Thread: Mountain lion killed in Arkansas.

A really good friend of mine, a retired Agri teacher with over 33 years of teaching experience, grew up in Hermitage and still hunts there with members of his family. His deer stand is not more than 2 miles from where the cat was shot and killed. He had been walking to and from his deer stand early in the a.m. and after dark in the p.m. and had no idea the cat was out there. Though it probably was not waiting to spring out from the underbrush to attack and eat a man, I guess if you walked up on one in the dark.............maybe something bad could have happened. He told me that he thought that cat probably came from the Felsenthal area and may have been introduced by the AG&F to that area from another state. Just his 2 cents. GTT

I think it was a house cat with some good photography. At least they could have put a coke can or something beside it so we could have told how big it was.

Kitty that stays in it's habitat is a good kitty. kitty that gets around too many people like near hermitage is a bad kitty. It's all fun and games until a 5 year old child gets attacked by one of these cats.

Originally Posted by GoTennTitans

A really good friend of mine, a retired Agri teacher with over 33 years of teaching experience, grew up in Hermitage and still hunts there with members of his family. His deer stand is not more than 2 miles from where the cat was shot and killed. He had been walking to and from his deer stand early in the a.m. and after dark in the p.m. and had no idea the cat was out there. Though it probably was not waiting to spring out from the underbrush to attack and eat a man, I guess if you walked up on one in the dark.............maybe something bad could have happened. He told me that he thought that cat probably came from the Felsenthal area and may have been introduced by the AG&F to that area from another state. Just his 2 cents. GTT

I heard something about the Feds at one time looking to spread out the endangered Florida Panther. Never hear if they actually did it but you can bet if it was that man better stick to his story!

Originally Posted by arkcrappie

Breeding population? Yeah we do have a breeding population. We have a black one and a tan one on our club. We get to see them once or twice a year. They stay to themselves. The tan one we have is a female. She had one cub with her last year.
I'm not scared of them. There's enough stuff for them to eat that I don't fear them attacking me. And they are beautiful animals. We got a picture of ole momma cat just a couple of weeks ago on the game camera.

Are you talking about a hunting club or country club? I Only ask cause if it's a hunting club ya'll must not mind your fawn population methodically depleted............ That " beautiful animal " is a baby deer killing machine!

Originally Posted by midcarolina

Are you talking about a hunting club or country club? I Only ask cause if it's a hunting club ya'll must not mind your fawn population methodically depleted............ That " beautiful animal " is a baby deer killing machine!

You can put that argument up on coyotes, hogs, etc. I'm sure the cats eat some fawns, but so do the bears. We can't kill off everything in the woods to save our fawns. I'm sure the cats eat rabbits, beavers and other wildlife as well.
I look at it this way, I'm in that's cats house it is not living in mine. I'm not killing anything such as a cat unless there's good reason.

Yeap........... You are right they will and do eat anything that won't eat them............. And there lies the issue they have no predators except man, Kepp letting them breed and one day soon you will wonder why you have NO small game and the deer just don't seem to be as numerous as they once was.............you are talking about a predator that is not native to the area......... atleast not for many, many years.
Count up all the predators you have in your area..........it's likely to be something like birds of prey, coyotes, bobcats, and apparently mountain lions............

But it's your area.......... who am I to care if you would rather have large predators on you land and less game animals...............

Midcarolina, "my area" consists of the White River Refuge. There are lots of predators there. Probably one of the last ares in this state that had cats, just like it was one of the last places in the state to have bears.
I'm not some kind of predator protector, but I can't just kill something because I don't like it. In this area the deer population is doing quite well and has been for quite some time. Between the bears, cats, gators and over abundance of hogs, it makes the place quite interesting to hunt and fish.
And you are correct, it is not for you to say whether or not "large predators" are eating up our deer and depleting our small game. I'm sure the AGFC would tell us to rid ourselves of every predator over 100 pounds if the game started disappearing. I hope it doesn't come to that as i would fit into that category.