Cougars in Alabama: Blount County

[kenredux]

Thursday morning at eight o'clock I saw a mountain lion walking down a manicured berm above a landscaped lake on a road leading to Saint Vincents Hospital near Oneonta, Alabama.

I stopped my car and watched him at a distance of about 30 yards for almost 5 minutes. He or she walked intermittently along the high berm and was in no particular hurry, stopping once to lie down in the grass and then rolling over on her back and stretching out luxuriously in the warmth of the rising sun. Tanish colored, she stood at about 2 1/2 feet with a three foot long body and an equally long thick tail. For me it was an enriching moment.

Even a magical moment. But all too soon a car pulled up behind me. I hurried to start my car before the impatient driver behind could honk his obligatory horn. Too late, startled, the cougar bounded off into a nearby stand of pines and disappeared.

The following afternoon I returned to the cougar site to check for big cat prints. Because of the drought I had reasoned that the mountain lion had come down from Straight Mountain to find a drink of water, but after thinking about it I had my doubts. What the hell, I thought, just up the mountain was Inland Lake - a thousand acres of cool clean water for thirsty cougars to drink -- maybe she was just hungry and lusted after the pond's resident Canadian ducks?

In any event I still needed physical proof of the lion's existence because government wildlife officials and the Sleazeweasels of this world do not trust the observations of other human beings. Instead they believe in animal droppings and mud prints. Well, breathe easy, bureaucrats and sleazeweasels, I found none. No feathers, no droppings, no prints; just an exhilarating but fading memory that will one day disappear as did the big cat.

As I walked back to the car atop the berm I heard cries, shrieks and excited laughter coming from below on the far side of the berm. Looking between the pine trees I could see a dozen or so pre-school children running and jumping inside the fenced playground of a kindergarten.

Hmm...I was thinking.

_______________________________ M. Washington

[L Roebuck]

kenredux said:

Thursday morning at eight o'clock I saw a mountain lion walking down a manicured berm above a landscaped lake on a road leading to Saint Vincents Hospital near Oneonta, Alabama.

I stopped my car and watched him at a distance of about 30 yards for almost 5 minutes. He or she walked intermittently along the high berm and was in no particular hurry, stopping once to lie down in the grass and then rolling over on her back and stretching out luxuriously in the warmth of the rising sun. Tanish colored, she stood at about 2 1/2 feet with a three foot long body and an equally long thick tail. For me it was an enriching moment.

Even a magical moment. But all too soon a car pulled up behind me. I hurried to start my car before the impatient driver behind could honk his obligatory horn. Too late, startled, the cougar bounded off into a nearby stand of pines and disappeared.

The following afternoon I returned to the cougar site to check for big cat prints. Because of the drought I had reasoned that the mountain lion had come down from Straight Mountain to find a drink of water, but after thinking about it I had my doubts. What the hell, I thought, just up the mountain was Inland Lake - a thousand acres of cool clean water for thirsty cougars to drink -- maybe she was just hungry and lusted after the pond's resident Canadian ducks?

In any event I still needed physical proof of the lion's existence because government wildlife officials and the Sleazeweasels of this world do not trust the observations of other human beings. Instead they believe in animal droppings and mud prints. Well, breathe easy, bureaucrats and sleazeweasels, I found none. No feathers, no droppings, no prints; just an exhilarating but fading memory that will one day disappear as did the big cat.

As I walked back to the car atop the berm I heard cries, shrieks and excited laughter coming from below on the far side of the berm. Looking between the pine trees I could see a dozen or so pre-school children running and jumping inside the fenced playground of a kindergarten.

Hmm...I was thinking.

_______________________________ M. Washington

Do you remember back in 2004 when the question arose of whether the Ivory Billed Woodpecker still exists? Scientists long thought the woodpecker was extinct. Anyway....it started when a kayaker reported spotting the woodpecker along Arkansas Cache River. (No one believed him until proof was obtained). I may be mistaken but the kayaker may have even taken a picture of the woodpecker - but anyway - it was enough that an intensive search resulted by wildlife conservationists, bird watchers, biologists and many others. And guess what?
Yup, you guessed it, the Ivory Billed Woodpecker has always existed ( Thanks to the kayaker, Gene Sparling of Hot Springs, Ark! ) and its 'proof of existence' is still all the rage in scientific circles!

