A neighbor's wife down the valley shot this photo recently in a zoom mode from the back porch step. She had stopped at a window to peek at some birds in a outside feeder and spotted a large cat in the pasture, grabbed her camera, slowly opened the back door and snapped the picture. Cat took one look in her direction and high tailed it towards the woods. Frantically, she called her husband, who was doing chores and they both went to investigate the tracks. Large prints and long running leaps. They returned to the house to get a tape measure and called some of the neighbors. Soon there was quite a gathering of people. Foot prints averaged about 3 3/4" x 3 3/4". Distance between running sets of tracks 8' to 10'.

Area game warden was called, but showed up two days later. By then beef cattle had screwed up the tracks. Warden looked at picture and said...too short of a tail for a cougar.

I don't know...what do you think?

That cow pony looks pretty calm, unless he was asleep and woke up the minute the lady took the picture.

I think she saw a putty cat, as Tweety Pie might say!

i think the warden had to much to drink or maybe from michigan that what is belive here

Warden needs to get his eyes checked

Someone should be able to enlarge the image more, but looking at the proportion to fence post and the likely gap between barb wire strands, doesn't look "cougar size" to me, but does look bigger than a tabby cat. I agree that I would think that the tail would be longer, even draggin in the snow. The print measurements do sound big though.


Very interesting picture anyway. Thanks for posting.

Roundoak,

Where you at?

In fairness, the cat could be a good distance behind the fence, hence the perspective..

Around here it would be passed off as a house cat enveloped by swamp gas or a large dog with light from the planet Venus reflecting off it.

Seeing the size in that photo, including the apparent length of the tail, my best guess would be a large bobcat. A few years ago I saw a bobcat on a Texas Wildlife Management Area that was almost that big.

From Wikipedia (with duly noted caveat about using Wikipedia info):
"The adult male Bobcat is 28 to 40 inches (71 to 100 cm) long, averaging 35 inches (89 cm); with a stubby 4 to 7 inches (10 to 18 cm) tail,[11] which has a "bobbed" appearance and gives the species its name. An adult stands about 20 to 24 inches (51 to 61 cm) at the shoulders.[9] Adult males usually range from 16 to 30 pounds (7.3 to 14 kg); females average about 20 pounds (9.1 kg). The largest bobcat on record weighed 48.9 pounds (22.2 kg).[14]"
and
"Bobcat tracks show four toes without claw marks, due to their retractable claws. The tracks can range in size from 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 7.6 cm); the average is about 1.8 inches[32] (as seen in photograph at left). When walking or trotting, the tracks are spaced roughly 8 to 18 inches (20 to 46 cm) apart. The Bobcat can make great strides when running, often from 4 to 8 feet (1.2 to 2.4 m).[33]"

I'm guessing the snow might have slightly exaggerated the apparent size of the cat's paws vs. a firm imprint in mud. Everything together points to a rather large bobcat for me.

Cougars have been spotted in southern Wisconsin as of late. I think the count is up to three now.
I think your neighbor's wife is more reliable than the DNR.

I think the tail is short for a cougar too though you don't get the best look. I saw a cougar ounce and when it took off the leaps were easily double 8-10 feet. I'd say it is an over sized bobcat.

600% enlargement shows it to be a rare Lego cougar.

Bruce

its a frikkin house cat.. it aint that far from the fence.. cmon people...

AND thats REALLY a unicorn in the pic.. his horn just froze off..

Grant County

Oh, man, I gotta shoot me one of those! And get a full-body mount done, too... I'll check with Tom264 first to find out how he's getting HIS kitty mount done, now that the fellers have helped him re-define his expectations...

That is a hoot!

There have been plenty of sightings in northwestern Illinois, so why not in southern WI? A friend I fish the Miss. River with works for ComEd and is out in the boonies working power lines, and sees them around frequently. DNR here denies them being here, however.

I thought I caught a glimpse of one in Crawford Co. I didn't get a long look at it but I can't think of anything else it could have been.

I spotted a cougar next door.

I'm tellin yer wife yer Cougar huntin buddy.

If a cougar was going to live in Southern Wi the hills of grant county would be where I'd guess one to be. Been some legit cougar sightings around the state lately.

Interesting side note. At my daughters hunter safety class this fall, the DNR warden made a point of saying wolves and cougars were not non-native invasive species and could not be shot.

