You'll never guess...

...what we had in our back yard this morning!

A mountain lion!! :O

Unfortunately, I didn't see it, but my 12 year old did. (Through the windows...she wasn't outside!) She came running to get me to show me, but it was gone when we both looked out. She didn't get a good look at it as it was moving away from the house and through the trees, but she saw the tawny tan color and the black on the back of its ears. She thought it might have been a bobcat, but then she mentioned that it was bigger than a German Shepherd! Based on her description, I'm inclined to believe it was a mountain lion.

Just shortly after that, we were driving to school and the local news on the radio said for folks on the outskirts of town to not be surprised to see more wildlife like bobcats and mountain lions in or near their yards because of the drought we've been experiencing. Our backyard borders on a large expanse of open desert and we are just a couple miles from the base of the mountains.....so.......

I'm torn between hoping we see it again, and not really wanting a mountain lion anywhere near our yard where the kids play! :confused:

Yeah, Mountain Lions are nasty things.


If you think you'll be seeing more of them for a while I would reccommend getting a big smart dog. They'll sense the lion, and the lion will leave. ML's and bears were common where I grew up, but the ML's never approached while a dog was around because it spoiled their edge. Bears on the other hand? I've been too close for comfort too many times.

Wowee.. that's cool, but scary at the same time.

Around here I've seen two coyotes in the neighborhood within the last two months, and before that I'd never ever seen one.

Ohh I grew up in Az, for me thats normal, the coyotes come down too and you do have to watch small children who play outside there, depending on exactly where you are, your local news will be good about telling you those things really. I have lots of pics of mt. lions that had come into my yard, and coyote, and javelina.... heck, we have even eaten javelina. I got to look through pics now..hehehe.

Just keep all trash out of thier reach, animal food bowls and stuff inside, dont give them much of a reason to hang around you know?

We've got packs of coyotes around here. We hear them yipping and howling all the time. They're pretty cool, actually...so long as you don't have an outdoor cat! :O


As for the dog....that would be a really good idea, except we're renting this house and no pets are allowed. :( (Well, things that live inside glass cages are ok! LOL) We took my sister's German Shepherd up in the mountains camping with us, and I'm quite sure she scared away a cat or two with her barking in the middle of the night. (Scared the bejeezus out of me, too!! LOL!!)

EDIT to respond to Jeanne: We've seen Javelinas right by our front door, munching on some bushes there. That was really cool. The wildlife around here is definitely one of the reasons Tucson is my favorite city in the world! But I honestly never thought we'd get a lion in the yard!!

I have always wanted to see a mountain lion in the wild. I love critters ;)

...if you worry about you kids outside now....go buy some small air horns for them to carry in their pockets....if mountain lion gets close, let the horn sound....then the mountain lion will run away from the kid and Judy will run toward the kid...

....I carry an airhorn for several reasons when I go out in the woods...and one of them is incase a black bear starts stalking me....one toot with the horn and they will be gone ;)

Bears freak me out. I think they're ugly scary things. I'll have to remember the airhorn thing. ;)

Daniel, that is REALLY a great idea. Of course, I'd have to figure out a way to make sure they don't use the air horns as toys....Goodness knows how much kids enjoy anything that makes noise! But I will definitely consider that and see if I can find a way to make it work.

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Originally Posted by Shelby

Bears freak me out. I think they're ugly scary things. I'll have to remember the airhorn thing. ;)

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They are an endangered species around these parts but the national park that I hunt in has the largest population in Louisiana. I have never seen one in the woods....but my buddies have seen mommas with cubs, had them try to climb the tree they were hunting from, and had the bear 'stalk' them for a while.

Sometimes wild animals especially preditors can be hard to scare with screams and yelling. The best thing to do is make more 'unnatural' type noises....like airhorns or metal against metal contact....that usually sends them running.

The problem with Air horns and Mountain Lions is that Mountain lions are stalkers, and typically only strike when they don't think they've been spotted.


Seeing the ML in time to blow the Airhorn might be a bit of an issue.

AZ mountain lions MAY be different than our mountain variety, but from my experience, a cat is a cat.

You'd be better off sending your little kids out with a Rectic on a leash. They can hold the cat while the kids run away. :D

Personally I've never used an airhorn on a bear. Usually I found my feet ended negotiations before the conversation even started.

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Originally Posted by srozell

Rectic on a leash.

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You know, the sad thing is they actually make snake leashes. There was a thread on it oh so long ago..

Hey Judy, what side of Tucson do you live on? Just curious...my aunt and uncle live off Tanque Verde, right at the base of Mt. Lemon...=)

We almost always see something interesting in "their" bit of desert around the house when we go over for Xmas...

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Originally Posted by cassandra

Hey Judy, what side of Tucson do you live on? Just curious...my aunt and uncle live off Tanque Verde, right at the base of Mt. Lemon...=)

We almost always see something interesting in "their" bit of desert around the house when we go over for Xmas...

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I'm right over there on that side of town. I cycle on Tanque Verde from time to time and just live a couple miles from the eastern end of that street. Mt. Lemmon is practically in our back yard. It's gorgeous!

