lion on trail cam

[ForkHorn]

Interesting discussion. A lot of this is hearsay. If you ever get the chance read "Prey Availability and Selection by Mountain Lions in the Aravaipa-Klondyke Area of Arizona" by Stan C Cunningham. It's a study done by a rather well known and great Arizona Game and Fish biologist that is now one of my professors at Arizona State University. He also took part in the Three Bar study mentioned which is another worthy read. Any study published in a peer reviewed journal is completely scientific and unbiased.

 

A lot of interesting facts and conclusions can be discerned from both studies but neither study should be taken as an all concluding decision. What is true for one area or instance will never be true for another.

 

That being said, one of the many things that can be gleamed from the Mountain Lion study is that lions seemed to choose Cattle and Javelina over deer. Why? My guess is its a lot easier to catch a cow or a javelina than it is to sneak up on an elusive Coues deer. While deer did make up a fairly significant portion of overall biomass consumed (second behind cattle) thats because they weigh a lot more than Javelina or the countless small game caught.

 

As far as the Three Bar goes, yes deer numbers went crazy high (as many as 118 in less than a square mile) inside the fence. Yes, predation has an effect on that. In my opinion, stress is a much larger factor (stress can be fear of a predator attack). Deer inside the enclosure had little to no stress placed on them from outside factors. Not all fawns that died outside the enclosure were the result of being killed by a predator. Predators can be key, but the outside factors (like water) are even more key.

 

The reason why private Texas Ranches (low and high fenced) can produce the numbers of deer that they do are because of how intensely they can manage a lot of those factors. (Including predators at times) Public land is a whole different animal.

 

Predators are and always will be a large issue, and for good reason. However, Arizona has many other (and much bigger) problems that are hurting our wildlife that do not include predators. Fragmentation, habitat loss, and drought come to mind pretty quickly.

 

Isn't this stuff fun? I can't get enough of it.

[.270]

the azgfd's decision to just arbitrarily take away 25% of lion season didn't help much either. Lark.

[tjhunt2]

I was fortunate to see my 14th lion just last week on my archery elk hunt. It was hauling A$$ along the control rd when I drove up on it. Then 30 minutes later had an eagle fly over me at 30ft. What a great day it was.

 

TJ

[.270]

you need to start shootin' them things tj. i've spent my life in lion country and i've only seen a few lions that weren't in a tree or a trap. i guess i need to spend more time glassing. the ones i did see, except one, i killed tho. 14 lions is pretty cool. you've been real lucky. i've seen a few on kils that were so full they couldn't run away, but i don't really count them. lions be sneaky. Lark.

[tjhunt2]

you need to start shootin' them things tj. i've spent my life in lion country and i've only seen a few lions that weren't in a tree or a trap. i guess i need to spend more time glassing. the ones i did see, except one, i killed tho. 14 lions is pretty cool. you've been real lucky. i've seen a few on kils that were so full they couldn't run away, but i don't really count them. lions be sneaky. Lark.

 

I've killed 3 is all out of all of them. My wife has seen a total of 4 but not able to shoot any. I have been blessed to have seen so many. No guides on any of the sightings. Just beeing at the right place at the right time. LUCK!

 

TJ

[CouesWhitetail]

you need to start shootin' them things tj. i've spent my life in lion country and i've only seen a few lions that weren't in a tree or a trap. i guess i need to spend more time glassing. the ones i did see, except one, i killed tho. 14 lions is pretty cool. you've been real lucky. i've seen a few on kils that were so full they couldn't run away, but i don't really count them. lions be sneaky. Lark.

 

I've killed 3 is all out of all of them. My wife has seen a total of 4 but not able to shoot any. I have been blessed to have seen so many. No guides on any of the sightings. Just beeing at the right place at the right time. LUCK!

 

TJ

 

 

I have seen about as many as TJ but most have been while working or hunting on San Carlos. never had a tag at the time. Got to watch a group of four years ago. Looked like a female with young from two different years. It's easier to get up to seeing 14 lions if they are in big groups like that! I saw two napping together one year while whitetail hunting on San Carlos years ago...no lion tag though! And you guys might remember the video of that one I walked up on that was caught in a leghold trap on San Carlos just a couple years ago. There have been many other lion sightings as well.

 

The only lions I have killed are two that we were capturing and collaring on San Carlos and things went badly. One of those we tried to collar a half-drugged lion by using ropes to secure it. That didn't go well and was a pretty crazy experience of trying to hold onto the tail and ropes on its legs and head. That got a little Western for sure....

 

here is a link to some video of that encounter with the lion caught in the leghold trap:

[.270]

i've had to tail a few to get em off a dog or some other chaos infested fiasco. it's a thrill for sure and you hafta keep em really swingin' so they can't come back at ya! the best way to tranquilize one is with a 9mm. i've heard a .22 works too, but they're illegal. Lark.