[BigBrunyon]

When the cougar presence in a given locale is dense enough, you can just play a round of "wild nights"! Thats a hunting technique where you wait for it to get dark and then shoot in all directions. Then when the sun comes up you look around to see how well you did.

[Pahoehoe]

You do realize that cougar's control their own populations, right? A single strong, healthy, smart adult male controls a large territory. He kills or drives off other males that trespass. There are studies that show hunting actually increases human/cougar conflict because if that dominate older wiser male is taken out, all the young and dumb males get to wreak havoc and they haven't nessicarily learned not to mess with people or animals belonging to people. It's big kitty anarchy.

[Ski]

^ mentioned in one of my previous posts here in this thread. unfortunately KING5 doesn't provide a link to the study itself.

[timberghost]

One has to remember with old age comes wisdom and those older male cats are cage and not as easily seen or hunted. Of the 6 cats I have seen only one was a larger cat. While the male cats have a larger range compared to the female that's not to say that you are going to have 1 or 2 cats every 150 miles. It just means that the males range can be that far. If a cat comes across a herd of deer or elk they will try to take out as many as they can. More than likely not feeding on but one. What I have noticed on trail cams is they have a routine where they may come thru an area every 30 days. But that just my observation.

[mike]

From problem getting cell service and from the released transcript of the 911 call it appears there was trouble locating them. A PLB would have helped get someone there much sooner.

[Kascadia]

[cambajamba]

[Joey]

[DadFly]

This is the time of year I carry bear spray. It can be deployed as quickly as a pistol, covers an area many times larger that a shotgun with little effort and will deter anything that breathes. Bears coming out of hibernation are often desperately hungry. This cat may have been sick or just down on its luck. My brother encountered a cat like this in Montana a few decades ago. He put it down with a bow as it was stalking him and not backing off. Same diminished status. Cats had just been taken off the bounty list so maybe there is something to the "loss of wisdom" as mentioned earlier. But a can of spray might have changed this current outcome a lot. The bikers might have escaped unharmed and the cat might have lived and learned to avoid humans. Speculation at this point. But I would be far more likely to hit an attacking animal with spray than with a bullet.

[Chief Joseph]

[DadFly]

Yup. You got me. Fire away. "This U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service publication Fact Sheet #8 – Bear Spray vs. Bullets – Which offers better protection? (pdf file) states that since 1992, 50% of all people that attempt to protect themselves from grizzly bear attacks with a firearm were injured. Those that used pepper spray “escaped injury most of the time”, and if they were attacked, their injuries were less serious and the attacks did not last as long. So if you plan to hike or hunt in grizzly bear country, get yourself a magnum sized pepper spray canister and keep it handy in a holster. It will be as useless as an unloaded gun if it’s in your backpack. I take that back. An unloaded gun can be used as a hammer." http://www.backcountrychronicles.com/bear-spray-pepper-spray-vs-gun/

[RumiDude]

Bear spray works on cougars also.

Rumi

[RumiDude]

So do chainsaws.

Rumi <~~~~~~can use a chainsaw

[texasbb]

Okay, hold on while I go weigh my chainsaw and compare it to my pepper spray.

[DigitalJanitor]

Yeah, I vote pepper spray. I'm a reasonably good shot with a .22 rifle, but I'd be lucky to hit the side of a barn with a handgun. And with my luck I'd break my arm by falling on it when I was digging in a pocket for candy.