# What does this look like to you?



## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

My DIL is freaked out because someone she knows said this pic was taken my her dh's hunting camera near where we live. Want opinions, what does this look like to you? I know we have bobcat, which this obviously isn't.


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## Pearl B (Sep 27, 2008)

Mountain lion.


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## Paumon (Jul 12, 2007)

That's a young cougar, you can tell by the tail. It has a typically long cougar tail which is longer than any other kinds of cats tails. And it's hungry, it's ribs are showing.


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## dizzy (Jun 25, 2013)

I'd say mountain line as well.


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## countryfied2011 (Jul 5, 2011)

They're a resilient, reclusive cat, known as Lord of the Forest. Their range so large that many people believe they've seen cougars right here in Middle Tennessee

http://www.fox17.com/newsroom/features/special-reports/videos/vid_416.shtml


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## BlueRose (Mar 7, 2013)

Mountain Lion


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## Roadking (Oct 8, 2009)

Yup, as said above, mountain lion/cougar.

Matt


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## HappyYooper (Jan 26, 2005)

mountain lion.. we have them here in the U.P. too


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

feral cat, picture sucks and there is nothing to show size


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## paradox (Nov 19, 2012)

Yup - you have a mountain lion.


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## foxfiredidit (Apr 15, 2003)

I'd have to say it was a great shot of a housecat, as there is obviously a house in the near background whose porch gives some relative proportion to the size of the cat, but still a bit inconclusive at any rate....so just a guess at someone's old tomcat prowling around some building. Could be a cougar, but I wouldn't spend a lot of time dwelling on it with this photo as a basis. Looks like an odd place to put a game camera.


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

The pic was taken here on the Cumberland Plateau, not far from where we live at an old dilapidated home site. I've heard people say for years that there are cougar here, not many, but a few. I'd just as soon they NOT be here! Its hard enough keeping chickens & ducks alive while fighting the coyotes & fox off. Oh well... If the Wildlife Resources guys say they aren't here, (which they do) then there's no "regulations" on shooting 'em then, right???


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## Glade Runner (Aug 1, 2013)

Tell us the dimensions of the vertical plank in the picture and we can decide whether it's a mountain lion or not. The approximate distance from the corner of the structure to the animal would be nice as well.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Mountain lion....been seeing them here for 20 years. But if you ask the Wildlife Resources folks, it's not possible.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

It's not a house cat.. the muscles and leg bone structures are all wrong for a house cat..


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

Mountain lions do not bother people much, but any dogs or domestic cats will need to be kept in. 

The natural prey for a mountain lion is deer and anything smaller than a deer. They often take colts and sometimes they attack adult horses but adult horses are larger and they buck so they are not as successful with the full grown horses. I would worry about ponies, though.


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## hercsmama (Jan 15, 2004)

Mountain lion.:runforhills:


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## vicker (Jul 11, 2003)

backwoods said:


> The pic was taken here on the Cumberland Plateau, not far from where we live at an old dilapidated home site. I've heard people say for years that there are cougar here, not many, but a few. I'd just as soon they NOT be here! Its hard enough keeping chickens & ducks alive while fighting the coyotes & fox off. Oh well... If the Wildlife Resources guys say they aren't here, (which they do) then there's no "regulations" on shooting 'em then, right???


I don't know about where you live, but in WV, where they also say there are none, the fine is $2000 for shooting one. I always doubted stories of their sighting there and here in SC, then I saw one run across a hayfield in WV in broad daylight and be and more open minded 
That said, I don't believe the photo above shows a cougar.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

Terri said:


> Mountain lions do not bother people much, but any dogs or domestic cats will need to be kept in.
> 
> The natural prey for a mountain lion is deer and anything smaller than a deer. They often take colts and sometimes they attack adult horses but adult horses are larger and they buck so they are not as successful with the full grown horses. I would worry about ponies, though.


Last year a mountain lion killed a full size adult horse and the next night another one was run into a ravine and died of a broken neck.
A couple of years ago a man was also attacked in a park in our area- his wife saved him in the end by stabbing the cat in the eye with a pen but he did not have a lot of scalp left.

It may not be common but it does happen.


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## nostawmama (Dec 29, 2011)

I would have to go with mountain lion myself. I have seen a bunch of housecats and that doesn't look like one to me!