So maybe you have a new quest? Do you have a camera?

[kenredux]

Do you remember back in 2004 when the question arose of whether the Ivory Billed Woodpecker still exists? Scientists long thought the woodpecker was extinct. Anyway....it started when a kayaker reported spotting the woodpecker along Arkansas Cache River. (No one believed him until proof was obtained). I may be mistaken but the kayaker may have even taken a picture of the woodpecker - but anyway - it was enough that an intensive search resulted by wildlife conservationists, bird watchers, biologists and many others. And guess what?
Yup, you guessed it, the Ivory Billed Woodpecker has always existed ( Thanks to the kayaker, Gene Sparling of Hot Springs, Ark! ) and its 'proof of existence' is still all the rage in scientific circles!

So maybe you have a new quest? Do you have a camera?

Yes Lynn, I have two cameras, one is infrared. But I have realized my personal quest by my own viewing and I have long realized that hard work is involved in the chasing of lions. At the time of the announcement of the discovery of the Arkansas Ivory Bill Woodpecker I was reading a book about the five year "quest" to find an extant Ivory Bill Woodpecker in the swamps of Louisiana. For days and weeks and months on end these folks slapped mosquitoes and kicked snakes and played woodpecker love calls while standing waist deep in muddy tannic water. I am more of the gentleman type. I like to enjoy diversity, not struggle within it.

Besides I just remembered that I myself am one of the scoffers.

It was just a month ago that Jim and Faye Lacefield -- who have a nature preserve near Belgreen, Alabama -- told me about seeing a mountain lion on their property during the week.
"Gee Whiz" I might have said. And then I turned back to the television set to continue watching whatever team was beating up on Notre Dame that week.

So I guess, Lynn, the first step in my gentleman's quest will be to call Jim in the morning and tell him that I saw one too.

I'll report back here.

[Azurerana]

Cool.

That's pretty small for a cougar. It might be a young one, though, and doesn't know it's supposed to be afraid of people yet.

I know, I saw a black bear near here, and people scoffed at me too, and told me it was a black Lab. I don't think so...Labs don't trundle along like that.

[L Roebuck]

kenredux said:

Yes Lynn, I have two cameras, one is infrared. But I have realized my personal quest by my own viewing and I have long realized that hard work is involved in the chasing of lions. At the time of the announcement of the discovery of the Arkansas Ivory Bill Woodpecker I was reading a book about the five year "quest" to find an extant Ivory Bill Woodpecker in the swamps of Louisiana. For days and weeks and months on end these folks slapped mosquitoes and kicked snakes and played woodpecker love calls while standing waist deep in muddy tannic water. I am more of the gentleman type. I like to enjoy diversity, not struggle within it.

Besides I just remembered that I myself am one of the scoffers.

It was just a month ago that Jim and Faye Lacefield -- who have a nature preserve near Belgreen, Alabama -- told me about seeing a mountain lion on their property during the week.
"Gee Whiz" I might have said. And then I turned back to the television set to continue watching whatever team was beating up on Notre Dame that week.

So I guess, Lynn, the first step in my gentleman's quest will be to call Jim in the morning and tell him that I saw one too.

I'll report back here.

I feel sure that Jim will appreciate the phone call. Really it is refreshing to know the gentleman type is still around. Did Jim also report his sighting to authorities? It seems when a certain number of reports are filed the gov'ment people start to pay attention.

Heck, lots of farmers in Middle TN have told me they have seen mountain lions over the years. It has been my experience that the farmers are in-the-know when it comes to wildlife.

Scoffers? Well shute...everyone needs to have a hobby! Right? ;D

[kenredux]

I feel sure that Jim will appreciate the phone call. Really it is refreshing to know the gentleman type is still around. Did Jim also report his sighting to authorities? It seems when a certain number of reports are filed the gov'ment people start to pay attention.

Heck, lots of farmers in Middle TN have told me they have seen mountain lions over the years. It has been my experience that the farmers are in-the-know when it comes to wildlife.

Scoffers? Well shute...everyone needs to have a hobby! Right?

Right. But first everyone needs a job and government people have nice jobs paid for by us for them to know what is moving about in our Alabama woods, and they don't.
Jim and Faye Lacefield's report on their sighting of a mountain lion on August 27 was casually regarded by the state wildlife folk. Here you can decide reality for yourself in this abstract of their account of their meeting with a cougar in Franklin County as they gave to me by phone yesterday.

