Trail cam captures cougar stalking a deer!

[JBR]

I just had this emailed to me from a friend.  Apparently this picture is from Montana and captured a picture of a cougar stalking a deer during the night, as they passed someone's trail camera. 

[popeshawnpaul]

I want to say it's real, and it probably is.  However, I have so many questions.  How can a cougar be walking 1 foot behind a deer and the deer doesn't know?  Why wouldn't the cougar be on the back of the deer and killing it if it was so close to the deer?  I dunno, makes me wonder.

shawn

[JBR]

Shawn - I too am always skeptical of things on the internet.  Who knows...  I saw the picture and thought it was cool, so I passed it along.

Jim

[Michelle_Nelson]

I have seen this for a while.  Deer may be severely injured?  If the cougar knows it's not going anywhere whats the hurry?

[Slider]

Photoshoped!!!

[Bscman]

Photoshoped!!!

+1
More than likely it is two separate pictures taken ad different times that were grafted together.
Most likely the deer passed the camera, and sometime late a cougar was tracking the cat...

I opened it with photoshop to check it out a little better...can't find any seams, and the lighting looks good. However, the area around the time-stamp is suspect. You can read the "AM" part clearly, but it's almost like two sets of times are doubled and impossible to make out.

Besides, if it was real the cat would've taken the deer at any moment...there would be a story with more pics involved if this was real (blood trail, scuffle marks, carcass, etc).

[Outfitter]

I get alot of trailcam pictures of lions.Huntnphool has posted some of them for me under Trailcamera Pictures.They have learned to hunt my feed piles where we feed the deer.I have had 2 hunters in the last couple years that have watched them kill a deer on the grain right in front of them.One even came under the tree stand and got within 5 yards before he jumped it and killed it in the grain.This has made the deer really on edge when they are feeding and makes it hard for a hunter to move at all in the stand.We have since added lion to most of our hunts so that our out of state hunters will purches a tag incase they see one.Except Califorians because they can't take one home.Our Washington hunters usually always have a tag.This picture is one that was killed on one of our deer baits It came up behind the hunter ,sniffed up the ladder stand and then went to the grain and he shot it.You can barely see the ladder stand to the right.So don't let anyone tell you you can't bait a lion with grain !! Which is LEGAL !!  

[JBR]

Geez...tough crowd.  I better have it analyzed at Quantico before I think twice about sharing.  Make a guy feel like he's trying to pull the wool over everyone.  Saw it, thought it was neat, posted it. My bad.

[boneaddict]

Don't fret JBR.  Thanks for posting it.  It hit MM about a year ago, and was analyed by the possi.  IT was deemed photoshopped, but whose o say.  Appreciate you sharing something cool.  I'm sure many haven't seen it.  Its sort of like the mule and cougar pics.  they show up, some haven't seen them some think they are fake, some don't care.  You can't take a cool picture these days without bein critiqued thanks to photoshop.  Don't stop sharing.

[bobcat]

So don't let anyone tell you you can't bait a lion with grain !! Which is LEGAL !!  

Now that's one cougar hunting technique I have NEVER heard of!

[Outfitter]

I am new to this site thanks to Bobcat. There does seem to be alot of negativity on here.I don't know why someone would fake a photo like that. Seems totaly real to me.

[Skyvalhunter]

Hey Outfitter do you guys score pretty good on cougars?

[Buckshot Bill]

That's a cool pic no matter what anyone says

[Outfitter]

We get a couple a year.If I could get all of the hunters to buy tags we would probably take 12-15 going off the sightings.The problem is our hunters have to buy a bear tag to get a lion tag even after bear is closed for the year.Alot of them won't do it for such a slim chance.When they first closed lion season in 96 to hounds you could buy a out of state lion tag without bear for $50.

[huntingnut]

Cool pic, thanks for posting.