One male killed 18 moose in less than a year. This post was a result of Broz mention of cats.This info is from current winter edition P&Y MAG.Brief overview. 10 year study in w central Alberta,Bow valley ,Jasper,Banff, 2500-9300 ft.The big 180# tom was the moose expert and brought down a feral horse in 30 yrds. 1500 kill sites 54 cats w/gps collars. 18 lbs. of meat a day average, high was 41#'s.Males targeted adult ungulates 62%. Males 10,300 mass a year and female w/kitts 9,400 #'s. That is a big bite out of big game. I have had several friends w/dogs and been on quite a few hunts. In the earlier days when no drawing, the outfitter, and avid houndsman did well. When it went to drawing, many in my area drew no tag for multiple years and gave up dogs. I t is expensive to have dogs just for chase and that doesnt pay bills if you outfit.Now with wolf , houndsman are more carefull because wolfs are keying in on a treed cat and killing the dogs. In the last 10 yrs here are a few personal experiances. Friend out hunting on ridge behind house, hears sound, fires from hip and kills 150 # cat. My personal hunting friend, stalked 3 times, killed one at 9 yrd. long bow ID, turned it in.Same year my son was I think 13, stalked twice,same cat shot at w/bow, shot w/22 pellet gun. Same year friend cow called cat to me elk hunting. Friend gutting archery kill deer cat watching. Almost every day I WENT wolf hunting after general, saw cat tracks, 6 sets one day across many miles,different cats. The apex predators are in abundance in my area including the grizz. Which use to be rare to see. Spring bear season some years I have seen half grizz in a 20 bear count. Just a couple years back saw 5 grizz, opening archery.Seen many sows with 2 cubs, 2 yr olds. It is obvious that the game cant keep up with all pressure.
Fat Cats
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HARPERC
Well-Known Member
Pretty impressive a solo predator taking down moose and feral horses. Both are pretty tough nuts to crack. I read earlier in the year, and while I don't recall the numbers I think it was in your neck of the woods. Black Bear continue to eat the bulk of the elk calves, Mountain Lion was next inline, followed by wolves, and some that they could not find enough left of to say what happened.
Probably 20+ years ago here in Washington they found Black Bear eating 50% of the Elk calves. They pretty much decided that didn't fit with their preconceived notions. We are just this year getting a few spring tags for bear. Mostly it's a money grab they want the application fee. Eastern Washington could sustain a general spring season for bear. Hopefully, some of these Game Departments get back to basics as they watch revenues fall, and their occupy eco-buddies won't pick up the tab.
Probably 20+ years ago here in Washington they found Black Bear eating 50% of the Elk calves. They pretty much decided that didn't fit with their preconceived notions. We are just this year getting a few spring tags for bear. Mostly it's a money grab they want the application fee. Eastern Washington could sustain a general spring season for bear. Hopefully, some of these Game Departments get back to basics as they watch revenues fall, and their occupy eco-buddies won't pick up the tab.
threejones
Well-Known Member
The number of cats in our neck of the woods is increasing yearly, while game populations drop at almost the same rate, yet FWP isn't increasing the number of tags!*** I was up at Rodgers Lake over the weekend and saw cat tracks in wolf tracks (a first for me). What I didn't see, that I usually do this time of year, was elk tracks. We did see a few deer, but only half what we expected.
I was out cat hunting one day and came on a fresh forky,wolf kill. 2 wolfs, had been on road for miles, we probably spooked them, early at darkness. Later a friend drove up and a cat had found kill, they treed and killed cat. I discovered this years later in causual conversation. I spoke with a biologist that was working NFORK, years back, and a female 90# w/ kitts took down a 41 '' bull moose, she had not made a kill in almost 2 wks, desperate they thought.
threejones
Well-Known Member
I think most people underestimate just how tough a cat really is. Plus they obviously aren't scared of much when they're running on an empty belly. I asked the guy at the FWP counter the other day if he thought a big cat would readily take moose or big elk, or if this was purely out of desperation. He said some big toms will actually target bigger animals because they have to hunt less if they can feed on a big kill for a while. Too bad they won't eat the damned timber mutts!
Bud Martin
Well-Known Member
Check out the new FWP study in the west fork of the Bitterroot. Lions are the number one killer of the elk. It is also a special drawing area for lion tags and STILL the FWP biologist can't seem to figure out why all the elk are gone. Those FWP guys are real rocket scientists huh???
threejones
Well-Known Member
FWP has way too much politics involved in "game management". There's quite a few FWP employees that are forced to do things they know are total BS because of a few politicians who are farther up the food chain. It's a classic case of "A few bad apples..." Too bad it's the wild game populations and those of us trying to preserve them that suffer from political crap.
mtnwrunner
Well-Known Member
And speaking of "fat cats", I had to shoot this one about 6 weeks ago as it was terrorizing our ranch. It had made home in our barn and as far as we know, it had ate the nearby family of raccoons and 12 barn cats. My horses didn't really seem to mind that it was around as I think it had been coming and going for several weeks. It had chased our dogs around in the morning and when I went to check on the horses that same evening, it was in one of the barn stalls and ran underneath the tractor where I shot it. It was really emaciated and fish and game came out and got it---said it was either diseased or just a lousy hunter.
Randy
Randy
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threejones
Well-Known Member
Cool pics, thanx for sharing. Something was definately wrong with it, to have taken up shop a barn like that. Sounds like you did it a favor by shooting it. Hope he wasn't just getting out hunted by the stinkin wolves!
mtnwrunner
Well-Known Member
That is one of the possiblities that we thought about as we do have a fairly significant number of wolves around our place. I have found two deer kills and four elk kills around the perimeter of the alfalfa field. The deer kills were buried so i am pretty sure those were cats but the other ones were probably wolf.
Idaho fish and game just upped the wolf tag quota in our area to 40 instead of the 25 that were filled this year.
Randy
Idaho fish and game just upped the wolf tag quota in our area to 40 instead of the 25 that were filled this year.
Randy
A few years back a cat took refuge in a barn, after a hard kick by a horse,then it was shot. I n between Whitefish and Kalispell, farm and woodland area, with many housing subdivisions. I was talking to a friend that is a Pope and Young scorer, 5 cats killed near his place this fall,by F&G.
HARPERC
Well-Known Member
I've posted this elsewhere, but for those that missed it. Study In NW Montana, 40 collared Mt Lions. 3 killed by wolves, 1 killed by Grizzly. 7 starved to death from being chased off their kills by wolves, study indicated this was a frequent occurrence. University of Idaho study. You folks from MT are definitely backs to the wall.