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## WildWisc (Dec 19, 2007)

Chupacabra! :runforhills:


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## plowhand (Aug 14, 2005)

If the board on the porch is a 2x4....I'd say it was a house cat. This is from a man that's stopped in the highway and watched a panther/mountain lion walk across the highway. Gamewarden all say they ain't around, but nearly everyone that hunts and farms have seen 'em. Nice big fine here for shooting one too!
Remember who the gamewardens work for and take orders from.
If that isn't a 2x4 that probably ain't a housecat.


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## paradox (Nov 19, 2012)

simi-steading said:


> It's not a house cat.. the muscles and leg bone structures are all wrong for a house cat..



Agreed...


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## Pinetop Hunting (Aug 1, 2013)

Chupacabra.


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## Mutti (Sep 7, 2002)

Cougar...have seen them here in so. central MO/Ozark mountains. At least they don't tear up bee hives like the bear that visited last year......


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## D Lynn (May 26, 2008)

Allen W said:


> feral cat, picture sucks and there is nothing to show size


Agreed. If the thing in the top left of the picture is a stair, then that is feral cat. The debris on the ground is huge. He's way too small for a wild cat. I have known many a barn cat that looked just like that guy!


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## DEKE01 (Jul 17, 2013)

There is a little known reason Sasquatch are so hard to find...they disguise themselves as cats.


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

I have no idea of the size of the post, the distance from camera, or the size of the junk pile etc, and my DIL says she doesn't even WANT to know... I guess I won't know for sure unless I see one! Arrrgh! At first I also thought it a domestic cat, but I agree the bone structure looks odd for a house cat. I have 8 of them, and none of them look like that!


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## ladybug (Aug 18, 2002)

What about one of these? http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/tnwildcat2.jpg


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

ladybug said:


> What about one of these? http://www.cryptomundo.com/wp-content/tnwildcat2.jpg


I don't think so. The cat in the pic I posted appears to have a large thick, and long tail.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

At first I thought mountain lion/couger, however in studying the pic more and guessing at the porch/ board size, I'd say it was a house cat; whats a game camera doing at that angle or if taken by someone by hand, they'd need to be very close.


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## foxfiredidit (Apr 15, 2003)

Yeah, look at those ears, definitely a house cat.


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## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

Anything close to a camera lens always looks larger than things farther away. That is why I hold my fish at arms length away from me when my wife snaps a photo. The fish always look like record-breakers!


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

Who aims their hunting camera at their front porch?

For what it's worth pictures of mountain lions and monster bucks start appearing on a 'friends friends' game camera each year, close to the opening of hunting season.

The odds of seeing a live mountain lion are very low, especially during the daylight hours... there are simply too many people out and about, armed, that'd have no compunction about shooting one. The 'silly ones' just like big bucks, don't live very long...


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

I would much prefer to think its a house cat! Or someone pulling a prank on DIL, which is also very possible.


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## Vosey (Dec 8, 2012)

Young cougar. We supposedly have the highest density in the country here, about 1 per square mile here and rarely, rarely see one. Lots of scat around. A big female lives right over the ridge, she came into our field one night doing her mating/communication call, a hair raising sound! They are very reclusive and generally keep to themselves. I do keep my cat in at night. They generally don't like dogs. There has never been a human cougar attack in Oregon despite their numbers.


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## Wildfire_Jewel (Nov 5, 2006)

HappyYooper said:


> mountain lion.. we have them here in the U.P. too


We have them down here in the lower P too but the DNR says they don't exist here.....yeah right - wolverines never lived here either and they found those.....wolves can't be in the lower P......sure......we also have breeding black bears not far from GR too.....I don't trust what the DNR says anymore


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## Pinetop Hunting (Aug 1, 2013)

Catsquatch


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

TnAndy said:


> Mountain lion....been seeing them here for 20 years. But if you ask the Wildlife Resources folks, it's not possible.


