i saw this on another site and the poster gave me the ok to post the story and pictures here. i thought some of you guys might like this story. ben howard road for those that don't know is just outside of monroe, wa just a few miles from my place.
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A friend of mine who lives out the Ben Howard Rd near Monroe sent me these photos this week. The short version of the story goes like this:
Last Sunday a neighbor told her that something killed one of her 15 sheep the night before. Neighbor covered it with a tarp and was going to call Fish and Wildlife on Monday. Monday morning neighbor said that something pulled the sheep out from under the tarp and dragged it 100' down the fence line. The sheep was missing it's throat and chest.
Fish and Wildlife was called and within an hour an agent came out with a tracker and his Redbone hounds. One look and they could tell by the way the hounds were behaving that it was a cougar kill. They tracked it down a neighbor's driveway, behind a shed and within 20 feet of the house, then through the back yard and down into a steep ravine in the back yard. About 100 yards from the dead sheep. At that point the hounds were turned loose.
Down in the gully the hounds' baying indicated they'd found the cat. They moved down the gully a ways then stayed in one place. At that point the agent and the tracker went down in, and after a few minutes 2 shots rang out, then the dogs were completely silent. After about 1/2 hour, the agent and tracker came back out and said that the cougar had a radio collar on it. The ranger phoned a state biologist in charge of a cougar study (they catch and collar cougars, then track their wanderings). It was learned that the cougar killed a goat in Duvall 3 weeks prior. They tracked him then, collared him to include him in the study, and released him in North Bend. It took him 3 weeks to find his way to my friend's area- about 25 miles as the crow flies.
The cat turned out to be a 4-1/2 year old male that weighed 160 lbs. Since he'd already killed livestock and been collared and then killed again, he wasn't eligible for another catch and release.
Handsome, healthy cat for sure, certainly big enough to take down whatever he wanted, but about average as far as males go. Likely pushed into the "burbs" by a dominant male.
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here's a couple pics.
thanks itchy dog.
