Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just wondering how many have ever encountered predators while shining cuts?
I'm referring mainly to top predators such as Black bears or Mountain lions.
One of my friends had a mountain lion watching him early one morning while he was herping. It would follow him and hide at the top of the cut while he walked the base. He says he never took his eyes off of it as he walked. Finally after throwing rocks, the lion lost interest and walked away.

I have startled a cougar while day herping in the Corazones, but it did't stick around long enough to photograph.

Thanks for your comments.

I shined some very feline looking eyes in the Davis Mountains once, at the end of the Boyscout road. That's the closest I've come.
Roy tells a story in his interview for the movie about one of his guests observing a Cougar attacking and catching a peccary, or javelina on the roadside.

I'd love to see that.

Dan


SmallScaleFilms

I had a mountain lion watch me from the top of the cut on six mile south of alpine back in 2004. It was a medium sized cat it never followed me but it kept its eyes on me the whole time i walked back to the truck. Iv'e also had friends jump out and scare the @##$ out of me while I was in the (zone) walking cuts. I once took a girlfriend out and she was even hunting pretty hard. She got around a corner from me and started screaming bloody murder. I thought a mountain lion had her only to run up and find she had walked up on a skunk. I was glad it did not spray her because she would have had to ride in the back of the truck on the way back.
Matt

>>>I thought a mountain lion had her only to run up and find she had walked up on a skunk. I was glad it did not spray her because she would have had to ride in the back of the truck on the way back.

That's just plain WRONG! Better to just have her strip and leave her clothes on the side of the road. Then if the smell is too strong for you, I'm sure someone would volunteer to give her a ride.

I've seen bobcats on Boy Scout the last two years in a row. Also a truly rare sight last August on a Brush country ranch near the Rio Grande-a jaguarondi, sitting in the middle of a ranch road at dusk!
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Brad Chambers

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

Yes, several times.
Once I was roadcruising a dirt road in CA and I saw a large feline cross but I couldn't tell what it was. I parked and kinda got halfway out so I could see down the hillside where it had gone and it was there. A young mountain lion about 30 yards away. He turned and looked at me for about 5 full seconds and then continued down the hill with his nose to the ground as if tracking something.

Another time three of us were in the Sierras and we frightened two black bears. I never saw them because we were walking single file but my friend in front saw them and yelled "Holy crap! Two big old bears!" as he walked into a clearing. On the other side of the clearing we could see their tracks in some mud by a stream and we went the other way.

On three occasions I have seen black bears while I was driving.

Probably my favorite sighting of a predator was when I was in Big Sur and I saw a huge shark. I was on a cliff and it was circling something about 200 yards offshore. I could clearly see the dorsal and tail fins and I would estimate it was about 15 feet long.

Well I did see a mountian lion on River Road, jumped off a low cut in front of my car and vanished across the road... Very cool..

And then there was this...?

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Herp Conservation Unlimited

>>And then there was this...?

LOL. Are you still traumatized by the encounter?

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Steve W.

Without a doubt, and who wouldn't be?
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___________________________
Herp Conservation Unlimited

You never recently mentioned the brushing up incident that happened that same day back in '94. Somehow I knew if I mentioned the word predator, this story would pop up!

We had an opportunity to see a black bear on the West side of Terlingua creek back in June, on the way to River road from the Wildhorse.

>>black bear on the West side of Terlingua creek

Holy Crap, that's a half mile from house! We moved down to Study Butte back in October. I'd love to see a bear.