Bad Cat

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Art Eatman

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A cougar attack in Big Bend National Park.

http://www.alpineavalanche.com/news/article_70cc6ff4-5111-11e1-990d-0019bb2963f4.html

"A mountain lion attack occurred on Feb. 5 in the Chisos Basin area of Big Bend National Park. A six-year-old boy received non-life-threatening injuries during the attack."

No other useful information.

FWIW, this is the first such attack in the last dozen or more years. In one of the three previous incidents, a similarly-aged child was attacked in this same general vicinity. The high Chisos have a good bit of timber cover. Fair population of deer and javelina.
 
Wow. Sounds like the kid got off easy. Not sure how trackin' down one animal will do much. Ain't like lions turn bad or something, he was just doing what lions do.

6 year old? Perhaps the parents should be investigated for neglectful supervision. :rolleyes: I guess that's my late wife (CPS social worker) talking through me, but really....
 
Lets leave CPS in town where they belong until you find out if the child was a long ways from the parents. The article doesn't say where he was in proximity to the parents, so they might have been only steps away.....

Sux about the kid tho, glad he's ok.
 
Would a 6 year old without point of operation supervision seriously be considered neglect?

This is why cougar hunting is good, brave cougars get shot, cougars who leave people alone and are wary tend to survive and don't cause much trouble.
 
More info ---

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/Mountain-Lion-Attacks-Boy-in-Texas-Park-020612

Boy walking with three other people near lodge, attacked by a reportedly young lion in poor condition.

There have been incidents with lions near the observatory there at Fort Davis over the years, not quite a stone's throw away. Someone's dog got taken at one point. The Superintendent made the mistake of leaving his outside basement door open and almost got run down when he disturbed one and it squirted out the door. One of the telescope operators got himself treed in a tower 'cause he heard what he described as one "screaming" --- happened about the time there had been sightings and another pet went missing --- astronomer on duty missed him and went out and got him. And just recently there was a deer carcass with evidence of cat.

Oh, and my wife just reminded me --- the reason the Superintendent had left the basement door open was the house was full of moths. They figured if they left the door open in the basement, they could draw the moths out. Lucky they didn't get a skunk or a raccoon for their troubles --- city slickers.

Folks don't always associate West Texas with deer, elk, javelina, pig, bear, and mountain lion, but they be there. I don't think the ranchers much tolerate the lions, but there's lots of space.
 
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I don't know if the McKinneys are still in the lion-dog business. I think Roy McBride is dead, now; he used to train and work lion dogs.

A previous attack by a young male lion was on a six-year-old who was close to his parents; at least not far. His ten-year-old brother tried to help but was bitten, although less severely than the younger boy. The father beat the lion off with a stick.

Searching and tracking turned up a nearby dead deer, covered with brush. The next day, a lion was found in a tree nearby and was shot. Autopsy of the lion's stomach showed human hair of the same color as the younger boy's.

Anyhow, if this lion was in poor condition, it just shows how this drouth has affected everything. At my house in Terlingua, I've had no rain since last August. In the previous year, 1/4 of one inch. 0.025"--and that was in three separate "showers".
 
Yup dry as can be in kansas. Gonna be bad this summer. Would have been interesting to see that fellow work his dogs and track it.
 
Dogs would have a very hard time tracking a cat in extremely dry conditions. There are a couple of outfitters in New Mexico, if I recall correctly, that have some really good dry track hounds. They should give them a buzz if they are serious about tracking it.
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^+1

I know a former Game Warden and director of the New Mexico Game & Fish Dept.

He was very involved with the control of Mountain Lions around the Carlsbad area and would know of anyone with good dogs.
 
The drought is no doubt the culprit. We got a significant rain, first in a long while, a few days ago and more is forecast. Bring it on. We were over 20" behind if last year was included. We have a lot to make up, but we got good rains in the watershed so it's looking up. It all came in from below the bend, in Mexico and across. Guess it just missed you all.

Child neglect,huh? You and your wife must have the super human ability to detect a stalking cat. And thats the state of liberty in the US. Case workers....
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For the record, I was speculating since there was no info in the report. Me, I'd have shot the thing. I carry a gun all the time, everywhere. I guess most people don't. Sounds like the dad did all he could do with what he had at hand. And, you don't have to worry about my wife, she passed away a little over 2 years ago. She was a good woman, very caring, and her job was tough largely because of attitudes like yours. A few of death threats over the years. You have no idea what kinds of folks she dealt with, scum of the earth, trash. In the end, no death threats were carried out on her of all the ones she and I got, was a natural cause.

