Mountain Lions ??

[Mexico]

Rare and shy are two different things

Really I had no clue, thanks for clarifying that for me

[hoythunter02]

Don't forget about the lonely sheep

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A lot of sheep and goat ranchers in West Tx....no telling how many they kill a month.

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[bpa556]

Lions are not rare and the population is monitored by TPWD and the feds (Federal Wildlife and the USDA).

Their numbers are rising in Texas, mainly due to the transition of so much country from agricultural use (livestock) to recreational use (hunting). Livestock operations were/are huge proponents of predator eradication. Hunting operations generally allow for a more natural balance to develop/exist.

Lions are very adept at staying hidden and humans (as much as we like to think otherwise) are not very observant. That’s why cameras see them all the time and we rarely do.


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[walker1983]

I've got several pics of them on our lease near Pumpville. It's really surprising to me that they don't eat a lot of livestock. It's pretty evidnt of that due to the population of wild sheep (mouflon/barbado) that keep residence on our lease. I would have thought that the sheep would be easy prey for the lions, but they seem to keep flourishing even though we keep trying to wipe them out. To date, I have not found a lion killed sheep or deer on our place. They're there though:

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The 2015 dates are incorrect. These were all taken in 2018.

That daylight pic of the lion in the canyon is awesome. That is an absolutely huge lion.

I can promise you he’s killing his share of deer. Lots of LBs of meat to feed that kitty.


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[Gary Roberson]

I am 66 years old and will promise you that there are more lions in Texas today than anytime in my life. Reason for the population increase is more absentee landowners that are more interested in wildlife than livestock and there are very few houndsmen left that hunt lions.
Adios,
Gary

[walker1983]

Those that say they're not rare I disagree, obviously there are hot spots such as Colorado and Big Bend... but I've hunted in their prime range for 24 years and have never seen one. Zero.... and have only gotten 3 pics of them on trailcams, also got 1 picture of a bear. Seems rare to me...

Yes I agree. Even in the most highly populated lion areas I don’t think there are all that many. They must have a huge range.

Our Sabinas lease from 2014-2017 had a size able lion population. No one ever saw one, but we caught lion pics on most of the trail cameras - every picture was at night.
...And no deer would be on those cameras for a couple days after the lion pictures.

Rancher told me he thought the adult lions killed 1 deer/week.


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[RiverRat1]

They aren't rare. They span from the tip of South America to Canada.

If you like to read, check out "Path of the Puma" by Jim Williams.

I meant rare as in rarely ever seen in Texas. Most hunters have never seen one at all.

So why would New Mexico and Colorado (other States?) control them making hunters by tags and only hunt during their season? I thought there were way more in those States versus Texas.

[TxAg]

I meant rare as in rarely ever seen in Texas. Most hunters have never seen one at all.

So why would New Mexico and Colorado (other States?) control them making hunters by tags and only hunt during their season? I thought there were way more in those States versus Texas.

Revenue

[TxAg]

Check out Meateater podcast 149. Jim Williams (mentioned above) does a god job explaining all things mountain lion. It inspired me to buy the book.

[joel45acp]

Personally I don’t think I could ever bring myself to shooting one of these beautiful creatures same goes for bobcats and foxes.

[Flint knapper]

They really love sheep and goat! When I was in College, I had a fiend out at Presidio Tx that lost 30 goats one night in a pen to a big male mt lion! They caught the cat a few days later and that thing was huge!!!!

[Killer]

Big cats are defiantly a killing machine love seeing the trail cams pics!

[Radar]

I would like to see them managed in some way, they are part of our ecosystem. I would have to see actual collected data to see what the percentage of livestock is in their diet. Hard for me to imagine that a few lions could bankrupt a cattle operation.

[steve corn]

Personally I don’t think I could ever bring myself to shooting one of these beautiful creatures same goes for bobcats and foxes.

Same thing every person who hates hunters say about deer hunting.

[Duckologist]

Anyone ever kill a black one?