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Not a cougar but close

bowmaker

Member
I had a first time experience happen over the week end while deer hunting. Saturday evening I shot a nice big doe with my Knight rifle and she ran off instead of falling down dead. I tracked her for about a half mile before it got just too dark. I called the other three guys in the group and we proceeded to track with flashlites through such heavy multiflora and evergreens that it became a bit of a nightmare. To make a long story short we followed that doe for over another mile as she kept circling back on herself and weaving in and out of some very heavy thick cover. I finally decided to back off and try to find her the next morning. Sunday I picked up the trail where we had left the night before and continued weaving through this thick stuff. As I was walking I saw a spot that liked kind of torn up and a mound of grass and dirt. When I walked past and looked back I could see a deer nose and part of a head. My doe was laying under a small cedar tree and was completely covered with grass, weeds and sticks. I uncovered her and saw a couple places where something had eaten a little and pulled of large quanities of hair. Strangly enough the Ottumwa Courrier on friday had a story about a cougar sighting near the Davis Wapello county line which can be as close as 2 miles from me. Funny how things flow through your mind some times. I have never heard of or seen any coyotes that would cover a carcuss like this, but I knew from reading that cats offten do. Here I stand a mile from my house, over what could be a cats buffette with a muzzle loader. I left rather quickly and rounded up the other guys and came back to drag the doe out and to look arround a little more. We did end up finding cat tracks arround the sight and leading off into the multiflora jungle, but they were bob cat tracks. As far as we could tell there was only one we think. when I found the doe, blood was still dripping from the palce on the front leg where the most meat had been eaten and the doe was still fairly warm. Makes me wonder how close I was to seeing Mr. Bob Cat feeding on my deer.

I had seen a bob cat last year from a deer stand last year during the late muzzle season, but about a mile away. This incident with the doe was pretty cool after I thought about it, but it sure made the hair on my neck standup when I first found it. Just another strange thing that can happen if you spend enough time in the woods.
 
Interesting. Burying a kill like that is typical for cats. You hear of it more often with Lions, but I suppose a bobcat could do it too.
 
i think i watched a bear on the outdoor channel bury a fresh kill , just before a bow hunter shot and killed him.
 
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