Mountain Lions

I just read this story about a mountain lion encounter near where we hunt in Oregon and it reminded me of the story my uncle came back with after taking his wife elk hunting this past year.

My uncle, Rob, was glassing a ridge full of elk – and watching in particular a nice bull that his wife, Martine, would later shoot. He happened to stick the spotting cope on a particular cow when he noticed movement in the corner of the spotting scope. The cow was feeding on a wide open meadow, but pretty soon Rob could tell that the motion was a cougar putting a stalk on this cow. Suddenly, it lunged from the ground and knocked the cow tumbling over the ridge and out of sight. It took a few moments for Rob to even realize what he just witnessed. Because of the more important task at hand (i.e. taking this nice big bull) and the fact that this is big, steep country, they never did get over the ridge to see what had become the final fate of that cow. I can venture a guess that it was not a good future for her. This has become a legend in our family in a very short time – as it isn’t often a person witnesses nature doing what it does in that way. I’ve often believed that cougars would not pick on such a large animal as an elk unless it was wounded or had some other advantage. Recently, I also came across this gallery of photos that shows a cougar who tried taking on a large bull elk. The story with it claims the bull walked away from this encounter.  So, needless to say, that belief of mine has been debunked.

All these critters with bigger and sharper teeth than I’ve got has got me a little more cautious these days. I pack a sidearm when archery hunting whereas I never thought about it just a few years ago. I know there are many people who don’t believe sidearms are necessary during archery season, but in this case I’m going to error on the side of caution – someone told my grandpa recently, “If I die hunting, I’ll die happy.” To which my grandpa responded, “Really? There are a lot of ways to go when your hunting that don’t sound pleasant to me.” And, when I think about it, he’s right. My dad has had numerous encounters with bears and the area I’ve started elk hunting in is home to a large cougar population. It is unnerving that an animal can move so quietly and be such an efficient killer.

I hope I’ve not missed any details of your story, Rob. I know you tell it much better, but it’s a story I just have been itchin’ to spread!