(1) Faye and Jim were riding in a Ranger 4 wheel drive sports vehicle with their two dogs on the dirt roads through the massive sandstone bluffs on the backside of their nature preserve.

(2) Without apparent cue the two dogs (one big, one tiny) jumped from the Ranger and bolted into the woods and disappeared.

(3) Faye and Jim were not very much concerned until the dogs begin baying strangely. Jim dismounted the Ranger to call to the dogs, and then in the sand he saw smudges that looked like big cat tracks.

(4) Knowing the configuration of the cul de sac canyons he drove the Ranger down the dirt trail to where the dogs must be.

(5) Slowly walking along the edge of the bluff was a mountain lion. They watched until it disappeared from view.

(6) Happy ending, the two dogs suddenly appeared and ran yipping toward the Ranger and jumped in. It was a heart warming reunion. But short lived.

(7) Suddenly the little lap dog jumped down from the Ranger and ran into the brush. The big dog didn't follow. But Faye and Jim did.

(8) Soon they saw their little dog, he was barking at the bluff. But before they could reach him the cougar appeared and jumped down to a boulder about ten feet above the dog. Without hurry the cougar turned around and crouched down ready to spring and focused the sum of his worldly interest on the yipping dog.

(9) Faye and then Jim shouted and waved their hands and the mountain lion ran off.

(10) Jim is a noted geologist who is author of the most authoritative general interest book about fossils and the geology of Alabama so he has some standing as an acute observer.
But not among bureaucrats. The state wildlife people that he contacted were tactful but they carefully explained that there were no big cats in Alabama.

Not far from Jim's and Faye's place a member of a nearby hunting club is said to have shot and killed a mountain lion last year, but today he denies this and brags no more. The fine for killing the non-existent Alabama mountain lion can be several thousand dollars and that is several thousand good reasons for anyone who kills a big cat to keep their big mouth shut.

[Azurerana]

Well, that's the answer of course! Bios NEVER listen to Geos. It is a natural law. Luckily, Geos aren't so closed-minded about upstart scientists like Bios. They just sit there like a rock and smile knowingly, while the Bios run about like chipmunks.

But seriously, the same thing happens all the time in Missouri. It was only when someone found one dead on the road, and hauled the carcass in that the state boys allowed as if they might be wrong.

Do be aware, though, that some people in the backwoods keep cougars as pets. And those pets occasionally escape. There is an unwritten Bio law, that unless the population is reproducing in the wild, it doesn't exist, and any individuals found are classed as accidentals.

I don't know anything about Blount county, AL -- not even where it is as in is it urban or rural. But if you actually spotted a young 'un that would be highly significant to the Bios.

Az (A Geo married to a Bio).

[kenredux]

azurerana said:

Well, that's the answer of course! Bios NEVER listen to Geos. It is a natural law. Luckily, Geos aren't so closed-minded about upstart scientists like Bios. They just sit there like a rock and smile knowingly, while the Bios run about like chipmunks.

But seriously, the same thing happens all the time in Missouri. It was only when someone found one dead on the road, and hauled the carcass in that the state boys allowed as if they might be wrong.

Do be aware, though, that some people in the backwoods keep cougars as pets. And those pets occasionally escape. There is an unwritten Bio law, that unless the population is reproducing in the wild, it doesn't exist, and any individuals found are classed as accidentals.

I don't know anything about Blount county, AL -- not even where it is as in is it urban or rural. But if you [glow=red,2,300] actually [/glow] spotted a young 'un that would be highly significant to the Bios.

Az (A Geo married to a Bio).

Az,

Ain't semantics grand? Here I am a once widely respected member of a mutual admiration society of which you happily belong and yet you still have a wee doubt that I saw what I seen.

Why? Well, we humans are structured that way and as such we need a proper authority figure as a medium to filter our transfer of information.

No, I'm not saying that this is a bad practice...but the Government?
May God help us all.

[Brian Roebuck]

Too many scientists jobs rely on certain things to exist (or not) for them to easily be swayed by the observations of others. You can be assured that they will find big cats to be there if there is a job market for them to be there. That's the way it is.

