Found a fresh cougar kill today (updated with cougar pics)

[shanevg]

Alecvg and I went in to check my elk trail camera and were lucky enough to find a fresh cougar kill today.  We had 20 videos of elk on my camera and we were following some of their tracks around in the snow when we happened to stumble upon a site that at first looked like an elk bed but then we found a calf buried under the dirt.  After some further searching we were able to find 2 cougar tracks but the snow had a nice ice layer on top so it wasn't punching through very much to make a track.  Not a big cougar by the looks of it but it still managed to take down an elk. 

What is your guys experience on a cougar returning to its kill site.  Did we completely spook it out of there with our human sent or will her return?  We moved my trailer camera to directly over the kill site in hopes of getting some pictures of him if he returns.  We will also be back in there in the next week to see if we can stumble upon him - cougar season is still open! 

Pretty cool all around other than a cougar taking out one of my elk!  Hopefully he doesn't hang out in that area and just pick them all off.  I've honestly been quite surprised I haven't seen more sign of cougars in there considering all the elk that winter in there though. 

This is probably the calf that died.  (This video is from 1/24/12.)  Too bad no cougar on the videos.

Video of the find:

[carpsniperg2]

This time of year the kill will still be good for several days. Its hard to say if the cat will come back around and feed much after you guys really walked around the kill area. I am sure it will come back just a matter if it will feel o.k to stay there after it gets a wiff of your scent. I know several guys that have watched for cougar kills and when they find one. They set up a ground blind and wait for the cat to return. They have killed more the a few that way. The tracks do look to be small to mid sized hard to tell for sure as they have melted out a little and that will always make tracks look bigger. I hope you guys can get some pic's of the cat/s. It would also be great if you could whack it

[sebek556]

it would definitely be worth a shoot I think..

[danderson]

They will be back, probably more than one, and feed every night until its gone

[ANDERWAGON]

I can't wait to see the future pics from the kill site. 

[3nails]

 Hope you guys can get a pic!

[boneaddict]

Pretty small track....probably mom and kittens

[bugs n bones]

I would devote the nect couple days to that kill, it will come back and finish it off... You wont get a better chance to kill a cat than right now..  go set up on it and be patient

[bearhunter99]

Pretty small track....probably mom and kittens

 

[shanevg]

Pretty small track....probably mom and kittens

That had crossed my mind myself. Tracks seemed really small to me especially considering they were partially melted out.

[lokidog]

Is a cougar legal if its kittens no longer have spots?  That looks like a great place to sit for a bit.  Nice find.

[alecvg]

I might head back up there after school today for a couple of hours and see if it visited during the night.

[alecvg]

Just got back from checking the cam, 39 pictures, and the elk is now about half eaten.  We will have to wait to see the pictures until Shane gets back from his Banff trip, since I don't know how to download the pictures off the card.

[boonerboy]

 

[JohnVH]

no wonder your never at work, haha!

Good find, look forward to pics.