Has anyone on here heard about the cougars near Wenatchee?

[Lowedog]

I imagine this is a real photo. On numerous occasions I have run across family groups of cougar hunting together in an area. The most I have seen together was a group of 6 in Ferry County many years ago. I did not turn loose on them.

This year there was a group of 3 or 4 cougar working an area for the last couple weeks (not sure, too many tracks), they are all hunting together in Ferry county. Brian cut the tracks the first time and one track appeared to be a young tom but we decided to leave them be. Brian told another dogger about them and he went and ran them and got his dogs tore up, the cats nearly killed one dog and at the vets office he said he had to chase the cat off his dog.

In 1996 my hunting partner turned loose on a group of three cats, one was a large tom. His 2 best dogs were killed and a third dog survived a bad bite to the head, but was never the same.

In about 1988ish I turned 3 dogs loose on two cats traveling together, a tom and female. One dog got sidetracked on a bobcat, but the other two dogs went through on the cougar tracks, both were killed with one bite to the head, crushed their skulls.

It is a terrible thing to lose a good dog, much less two or three dogs at once. If any dogger encounters multiple cats hunting together it is my advice you either walk away or turn a lot of dogs loose on the tracks so they can protect each other, and even then you are tossing a coin in the air for their survival.  

I have often wondered why a big tom doesn't tear into dogs when being chased.  When there is more than one cat do they just feel more confident about fighting? 

[bearpaw]

I imagine this is a real photo. On numerous occasions I have run across family groups of cougar hunting together in an area. The most I have seen together was a group of 6 in Ferry County many years ago. I did not turn loose on them.

This year there was a group of 3 or 4 cougar working an area for the last couple weeks (not sure, too many tracks), they are all hunting together in Ferry county. Brian cut the tracks the first time and one track appeared to be a young tom but we decided to leave them be. Brian told another dogger about them and he went and ran them and got his dogs tore up, the cats nearly killed one dog and at the vets office he said he had to chase the cat off his dog.

In 1996 my hunting partner turned loose on a group of three cats, one was a large tom. His 2 best dogs were killed and a third dog survived a bad bite to the head, but was never the same.

In about 1988ish I turned 3 dogs loose on two cats traveling together, a tom and female. One dog got sidetracked on a bobcat, but the other two dogs went through on the cougar tracks, both were killed with one bite to the head, crushed their skulls.

It is a terrible thing to lose a good dog, much less two or three dogs at once. If any dogger encounters multiple cats hunting together it is my advice you either walk away or turn a lot of dogs loose on the tracks so they can protect each other, and even then you are tossing a coin in the air for their survival.  

Interesting. I always thought they were somewhat solitary. I was surprised when the guy who shot one by our cabin was warning us that there were 5 others together. Sounds like this isn't all that rare.

The norm is that an adult cat is solitary. However a female will have her kittens hunting with her so they learn how to survive until they are 1 to 2 years old. Also when a female comes in heat, a tom will travel and hunt with her for a week or two while he is breeding her.

[bearpaw]

I imagine this is a real photo. On numerous occasions I have run across family groups of cougar hunting together in an area. The most I have seen together was a group of 6 in Ferry County many years ago. I did not turn loose on them.

This year there was a group of 3 or 4 cougar working an area for the last couple weeks (not sure, too many tracks), they are all hunting together in Ferry county. Brian cut the tracks the first time and one track appeared to be a young tom but we decided to leave them be. Brian told another dogger about them and he went and ran them and got his dogs tore up, the cats nearly killed one dog and at the vets office he said he had to chase the cat off his dog.

In 1996 my hunting partner turned loose on a group of three cats, one was a large tom. His 2 best dogs were killed and a third dog survived a bad bite to the head, but was never the same.

In about 1988ish I turned 3 dogs loose on two cats traveling together, a tom and female. One dog got sidetracked on a bobcat, but the other two dogs went through on the cougar tracks, both were killed with one bite to the head, crushed their skulls.

It is a terrible thing to lose a good dog, much less two or three dogs at once. If any dogger encounters multiple cats hunting together it is my advice you either walk away or turn a lot of dogs loose on the tracks so they can protect each other, and even then you are tossing a coin in the air for their survival.  

I have often wondered why a big tom doesn't tear into dogs when being chased.  When there is more than one cat do they just feel more confident about fighting? 

