Panther/cougar/mountain lion shot in Louisiana

[Robboo]

http://www.ktbs.com/news/Cougar-spotted-in-Bossier-City-20856/#

Video in link. I have pictures at work of it that we took today. I will send those to my home email tomorrow. I walked outside today when they said that they had a dead panther on site. I could smell it before I saw it. Smelled like ammonia.

The article is wrong in some instances. The cops shot it after it was darted and in order to not start a problem our agents said that the cops followed procedure. The cops got scared when it moved.

I can say one thing...I have never seen a more majestic animal. It might sound weird but there was a power hidden there, a primal power. I felt sick to see such a beautiful animal dead in such a stupid manner by a idiot with a badge and a gun.

More pics tomorrow....

[mauer]

Yep, there's no way I would shoot a cougar given the opportunity [ponder]

[grahamiam]

http://www.ktbs.com/news/Cougar-spotted-in-Bossier-City-20856/#

Video in link. I have pictures at work of it that we took today. I will send those to my home email tomorrow. I walked outside today when they said that they had a dead panther on site. I could smell it before I saw it. Smelled like ammonia.

The article is wrong in some instances. The cops shot it after it was darted and in order to not start a problem our agents said that the cops followed procedure. The cops got scared when it moved.

I can say one thing...I have never seen a more majestic animal. It might sound weird but there was a power hidden there, a primal power. I felt sick to see such a beautiful animal dead in such a stupid manner by a idiot with a badge and a gun.

More pics tomorrow....

Don't they have animal control in that area? i would think they would know better than a cop. the really sad part is that it was probably some asshole's "pet" that is now dead because he didn't know how to take care of it. i don't blame the cop at all, if it was just a regular beat cop, as his job is to protect the people 1st

[Shabbaman]

A pet? Aren't cougars native in the states?

[Darkness]

A pet? Aren't cougars native in the states?


They are. But I didn't know they were also found in Louisiana. I thought they were only found in the Rocky Mountains.


A shame they had to kill the animal, but if I read the article correctly they shot it with tranquilizer darts twice and that didn't work. And because it was in a residential area they felt they really didn't have much choice after that... :(

[Robboo]

Our state large mammal biologists were the ones there to capture it after darting it. The a-hole cop got trigger happy. He shot without us telling him to.

The Florida panther used to occur here. But it is only seen occasionally. The actually have a historical range in almost all of the US yellow on this map...brown is current range. Range is defined as a breeding population.

http://mountainlion.mediatools.org/sites/default/files/file_import/0/56/5633/N_America_current_range.jpg


Here is a few more pictures. I am in a time rush right now and will set up a photobucket page or something with the 10 photos I have.


For the geeks among you... the recent DNA evidence shows all of the cougar/mountain lion/panther populations to be genetically not subspecies. What it means is that there is gene flow on the order of one genome per generation between that Florida everglades populations and the ones in the Rockies. That can only occur through small pocket populations and by wondering males. This was shown in 2000 using mitochondria DNA.

[Darkness]

The a-hole cop got trigger happy. He shot without us telling him to.


:( That sucks...

I saw a locally shot documentary on mountain lions in Zion NP, really beautiful animals, though IIRC the documentary also said that they were very reclusive animals, unlikely to seek out areas populated by humans. Was that incorrect then? Or was this particular animal just lost (or traveling to a different population) ?

[socralynnek]

I am always sorry for such nice animals getting killed.

I mean, there is normally almost no danger for huan beings. They are not used to eat humans, so they normally don't even tried to. Normally they are only dangerous if they feel the need to self-defend.

What a beautiful cat!

[mauer]

I'm looking for a mountain lion as well. Think they'll part with it?


http://blog.al.com/pr/Smith%20home3.jpg

[Robboo]

nice axis deer. My dad just killed a 200pound wild hog. It was black as night he said.

ITs getting mounted and placed next to our bald eagle we confiscated from a poacher. There is a bear in the evidence freezer that will be the next mount after the trial.

This was a young male and he was wondering around. He probably followed a water body into the neighborhood then he started exploring. In the end...curiosity did kill the cat.

[grahamiam]

In the end...curiosity did kill the cat.

*rimshot* (http://www.instantrimshot.com/)