+1

Look at the grass/brush to the right and left behind the fence. The land rises. That cat is right beyond the fence and unless those are real tall fence posts and about 4' in between the wires....

Domestic shorthair cat, warden was right tail is way too short for a Cougar. Nice optical illusion though.

Need a phone number to call?


Not huntin', just scoutin'.

That is correct...you can shoot them in Iowa

What about an accident? Maybe the cougar lost part of its tail when it encountered a coyote, wolf or bear when it was young. Maybe it's tail got caught in a trap. Maybe it bit part of it off while chasing it's own tail.

Friggin' house cat...some people just want to believe...

A day or two after this picture was shot, a county road crew were cutting and burning brush near a county road bridge approx. 6 miles west. They stopped work to watch a large cat working its way along a timber/brush hillside.

The DNR held a cougar identification seminar last December for wildlife and law enforcement personnel...hopefully the DNR can make good use of it in the future.

The seminar was held at Crex Meadows Center, Grantsburg, WI. The host was Dr. James Halfpenny and agenda item was: "Cougar Ecology and Verification Workshop."

My verification education consisted of: If it walks like a cougar, sounds like a cougar, craps like a cougar and looks like a cougar...it must be a cougar.

Roundoak, listen, if you want to verify the possibility of that cat being real, just go to where that picture was taken. Should be easy to find. Then go over to where the cat was, you can see how far to the left of that fence post and you can see where it's feet were in relation to the bottom wire. Put a rod in the ground, go back to where the picture was taken and see how far up the rod until it meets the wire that is bracketing the top of the cat. Measure the rod from wire to wire in relation to your view from the vantage point.

If it's 12"-18" it's a kitty. If it's double that, you got a big cat. Layman's photogrammetry.

The wardens here in Minnesota routinely dismiss cougar sightings as "not a cougar" or "just a transient loner passing though." BULLPUCKEY! Heck, they've even shot a couple of them and they still won't admit there's even the slightest possibility they might actually live here. They're here. They've probably always been here, and they will continue to be here. Is it time to enlist the black helicopters to control their rampant population explosion? Heck no, but fercryin'outloud, admit a few of the big cats call this area home.

Body is all wrong also.

Sure looks like a lion to me.

In the photo I think it may have been "switching" its tail, so the tail is not straight out behind the cougar but to one side, making it appear shorter than it really is.


Casey

Bricktop?.....



Casey

Foxbat, do you work for a CSI team?

I will forward your post to the landowners and see what they think.

In the context of the picture, you can see the cat is bracketed by the bottom and second wire. The fence consists of four barbed wire strands. Typically the distance between the wires is 10 to 10 1/2 inches, which is the length of a fencing plier. Mine are all Diamond pliers, which are 10" long. Is there a mathematical solution here? The cougar can be 24 to 30 inches at the shoulder. At what distance from the camera would the cougar appear 10 inches high?

I like your thought process...I and others did not think of this possibility.

LMAO

Yep.... we need an expert here.

Hemi

I have this real neat bridge in New Yawk Citi I'll sell Y'all cheap.

Dude, cougar for sure!!



check it out, i zoomed in.



you got cougar trouble for sure.

Shoot the [bleep], and find out for sure.

We have been getting a lot of accounts around these parts lately. Had one hit on the highway earlier this week.

http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_14201789?source=most_viewed

No, but I was a photo analyst for USAF for almost a decade.

There is a mathematical solution, but it's not necessary here. You'd have to know the focal length of the camera and with so many cameras having variable zoom, the woman that took it might not even know.

Easiest means here is just to recreate it. You have the fence t-posts in the foreground and fence posts in the back ground. Stand back to where they line up as shown in the picture and it matters not what camera was used.

Have someone on the other side drive a stake or rod where it lines up with the bottom of the cats feet at the bottom wire and you know distance. Have the other person mark or tape the stake in line with where you see the top wire (top of cat's back).

Measurement from ground to mark on rod/stake is the height of your cat.

My vote is house cat. If it's actually a brunette cougar call me and I'll come tame it.

I live in southwestern ontario about 5 min from the shores of lake erie. I spend alot of time in the counties of southwald and dutton hunting turkeys, deer and coyotes. Cougars were supposed to be shot out around the turn of the century. We have had a lot of chatter on big cats in the area for more than a few years now.

