Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire There are no Cats in East Texas

Any game warden around here will state that there are no cats in East Texas, so this must be an alligator....

Big gator, wonder if he caught him in the swamp.

What part of east Texas? powdr

Just like wolves in California. Nice gator.

What does that gator way?

Heard gator is good, I wouldn't eat that gator...

I'll play devil's advocate.

How do you know that it was killed in East Texas? Do you personally know the guy in the photo?

The reason I ask is because a photo of a hunter holding a mountain lion like that was posted a couple of years ago on a Mississippi hunting forum as proof that there were cats in Mississippi. It turned out later that the photo was taken somewhere out west.

Don't know where that Cat was killed, but that photo has been circulating on the web for 3 or 4 years now. It's been sent to me in emails from different hunting buddies who received it from other hunting buddies, and each time, it's been supposedly killed in a different region of TX. One email even claimed it was killed in some guys backyard in Dallas.
I know there are big Cats here in TX, as I've seen two personally on our Ranch, and one on a friend of mines Ranch in Coleman County TX. So I'm not disputing the fact that we have a pretty decent population of Mountain Lions or Cougars, or whatever you prefer to call em, here.
But by the looks of the size of that particular Cat, I'm guessing it's from either Canada, or somewhere near the Canadian / US border.

I recall that photo too.

But I will add that mountain lions are alive and well immediately adjacent to San Antonio (been at least one or two on Camp Bullis for years, with occasional sightings in adjoining parks), and thirty years ago a girl I was dating saw one on the deer lease where I was living south of College Station in sorta-East Texas, it ran across the road in front of her when she was driving in.

Just like leopards in Africa, they are so secretive by habit they can be there for years and never be seen. Never seen one myself, but I've found kills on Bullis and smelled the pugnent cat odor where they marked, and heard 'em twice in the dark from trails in said public parks.

Birdwatcher

Very true Birdy. Their range is so large and they are very secretive, so very few people ever get to actually see one. No doubt that they travel all round there in that area of the Hill Country.

By the way, I lived on a Ranch just 15 miles N. of College Station while attending TAMU, in the early 1980's.
Saw Cat tracks a few times while out deer hunting, but was never lucky enough to see one there. The old Rancher, who's family had settled that Ranch in the 1890's had seen 2 there in his lifetime.

Taking into consideration the time of year they are usually hunted, that'd be pretty short hair for a northern cat.Its a big one tho, looks like a potential B&C noggin on him,from what I can see anyway.

Have seen tracks at the lease in Comfort.Hope to see an actual cat someday.

One killed in Bradley county Arkansas a couple of weeks ago. G&F have maintained for years that there are none in Arkansas. miles

there are lions in all of TX, we have a lot down here.

we are told in Florida, that the big cats are all but extinct, and need constant protection.
Truth is, they are quite numerous, and thriving. I have seen several in North Florida, including one that I see fairly often in San Felasco State Park.

We had one running around downtown Sacramento a few months ago. They've really been hard on the deer herds here.

the same week they declared the eastern mtn lion extinct a friend who is a cop was telling me about park rangers talking about watching cats within 2 miles of my house on the shenandoah national park. all va. game wardens say that we don't have cats in va.i know better,maybe they are right and the eastern mtn lion is extinct but they won't tell you about the western mtn lions they've hauled in to control the deer population. they said we didn't have coyotes for years til everyone started killing them.

Mid 90's there were a couple of attacks on the American River trail. I always enjoyed the panic that ensued!

Well, wherever the picture was taken, it is just of someone's house cat that was misidentified by someone whose imagination is too vivid.

The last confirmed lion killed in East, TX was close to Jasper and that has been approximately 20 years ago. Earlier this year in Jan./Feb. one showed up on someones trail camera and I forget which area of East, TX. I never heard the outcome if it was real or not but it made some media coverage.

Interesting things are happening so who knows. They are working on a possible reintroduction of the black bear to East, TX now.

Black bears are re-introducing themselves toTexas. They have been successfully reestablished in parts of Louisiana and occasionally cross the Sabine River. Also have a good population in Oklahoma, I think.

Don't forget all the bears coming over from Mexico in far west Texas.

I hope bears do flourish in Texas.

The laws against killing/possessing bears in Texas are just insane.

They've been predicting a big boom in cats in East, TX for a while now. At least the biologist I have worked with have. Pigs are a great food source and they were predicting they would follow the boom eventually.

You are correct on all counts. Lions go almost everywhere because of the size of their range, but they just don't stay in many places. Then again, most people think that even bobcats are rare because wild cats are so reclusive, and there are thousands of them for every lion.

That is some of the best gator meat I've had.

Few years back I grazed one while spotlighting. He jumped at the shot and hasn't been seen since. Turns out my scope was shooting a couple inches high.

Mountain lion, if shot outside a trap/snare is very good eating. Tastes a lot like deer meat. (Probably because they eat lots of them...)

Lions trapped or snared have been excited for way too long to be good eating.

Plenty of them in the Big Bend. They've about cleaned out the Bighorns in the Black Gap.

Bullshit !!!!! no press report, no facts. Pure Bullshit

The landowner on our lease near Menard had one show up in his backyard one night, where it was after bones & scraps from their cookout. He gave a rifle to his guest, but the man smooth missed at short range. They've made it very clear to the hunters they'd REALLY like us to shoot any lions we see. They have young kids visiting the ranch regularly and the cat spooked them.

Well I saw it on the internet!!!!!!