I have yet to see a mountain lion in Minnesota where I live, but about a half hour drive where my grandparents live in the country my uncle went outside in the early hours of the morning because the dogs were barking so bad. There was a huge mountain lion that started to growl at him and not back down to shouting, my uncle had luckily taken his revolver outside with him (black bear are coming in to the area also) and he shot near it to scare it, it ran off into the woods. Come to find out it was a huge male that had been slaughtering the whitetail deer in the area, but had become a nuisance when it came too close to homes, so the DNR put it down. Last I've heard there have been sightings of more.

Most of the people around here don't mind them killing off deer, we all know they help to keep down the numbers of our overpopulated deer, but when they start to come in to farms and small towns its too late for them.

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Originally Posted by Shelby

You know, the sad thing is they actually make snake leashes. There was a thread on it oh so long ago..

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Snake leashes???!!! Oh must have one of those ... however did they reckon they'd stay on? :disbelief

Well reading these posts makes me kinda glad I live in the UK - I'll stick to the wildlife channels :D

http://www.snakewalker.com/index.html

Nope I haven't seen a mountian lion in my yard yet. I'm too busy chasing off the western diamondbacks:D

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Originally Posted by JLC

I'm right over there on that side of town. I cycle on Tanque Verde from time to time and just live a couple miles from the eastern end of that street. Mt. Lemmon is practically in our back yard. It's gorgeous!

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Jeez, if you live on that side of town and you are a cyclist, you might know my aunt and uncle, who are amateur racing cyclists...Barb and Ted Frohling on East Summertrail, around the corner from Aqua Caliente? =)

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Originally Posted by cassandra

Jeez, if you live on that side of town and you are a cyclist, you might know my aunt and uncle, who are amateur racing cyclists...Barb and Ted Frohling on East Summertrail, around the corner from Aqua Caliente? =)

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I'm very new to cycling and ride with a somewhat small group. However, I'll bet Barb and Ted blew past me somewhere along the way in the El Tour de Tucson this past November! LOL

Thanks for the link, April - now I've seen it all - but amazingly remain unconvinced :D Anyone tried one?

We lived for a time in the Canadian Yukon. There's areas in BC and up that way where both black and grizzly bears live. Black bears in their cinnamon phase look a lot like an immature grizz. Here's the "advice" the locals gave us to properly ID a bear.

1) Run up and kick unidentified bear square in the nose!

2) Run like heck and climb the nearest tree.

3) If it's a black bear it will climb up the tree....and eat you!

4) If it's a grizzly bear it will knock down the tree....and eat you!

:D

They also used to tell us greenhorns to tie bear bells onto our backpacks when we went into the bush. We did till we heard the oldtimers commenting on how nice it was that "the cheechako's were wearing their dinner bells"....ACK!


~~Jo~~

Wow, its definitely gotta be an exciting and aprehensive time for you! The air horn is certainly a good idea in case someone decides to show up again :eek:

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Originally Posted by JLC

I'm very new to cycling and ride with a somewhat small group. However, I'll bet Barb and Ted blew past me somewhere along the way in the El Tour de Tucson this past November! LOL

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Hehe, might have...I love that part of Tucson...so pretty. =)

Man I LOVE Tucson. My granparents live there. And I have been there twice. I went in Feb and in April. When I went in Feb I saw a mountain lion hiking at the nearly the top of ventana canyon,north of town. The one next to the sweet resonrt. That place is so cool

Two summers ago, when I was at my crazy Uncle's ranch, he said he was going to move some of his agrassive steer (neutered male bulls)to a different patch of grassland so I decided that then was a good time to take a shower. Unfortunatley, it was one of his houses that he built so it had ne air conditioning, central air, etc... So before I got In I went and opened the back door :thumbsdow (big mistake especially since he took his four dogs with him)! So I was in the shower then when I was done, I went out Into the livingroom and shut the back door! I turned around and to my extreem shock! There was a mountain lion or cougar:eyepoppin not but 10 feet away from me!

my first reaction was to get one of my uncle's guns or a hunting knife but there were none in reachung range. So I decided to very, very slowly open the back door, after, I just stood extreemly still and controled my breathing.
Someone must of been on my side that day because the ML or Cougar relaxed and proceded to leave:D !!

In the end, I was fine. Just really really spooked and I will never leave any door open again!
Dont ever make that mistake when you have small children!

now I'm scared of going to my Uncle's from all the stuff the happened, lol

yep, well out here on Long Island we get our R.O.U.S,es but for some reason i've yet to see a ML or a coyote:P ;)


ps whats a javelina?

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Originally Posted by alexrls

ps whats a javelina?

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....it is like a small wild hog....tasty :hungry:

...brb with a pic :)

....here you go: http://www.desertusa.com/magnov97/no..._collpecc.html

fasinating little piggies they "will attack in groups if one of them is injured" now thats a survival skill

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Originally Posted by alexrls

fasinating little piggies they "will attack in groups if one of them is injured" now thats a survival skill

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yep....they will charge and rip apart anything in their path....I have never hunted javies....but I have hunted wild boars....nasty attitudes on those guys.....not to mention they are nature's tanks.