A cougar attacked them. They fought back for 45 harrowing minutes

[redir]

Holy freakin' shmolly! All I can say is these women are serious bad asses. And also that I need a $6,000 dollar bike!

But seriously, dang! You gotta read this story.

Don't click if you are squeamish.

https://www.kuow.org/stories/cougar-...m_term=nprnews

[tuxbailey]

Just read that and I was going to post it. Pretty amazing.

[jkbrwn]

https://forums.thepaceline.net/showt...=mountain+lion

[redir]

Ah! I even did a search for 'cougar' to see if the story was already posted. I guess a mountain lion is the same thing. We aint got them in the Appalachians.

Looks like this story got revitalized on social media.

[KJMUNC]

Originally Posted by redir

We aint got them in the Appalachians..

Uhh, think again.....you definitely have them in the Appalachian mountains. They might be rare, but they do exist.

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by redir

Ah! I even did a search for 'cougar' to see if the story was already posted. I guess a mountain lion is the same thing. We aint got them in the Appalachians.

Well, not anymore, but they used to range over most of the eastern part of North America, until they were driven out by European settlers - and some say they are starting to migrate back. Cougars have the widest range of any land mammal in the Americas, ranging from the Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes in Chile. While now primarily found only in the western US, there is a still a subspecies of cougars holding out in Florida, called the Florida Panther (after which the Miami NHL Hockey team is named).

The cougar holds the Guinness record for the animal with the most names, with over 40 names in English alone (including puma, mountain lion, panther, etc). Here in New England they were called Catamounts, and that name is still used by the U. of Vermont sports teams, a ski area in Massachusetts, and many other place and business names.

[robt57]

yikes!

[jamesdak]

Originally Posted by KJMUNC

Uhh, think again.....you definitely have them in the Appalachian mountains. They might be rare, but they do exist.

Yep, I certainly can tell the difference from a Mountain Lion and a Bobcat. Summer of 1982 up in the mountain above Endless Caverns and farther north but before RT 211. Both Rambler (my horse) and I saw that sucker and had heard it the night before and it freaked me out. It was coming off on one of the loose boulder areas that we were skirting around as it was too loose to take Rambler across. Got a nice long look. Surprised because there were talks of them being seen farther west along the WV border of the county. This mountain ridge is more isolated with I-81 and RT 11 on one side and RT 340 on the other. Still it's a vast chunk of land as I could go up there for days riding in the summer and see no one.

[Ozz]

Originally Posted by redir

Ah! I even did a search for 'cougar' to see if the story was already posted. I guess a mountain lion is the same thing. We aint got them in the Appalachians.

Looks like this story got revitalized on social media.

cougar, mountain lion, puma, panther, catamount....all the same thing...just regional names.

[72gmc]

Nittany Lion too … I’m a Western boy but I do like the word catamount.

[KJMUNC]

Originally Posted by jamesdak

Yep, I certainly can tell the difference from a Mountain Lion and a Bobcat. Summer of 1982 up in the mountain above Endless Caverns and farther north but before RT 211. Both Rambler (my horse) and I saw that sucker and had heard it the night before and it freaked me out. It was coming off on one of the loose boulder areas that we were skirting around as it was too loose to take Rambler across. Got a nice long look. Surprised because there were talks of them being seen farther west along the WV border of the county. This mountain ridge is more isolated with I-81 and RT 11 on one side and RT 340 on the other. Still it's a vast chunk of land as I could go up there for days riding in the summer and see no one.

Yup, lots of stories/sightings, but for some reason the wildlife folks always seem to say they're "just likely juveniles moving through and not a breeding population." May be 100% true, but whether it's part of a breeding population or not, they still gotta eat!

My son ran across one a few weeks ago while riding his MTB less than 2 miles from our house here in SD. We know they're further east in the Ramona area, but there aren't supposed to be any as far west as we are....yet they happen. Heck, one was walking around downtown Oceanside last week! Crazy adaptive animals....and yes, the sound is spine chilling. Heard it once while backpacking at Philmont when I as 15 and still freaks me out.

[vespasianus]

I know who I want to go mountain biking with!

[Ozz]

Originally Posted by KJMUNC

Yup, lots of stories/sightings, but for some reason the wildlife folks always seem to say they're "just likely juveniles moving through and not a breeding population." May be 100% true, but whether it's part of a breeding population or not, they still gotta eat!

My son ran across one a few weeks ago while riding his MTB less than 2 miles from our house here in SD. We know they're further east in the Ramona area, but there aren't supposed to be any as far west as we are....yet they happen. Heck, one was walking around downtown Oceanside last week! Crazy adaptive animals....and yes, the sound is spine chilling. Heard it once while backpacking at Philmont when I as 15 and still freaks me out.

If you hear or see them...they aren't stalking you!

[Mark McM]

Originally Posted by Ozz

If you hear or see them...they aren't stalking you!

So what you're saying is, if you can't detect that there's a cougar nearby, that's when you have to be terrified!

[redir]

There are rumor's of them being here but my Prof wife in the Forestry/Bio Engineering dept. worked with a lot of people who genuinely want to find them here but so far have no evidence. Of course that doesn't mean that it's impossible.

We had seen some Bob's when we lived on the farm. Their screams are haunting to say the least.

We officially have Armadillos here though which is interesting.