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OKC Cougar Presence Confirmed By Trappers

Okiedawn OK Zone 7
11 years ago

For anyone who lives in and near southwestern OKC, the recent sightings of a cougar have been confirmed by trappers who are attempting to trap and remove the animal.

The news story is linked below.

I know this is not exactly a gardening-related story, except both of my face-to-face cougar encounters happened at/near my garden in broad daylight in a drought year, so I think anyone who lives/gardens in this area needs to be aware of what is lurking near them.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Boy's Encounter With Cougar Leads to Confirmation

Comments (7)

  • chickencoupe
    11 years ago

    Took me a sec to realize its in the City. That's bad. It means they're hurting for water and food. Poor things. I'm glad they're trapping it.

    bon

  • scottokla
    11 years ago

    I think it's to the point now that anyone living near a major river corridor in the western half of the state could have a cougar travel through at any time. In the eastern half there are many more corridors they can travel with prey and cover so they could be anywhere.

    The story imples more than one cougar and that they "live" there which are both not likely and are misleading. The chances of them trapping it is near zero if it takes more than a week because it will likely move on, unless it is one that has been kept as a "pet".

    I don't think the drought will impact them at all. There is (still) more water and more prey in this area than a many other area where they thrive.

  • p_mac
    11 years ago

    Holy crap...and that's putting it mildly. I got a big kick out of the comments section of that article, too. This sighting is close to where I work...and where my kids live.

    Since I live rural north of Lake Thunderbird...I've been cautious since Dawn's encounters a coupla years ago. We've had something getting into our garbage recently for the first time since I moved out here 6 years ago. We put a trail camera up and finally caught a pic. My heart stopped when I saw the image because the shape of the body & head, along with the stance said "cat"...and it was a BIG cat at that. DH convinced me it was a dog because of the two large shadows on it's body. I say "convinced"....but not really. They were shadows - not clearly marked "spots". I wish he hadn't erased it so I could post it! This animal was walking around our dumpster just after it knocked it over like it was stalking...checking it out for danger.

    I can understand and appreciate Scott's point of water & food. Unfortunately, I'm very near the water as a major creek from the lake runs just a mile and a half west from our place. We also have many neighbors with cattle and new calves. I'm hoping they continue to MOVE....far, far away. And if we get another pic, I'll post it.

  • scottokla
    11 years ago

    There is some amazing recent information on cougars that are showing up in the states like Missouri that are east of their home ranges, including Oklahoma. Not only did the Connecticut cougar have an amazing journey verified from the DNA and sightings along it's journey from South Dakota, but now there is one that came from South Dakota to Missouri and then up to Wisconsin all in its first couple of years on its own.

    Those two are recent, but two others from a while back had one sighted multiple times from South Dakota to Chicago before it was killed, and then the original one killed in Oklahoma that was in South Dakota just a few months prior. DNA testing and all of the ones collared and tracked from South Dakota in the last 10 years have shed a lot of light on what happens with young males and females between ages 1 and 3. It is amazing how much young males travel, especially now that there is no good territory left in the entire western US for males to settle down in that don't already have saturated populations of mature males.

  • Julie717
    11 years ago

    I guess the female they caught in Tulsa last year was from the Black Hills of SD, it is pretty unusual for females to travel so far.

    Sad that she ended up in a zoo.

  • ezzirah011
    11 years ago

    WOW! that took me a couple times looking at it to realize that was in the city!

    WHOA....!!!

  • scottokla
    11 years ago

    The Tulsa female is the only female to be found any significant distance from a home range in recent history. She was also the only unhealthy one that has shown up that far from a home territory that I know of, so who knows if there is a correlation there. She also had a broken foot that was healed or healing if I remember correctly.

    Missouri had more cougars confirmed last year than in many years combined before that. At least one of those is now up near the canadian border though, so who knows how many of the others are still around there. Some of the Missouri ones have had DNA come back from areas other than the Black Hills, including one from CO and one from Montana. Oklahoma has also had one from the NM area and maybe another from somewhere even further away, but I don't trust my memory on it. Amazing stuff.

    I recommend anyone fascinated by it to find the Black Hills research online. They pretty much monitored half or more of all baby cougars born in the state for a few years and know which ones stayed or left during the time, not to mention other behavior patterns. Lots of hunting for them going on there now though, so not as many leaving the area.

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