I have personally seen a mountain lion in my area in person-----not a picture. I had a friend that seen one just after daylight---while in his tree stand. The lion had followed his track/scent for about 100yrds---from where he parked to his stand. This kinda spooked my friend. He went and talked to the Wild Life people at their office because we do not have anything listed in out Hunting regulation book about ML. The Game Warren told him We Do Not Have Mountain Lions around here. 2 days later the friends wild life camera got a good clear picture of the Lion----He took it to the Wild Life Office and the same Warden was in there-----he showed it to him and the Warden suggested that the picture was taken some where else----My friend Said OK---If It comes back/stalks me at my tree stand again, I am going to shoot it and if you catch me shooting it----I will tell You----what you see is not real, because they do not exist here!


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## Fire-Man (Apr 30, 2005)

mnn2501 said:


> At first I thought mountain lion/couger, however in studying the pic more and guessing at the porch/ board size, I'd say it was a house cat;


I agree on a House Cat---looks like a old Tom Cat. BUT, you can not always go by board size----I got some 18" wide boards on the side of my tractor shed and have cut some 1" boards 27"'s wide---LOL.


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

Fire-Man said:


> I have personally seen a mountain lion in my area in person-----not a picture. I had a friend that seen one just after daylight---while in his tree stand. The lion had followed his track/scent for about 100yrds---from where he parked to his stand. This kinda spooked my friend. He went and talked to the Wild Life people at their office because we do not have anything listed in out Hunting regulation book about ML. The Game Warren told him We Do Not Have Mountain Lions around here. 2 days later the friends wild life camera got a good clear picture of the Lion----He took it to the Wild Life Office and the same Warden was in there-----he showed it to him and the Warden suggested that the picture was taken some where else----My friend Said OK---If It comes back/stalks me at my tree stand again, I am going to shoot it and if you catch me shooting it----I will tell You----what you see is not real, because they do not exist here!


A friend of ours here in NC was hunting (I think over the line in SC) and sat in his tree stand and watched a couple of half-grown mountain lions playing. They were much bigger than any domestic cat, bobcat, or lynx. He was also told by the game warden that they don't exist here.


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## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

This seems to be a common thing. I was told by the conservation office that there are no black bears in Missouri. Bwahahahaha! 

So I said, ok, then I'll just shoot it. Oh no! You can't do that! But you just said there are no black bear here. I did, but you can't shoot it. :smack


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

It is definitely a cougar, mountain lion, painter.
They are very common in NC, TN etc.. 

Now the officials can say that they don't exist all day long, but that is bullhockey.
When we were deeper in the mountains seeing them was common place.
And always has been.
Every creek, holler and mountain named Painter Creek or Painter Road or Painter Holler etc.. is named after painters (panthers) as that was the name for them from way back.

They are a much smaller threat than a bear.


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## wogglebug (May 22, 2004)

Attached Images











It's a were-puma,








caught in the act of changing from woman to puma
- look at the legs, the ankles, the feet.
:nerd:


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## farmerDale (Jan 8, 2011)

If its a cougar, that step in the background is absolutely enormous, the "hunter" has no clue how to set up a game camera, (lets set this camera up to capture about 10 square feet of the ground in front of it) lol.

It is a dang cat. I am 99% confident it is not a cougar. The step gives it all away...


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## Paumon (Jul 12, 2007)

I increased the exposure and detail of the picture. Still judging by the length and coloring of the tail, I still think it is a young cougar.

I don't think that's a step in the background, I think it's the corner of a porch. There is brush and debris piled up in front of it on the ground and in the foreground of the picture to the left and rear of the kitty is some kind of shrub or bush. Directly ahead of the animal is a wall, fence or gate - can't tell for sure.


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## Forerunner (Mar 23, 2007)

Looks like a spot of fog....or maybe an aurora b.

I've never seen a house cat with that lanky back leg and muscle tone.


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## Johnny Dolittle (Nov 25, 2007)

its a dang dog


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## awhobert7 (Jun 1, 2002)

Had a cougar here killed 30 ducks. Son jumped it one night scared the crap out of both of them.


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## Rockwell Torrey (Aug 14, 2013)

Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur. 

Strange thought of the week: I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.


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## terri9630 (Mar 12, 2012)

Johnny Dolittle said:


> its a dang dog


I had some drunk campers mistake my fawn colored mastiff for a cat one night. Confused the heck out of the park ranger when they told him a little girl was walking "a lion" on a leash.


These two. Silly campers..


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