On occasion a big tom (especially) may turn on a dog. A couple times through the years we have had dogs killed and eaten by a lone tom just like he would make a deer kill. In those cases it involved one dog that inadvertedly ended up alone. It was obvious the particular cat had no fear of the dog and killed it for food.

On the other occasions I mentioned, it was ovbvious the cat was pissed at the dogs and killed them for that reason, nothing was eaten, they were just bit in the head and left. I have actually chased more bear than cats, but cats are far more dangerous than bear. Only had 3 dogs killed by bear that I can think of right now and there have been about 8 dogs killed by cougar that I can think of right away.

[Kain]

Is it possible that back when hound hunting was allowed state wide most cats had a fear of dogs because more than likely they had been chased sometime in their lives.  Now Im sure there are so many cats (most) that have never been chased and might not have a fear of dogs at all.    

[JimmyHoffa]

There are cougars that seem to travel in groups at times.  There was a group of 3 or 4 causing havoc between Quilcene and Brinnon in 09.  The thought is that it was a female with nearly full grown offspring that were still traveling with her. As for the photo, I guess it could be true....would be nice if I could stumble upon that group.

[bearpaw]

Is it possible that back when hound hunting was allowed state wide most cats had a fear of dogs because more than likely they had been chased sometime in their lives.  Now Im sure there are so many cats (most) that have never been chased and might not have a fear of dogs at all.    

Most of our dogs have been killed after they started the permit system in about 86 or 87.

Cats get hunted a lot more in Idaho, lots of hounders over there. I have yet to have a dog killed there by a cat. Another thing, a lot more of those cats jump and take off when they see humans coming, I think they are more afraid of dogs and people from being hunted more.

[billythekidrock]

No doctoring on the original pic in this thread.

Didn't say there was.

I'm confused...  you think it's a b.s pic but you don't think it's doctored? What do you think exactly?

 

[rasbo]

Is it possible that back when hound hunting was allowed state wide most cats had a fear of dogs because more than likely they had been chased sometime in their lives.  Now Im sure there are so many cats (most) that have never been chased and might not have a fear of dogs at all.    

Most of our dogs have been killed after they started the permit system in about 86 or 87.

Cats get hunted a lot more in Idaho, lots of hounders over there. I have yet to have a dog killed there by a cat. Another thing, a lot more of those cats jump and take off when they see humans coming, I think they are more afraid of dogs and people from being hunted more.

ol Jay C Bruce used to bring in some airedales when cats started slashing up his hounds.Boy that guy has chased some cats back in the day...Good read if ya can find the book..Cougar killer...

[fishnate]

The pics are legit. Heres another.

[400out]

It looks like a great place for a land mine 

[grundy53]

It looks like a great place for a land mine 

 

[CAMPMEAT]

No doctoring on the original pic in this thread.

Didn't say there was.

I'm confused...  you think it's a b.s pic but you don't think it's doctored? What do you think exactly?

I never said that picture was doctored. I said "there are too many pictures doctored on the internet ". Some of you guys need to learn how to read. I do not believe that is true about those cats being there, that's all.

[Idabooner]

This is just a thought I’ve had a long time, what do you hounders think?  The cougars are constantly defending their kills from dogs, (coyotes and now wolves).  So would the older more experienced cats be more dangerous to the hounds?   Last spring I witnessed 5 coyotes try to run a cougar off it’s kill, after about a half hour the dogs left then come back later and tried again.  Then the time I watched 4 wolves take a fresh kill from a cat with 2 kittens and keep them treed until they had eaten and carried off the complete kill.  Then a couple weeks later I seen 3 wolves that had just taken the kill from a big tom, he was circling wide around them then left.  This has been going on for a few million years, maybe that is why a cougar runs from a hound, he has been trained instinctively. What do you think?

[hirshey]

Thanks for the info, all... I pulled them up on Photoshop and zoomed really far in and couldn't find any lines where the pixels had been altered so I was leaning towards the photo being authentic or someone taking a LOT of time to doctor the photos. Pretty impressive group! Only hound seasons open now, right? That hardly seems a group you'd want to release dogs on, though, eh?

[wsucowboy]

they look legit to me but I'm by no means a computer person. I've never seen cougars in a big group like that but I've talked to some old timers that say they have seen it like that.