I've investigated a reported sighting found tracks 5"'s across. One fella I know made plaster cast of big cat tracks at another site, big tracks fallowed by little tracks. Could it be a mom with kit he thinks so. Our MNR's official stance is these sightings are escaped excoitic pets! You can have these here and actually a man in southwald county was just muled and killed while feeding his 660# tiger last week. Made alot of head lines up here. So I'm sure some truth to escaped excotics make up some of these sightings. But I suspect there is a breeding population of wild cougars here and that is based on alot of evidenence I have seen and more heard from framing pals I have know for along time who were eye witnesses.


These thing are like ghosts. So I see no reason why you would not have them there it is part of thier original habitat.

My grandmother once saw a large black cat in her back forty. She called it a black panther and said it's tale was as long as the body. My grandfather called her crazy I remember the fraze "Your off your rocker women". A few weeks later hunter a half county over shot a big black cat! Turns out a black panther did in fact escape from a circus down state early that year. Thier farm was in northern Michigan.

Cougars, Pumas and Panther are the same animals in fact I heard one in ten northern Cougars are born all black. There is just more dark genes down in south america and Florida. A female cougar can have a 60 mile range and a male twice that. Cougars are nocternal and very shy. Can also take a deer a week they figure to feed one (lots of those here).

Sorry for pull'in a claven here

As for that photo if the track size is right it's a big bob cat.

They can't be tamed. You'll get bit like Sigfried or Roy.

I believe this picture made the rounds last year on a different forum..I think someone is BSing you. its a house cat.

I'll be spending a lot more time in the woods, I think.

================

There's a good reason why they are very reluctant to admit such and it works to your hunting advantage. Imagine what the feds, anti's and environmental wingnuts could do to hunting and outdoor pleasures if game officials admitted that the area was now home to a rare(for the area)species.

Regulations as to hunting areas,species limits and seasons could change dramatically....to our disadvantage.

That's a relly good point Isaac. Big cats are pretty like seals so I sure some group of rich californians raise more money for them than most affircan countries make.

That'd be the way I'd do it too. THEN grab the camera.

Pshaw, ya just gotta push the right buttons

Norttherndave: After carefull analysis she a fox!

He won't be around long...all the deer there have CWD.

Bingo!

agreed, a tabby house cat.

It is not confirmed but this may be an elusive Blond Wolf. Obviously in hot pursuit of it's quarry, probably small children.

Not a Cougar...prolly a Orange tabby on the prowl.

I know for a fact there are big cats in central WI.

I don't think so. Rare to the area and rare are two different things. Add that cougars are obviously doing well and expanding in their admitted ranges and I just don't see this as an issue.

I didn't read the whole thread.... if these 2 points were already covered, they're worth repeating.

Why would posters on this site call someone a liar? Tabby cats don't have 3+ inch footprints!

C'mon, ya'll. Get real, will ya?

And another thing, a cat's tail isn't stiff as a board and always strait out behind the cat. When a tail swishes side to side and is captured in a still photo it may not look, from that perspective, to be very long. A split second difference in snapping the photo and it might well have looked like the cat had no tail at all.

ps

And the guy from the DNR was "just doing his job".

They'll deny any and every evidence until it's no longer possible to deny. Then their denial will not completely go away, either. It'll simply be downsized to minimization tactics for damage control. In other words, they'll continue lying about it.... because it's "their job".

i seen one killed down here that was missing about half its tail

Stxhunter.

The half tail itself is proof it wasn't a lion. A lion is way too big to get under the hood and encounter the fanbelt therefore it must have been a common housecat

Not calling anybody a liar, just stating I don't think it is a Cougar, I think it is a domestic shorthair housecat from what I am seeing in the photo. Lions look a whole lot different and that sure does not look like a lion to me. BTW, I have seen a few real Cougar/Mountain Lions in person and I keep housecats in my home.

Yup, that's the Wisconsin DNR, professional liars for sure!

WN

Same here in Nebraska. It's beyond ridiculous.

You might be right TLEE. Might be a picture of a house cat. But what of the 3+ inch tracks 8 to 10 feet apart? Why would they tell people that?

I see no reason to disbelieve these people... and have EVERY reason to call state game agencies liars. It's really not a very good picture. But the rest of the story that goes with it is reason enough for me.

