kind of prey animal.  At least they do to me.

to bad you cant get into kapowsin, rasbo has a line on a couple in there but no permit

If I didnt have a permit and knew where some cats were I think I would hunt them with a video camera.  

[rasbo]

I pissed one off with my wife,growled and screamed, and ran off I called that cat back 5 times,missed everytime didnt know the handgun I was using.I was laughing so hard.Your gonna get hooked big time kain.thats the stuff that keeps ya going.great story

[stumprat]

I am just glad to hear what you witnessed.
Cougar sounds causing the bobcat to growl is great. I would have thought those sounds would have caused the bobcat to try and slip out silently on the sneak.

Last weekend I had a bobcat skirting me. It never would come out in the open for a clear shot. Now I am gonna try a few cougar whistles at the end of my bobcat stands. Hopefully it may flush them for a shot.

[carpsniperg2]

very intresting thanks for sharing

[Titan-1]

Good story. Thanks for sharing!

[Kain]

Thanks.  I went out again today to different area and didnt have any luck.  I have seen over thirty deer this weekend and not a single buck.  Weird

[bearpaw]

kain that was very interesting, glad you shared it....

[Cylvertip]

Great write up.  I'm going to have to go track down some cougar and bobby sounds on line so I know what to listen for. 

As a side note, those orange bellied salamanders are highly poisonous.

[Kain]

Great write up.  I'm going to have to go track down some cougar and bobby sounds on line so I know what to listen for. 

As a side note, those orange bellied salamanders are highly poisonous.

You wont find better cougar sounds than Rainshadows.  Are those salamanders poisonous just to eat or to touch?

[buckhorn2]

They had a show on animal planet about how poisones they are. People have died when they got in there coffee pot and and people drank it. Nothing bothers them herons;racoons they all avoid them.

[Kain]

Holy Cow.  It is a Rough-skin newt and they are poisonous.  To think I was just playing with and moving them out of the road thinking I was saving them from birds.      Thanks for the heads up.

http://www.caudata.org/cc/articles/toxin2.shtml

The rough-skin newt (Taricha granulosa) is one of the most toxic animals known to science. One case involved a 29-year-old man who had been drinking heavily and swallowed a newt on a dare in Coos Bay, Oregon. Within 10 minutes, he complained of tingling in the lips. During the next two hours he complained of numbness and weakness and then experienced cardiopulmonary arrest. He died later during the day (despite hospital treatment). In another case, toxin from a Taricha entered a puncture wound on a scientist's index finger, and he suffered 30 minutes of numbness up the arm into the shoulder, and some accompanying nausea and light-headedness.
When describing the effect on more natural predators, one reporter wrote: "Scientists have tested 30 potential predators of newts, from belted kingfishers to great blue herons to bullfrogs and fish, finding in every case that the newt killed them." Of related gastronomic note: folklore held that pigs in England could eat newts with impunity, while their French porcine cousins would die a horrible death from the same ingestion. On a social-historical note, it is said that some Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest used Taricha newts to poison their enemies.

The toxins range in severity of effect. Using de Lisle's scale, and comparing a variety of sources either using the same experiment ... or doing a rough comparative assessment, the following "ranking" of toxicity occurred (based on the amount of toxin within the species):

Roughskin Newt (Taricha granulosa) (USA) - 25,000 mice killed
California Newt- Male (Taricha torosa); Crocodile or Emperor Newt (Tylototriton verrucosuss); Redbelly Newt (Taricha rivularis) -  7,500
Roughskin Newt - Canada (Taricha granulosa) (Canada); California Newt - female (Taricha torosa) - 2,500
Japanese Firebelly Newt (Cynops pyrrhogaster); Hong Kong Warty Newt (Paramesotriton hongkongensis); Eastern or Red-spotted Eft (Notophthalmus viridescens) <2,500
Eastern or Red-spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) 250
Anderson's Newt (Echinotriton andersoni); Chinese Warty Newt (Paramesotriton chinensis); Guizhou Warty Newt (Paramesotriton caudopunctatus); Tsitou Newt (Pachytriton brevipes); and Spanish Ribbed Newt (Pleurodeles waltl) have secretions, but of unknown (to me) composition and strength.
Least Toxic - Smooth Newt (Triturus vulgaris); Crested Newt (T. cristatus); Alpine Newt (T. alpestris); and Marbled Newt (T. marmoratus).

[Axle]

Are those salamanders poisonous just to eat or to touch?

From what I have read - they are only poisonous while on land. This would be their only defense while on land. After they return to water, it is said that they are not poisonous but I wouldn't want to eat one and find out.

[rasbo]

caution,licking one will make you hug trees,and agree with rosie odonnel,and the govener of our state will become beautiful and never lie...Its obvious that a lot of people in this state are newt lickers....Danger Will Robinson back away from the newt.....

[Kain]

  Nice "Lost in Space" reference also.

[Axle]

and the govener of our state will become beautiful

Oh great!....there went my lunch!

[washelkhntr]

and the govener of our state will become beautiful

Oh great!....there went my lunch!

I think I just threw up in my mouth a little....

[Kain]

Had another track picture on my camera.

[Cylvertip]

Just to eat.  Wash your hands real good after handling them.  Though, I'm still around and I messed with hundreds of them as a kid

[Kain]

Yeah so did I.  I read up a lot on this after this thread.  You can also get sick from rubbing your eyes and nose or from an open wounds or scratch.  Just be careful and you should be fine.