We stayed in the lodge in the bend one night last spring. my new wife and I. I sat and watched folks hiking a trail below our room, watched carmen mountain whitetail on that trail in the morning. The game is thick around there. But, that was nearly a year ago. Probably a lot dryer if it hasn't rained in THAT long.
 
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maybe throw some road kill out there for it, its just a cat doin its cat thing, any repercussion to this other than keeping an eye on you kid is crazy. It would be like hunting down the "Killer Shark" that eat a surfer, Jaws crap :banghead:

dont get me wrong i feel for the kid, that got to be scary. when i was i kid i wondered around on my own quite a bit so my parents instilled a fear of things like this happening, i was a really small kid a large owl prolly could have dragged me off

Ya i took me years to feel comfortable in the dark but theirs not a lot that can sneak up on me eather. It worked out if you ask me, things you know nothing about are much more likely to cause you harm, and its pretty hard to know about what you CANT SEE.
 
Update:

"A six-year-old Austin boy is recovering from his injuries after a mountain lion attacked him near Chisos Mountain Lodge in the Big Bend National Park on Sunday.

According the Kristi Harris, the mother of the boy, the family was headed back to their hotel after eating when the mountain lion came out of the woods and attacked six-year-old Rivers Harris.

David Elkowitz with the Big Bend National Park told CBS 7 that this was actually the second attack of the day in the same area.

Elkowitz said the mountain lion tried to attack another family but was fended off by a backpack.

A hunting team is looking for the cat right now and three areas of the park have been temporally shut down until the cat can be found.

Both families have told CBS 7 the mountain lion looked, "small, young and in bad shape (malnourished)."

This is a paved, parking lot and driveway area with sidewalks. A distance of less than a hundred yards.

In the email which sent me this, there was a comment that a TV interview revealed that the father had stabbed the lion with a knife in rescuing his son.
 
This is why cougar hunting is good, brave cougars get shot, cougars who leave people alone and are wary tend to survive and don't cause much trouble.
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Occurred to me this morning driving to work that there is another benefit to hunting lions. That is, of course, since the drought has reduced carrying capacity, these boogers are surely over-populated as can be seen by the condition of the cat as described. I don't know how much the cats would learn from hunting, but cutting their population size, especially in a drought, is not only prudent, but the humane thing to do. Of course, this is a national park, so good luck on THAT. :rolleyes:

Wow, right in the drive/sidewalks from the restaurant to the lodge! We walked that a few times. I told Holly, "SEE, here's another reason to be armed." I don't know if I'd wanted to go shooting there, people all around, and I always have a small can of pepper gas on me, but if I had a 6 year old being mauled, by golly, let the .357s FLY! I'll deal with the park rangers after I kill the cat and there ain't THAT many folks milling about up there, usually, and if he got close enough to stab, he could have shot DOWN on the cat into the ground behind.

Knife? Well, seems to have done the trick if that was the case, but if he knifed the cat, it must not have left much of a blood trail. That rumor sounds fishy.
 
I'm sorry about your wifes passing, mc. She sounds like a very good person. Sorry about my thoughtless comment.
 
I lived in Southern California for 25 years and Mt. lion attacks are a regular occurrence there. For some reasons the morons there seem to think it is better for people to get attacked and killed by them instead of hunting them. They would rather go further into debt paying obviously ineffectual professional hunters than letting F&G sell tags and get payed to let the citizens take care of the problems.
 
Tough for the kid. Sounds like the cat attacked the smallest, and perceived weakest, victim which is what predators do. I don't see any way to fault anyone in this scenario. Any time there is a proximity of people to animals this can happen. A friend of mine was attacked by a rabid fox a few years back. He and his family were having a cook-out on their front deck when the fox came across the yard and bit the smallest child. They chased it off and it came back and bit the mother before they could shoot it. Lots of pain for both of those victims.
 
I lived in Southern California for 25 years and Mt. lion attacks are a regular occurrence there. For some reasons the morons there seem to think it is better for people to get attacked and killed by them instead of hunting them. They would rather go further into debt paying obviously ineffectual professional hunters than letting F&G sell tags and get payed to let the citizens take care of the problems.
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California is the land of idiots. Sorry, really sorry, if you're from California. :D

Walking around that lodge in the morning, there are Carmen Mountain whitetail all over grazing on the lawn and such. They probably feel safer around people than in the woods. I'm sure the predators know that and are attracted to the lodge for that reason in tough times. The kid just looked tasty to a hungry cat. It's just what cats do. They will go after the weakest so as to expend as little energy as possible and take less injury risk.
 
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