Yep, we have CWD in the herd. It adds flavor to the meat and we look at it as pre-seasoned meat.

Here's a thot.
Somebody here take a broadside pic of a Cougar (lots on the web) and put it in the same post as a copied pic of the suspected Cougar pic.
Then you compare them and make up your own minds.
Meow....

Not my intention btw to call anyone here a Liar just gave my opinion was all.

Whats a deer?

Agreed, house cat.... tracks the size quoted would be of a mighty small lion.

Its coded into each pic that ur camera takes. Just upload the original pic to photobucket or imageshack and it'll tell ya about the camera that took the pic.

I would have to respectively disagree with you, kid0917. The 3 3/4" print size quoted here is well within documented dimensions of adult cougars on several state DNR websites, MN and MI to name a couple.

It is a fact that there was a cougar in Downsville, Wisconsin. It only takes a cougar two and a half days to walk from Downsville to Lancaster, Wisconsin. A little less if he picks up the pace a bit.

If he has an iPhone, he'd simply use Google Maps:

Downsville, WI
1. Head west on Co Rd C toward 451st St/4th St 0.2 mi
2. Turn left at Co Rd C/WI-25 S
Continue to follow WI-25 S 10.9 mi
3. Turn left at US-10 E/WI-25 S 1.6 mi
4. Turn right at W Prospect St/WI-25 S
Continue to follow WI-25 S 14.4 mi
5. Turn left at Great River Rd/WI-25 S/WI-35 S 1.3 mi
6. Turn left at Great River Rd/S Main St/WI-35 S
Continue to follow Great River Rd/WI-35 S 31.2 mi
7. Slight left at Great River Rd/WI-35 N 4.1 mi
8. Turn right at Great River State Park Trail 0.1 mi
9. Slight right to stay on Great River State Park Trail 1.3 mi
10. Turn left toward Refuge Rd 1.0 mi
11. Turn left at Refuge Rd 223 ft
12. Turn left to stay on Refuge Rd 0.3 mi
13. Turn right at Great River State Park Trail 19.2 mi
14. Continue onto S Court St 0.4 mi
15. S Court St turns left and becomes Beech St 161 ft
16. Turn right at 2nd Ave SW 0.5 mi
17. Continue onto George St 328 ft
18. Turn left at Rose St 197 ft
19. Turn right to stay on Rose St 0.8 mi
20. Turn left at W George St 1.8 mi
21. Continue onto Lang Dr/West Ave N
Continue to follow West Ave N 3.1 mi
22. Slight left at South Ave 0.7 mi
23. Continue onto Mormon Coulee Rd/WI-35 S
Continue to follow WI-35 S 38.0 mi
24. Turn left at Hobbs Hollow Rd 1.8 mi
25. Slight right at Oak Grove Ridge Rd 3.3 mi
26. Turn left at Co Rd E 0.3 mi
27. Turn left at Co Rd E/WI-27 N 0.2 mi
28. Turn right at Co Rd E 7.2 mi
29. Turn left at Co Rd E/WI-179 E 1.6 mi
30. Turn left at Co Rd E/Midway St 328 ft
31. Turn right at Co Rd E/Railroad St 0.9 mi
32. Turn right at Co Rd E 7.1 mi
33. Turn left at WI-60 Trunk E 0.3 mi
34. Turn right at Elm St/US-61 S
Continue to follow US-61 S 24.0 mi
35. Turn right at W Maple St 322 ft
36. Turn left at S Jefferson St 187 ft

Lancaster, WI

It's the same cougar, no doubt about it.

Just because another cougar was allegedly spotted 190 miles away, you think there's no doubt it's the same cougar?

I checked and there is no file info/metadata in this picture.

Please, I am building my case!

/also not a lawyer

Well, on the track size.....maybe.... if they gave track info/photos of the tracks and bounding length, without the cat photot, I would be more persuaded it was a lion.

What makes anyone thing cougars can access google maps? My wife can't.

Dan

For all who are pointing to the track size and distance between tracks, those listed in the original post are in line with those of a large bobcat. Guess what, a bobcat also has a short tail (somewhere in the neighborhood of 4" to 7").

Ahh that's what I thought.

All of you are missing the obvious solution to the question- Ask Lee24 what it is!