[kenredux]

drbeaner said:

Too many scientists jobs rely on certain things to exist (or not) for them to easily be swayed by the observations of others. You can be assured that they will find big cats to be there if there is a job market for them to be there. That's the way it is.

Yes. That is is the way it is, drbeaner, but that isn't the way it has to be. Paint some pickets, hire a band, and I'll walk arm and arm with you straight to the county jail. Funny thing greed; it gives not a flip for truth.

And Az, I hope you know that I knew that your "actually" comment was referring to the yet unknown age of the cat and was not qualifing the reality of my actual viewing.

Sometimes me, like drbeaner, can't resist an opening for a wider observation.

[Azurerana]

kenredux--

As I mentioned-- I'm a Geo, not a Bio. I'm also from Missouri, which means I believe the evidence before my eyes about 3/4s of the time, a secondhand report of a firsthand incident about 1/2 the time, the newspaper or TV about 1/4 the time, and the government not at all.

And you know the definition of an expert -- a drip under pressure.

I have no problem granting you a cougar sighting. The trouble, as you know, are the sleaseweasels who would put the Apostle Thomas to shame in the doubt department.

Just think-- it's better this way. If you had actual physical or photographic evidence, the gummint would be out there harassing that lithe creature.

Some things are better left unproven.

[Brian Roebuck]

Sounds about right Azurerana!

[kenredux]

drbeaner said:

Sounds about right Azurerana!

Heck! This is no fun. Me and Doc Beaner and Azurerana all agree on everything . Shucks!

Hey Lynn Roebuck, do you have anything further to add?

[L Roebuck]

kenredux said:

drbeaner said:

Sounds about right Azurerana!

Heck! This is no fun. Me and Doc Beaner and Azurerana all agree on everything . Shucks!

Hey Lynn Roebuck, do you have anything further to add?

Hey M. Washington, heck no stiffy here!

I have been a bit busy but have been reading the thread and pretty much agree with you guys. Az yes some things are better left unproven!

[kenredux]

Good God, Yall !
Blount County, it seems, is being overrun by lions!

Many people I've talked to have seen a cougar or know someone who has seen a cougar. Ron Gholson, a writer for the local rag The Blount Countian , has been compiling accounts of cougar sightings for several years. But adjunct to the cat I saw is an account by John Chaney, the owner of Chaney Quarry as well as a curious natural bridge near the quarry that is listed in the ACS survey as "Chaney Cave".
Here is John's account of his sighting...

John, who is a local historian, was sitting on the porch of an outbuilding of the quarry offices where he likes to go and read. Looking up from his book he saw a long tail sticking out from a stand of tall grass. Amazed, he watched and waited and before long a tawny panther walked out of the grass and into the clearing in front of the building. The cat was in no hurry. John said that it seemed impossible for the cat to not see him but the cat never made the slightest move to indicate that he even cared.

And here is the connection between my sighting and John's:
If you walked the bed of the now defunct railroad spur that once joined Chaney Quarry to the mainline L&N in less than a mile you would connect the two sightings.

But after talking it over we decided that John's cat of two years ago was much bigger than mine, so the two cats were not one, unless he shrank.

One thing I'm learning about this job of cougar investigating is that spotting a cougar is an indelible experience, and (so far) all of the people I've spoken to who have been lucky enough to have seen this beautiful creature in the wild have been magically transformed into engaging salts of the earth.

[opd 421]

I BELIEVE YOUR CAT WAS HIT ABOUT A WEEK AGO. I was on 75 headed to Bham and to my surprise there it was in the middle of the berm.. Surprised me at 70 mph.... but there it was passed on to greener pastures, in the center berm. I couldn't stop to confirm the exact size at the time.... but is sure was a big cat.

[kenredux]

kenredux said:

opd said:

I BELIEVE YOUR CAT WAS HIT ABOUT A WEEK AGO. I was on 75 headed to Bham and to my surprise there it was in the middle of the berm.. Surprised me at 70 mph.... but there it was passed on to greener pastures, in the center berm. I couldn't stop to confirm the exact size at the time.... but is sure was a big cat.

Darn, opd 421, how am I gonna conduct a proper mountain lion investigation if my fellow rednecks keep killing the hypothetical mountain lions off? Where 'bouts on Hwy 75 did the big cat meet his end? I have a probable sighting of the second kind about a quarter mile from Hwy 75 towards Inland Lake at 6:30 AM Monday morning 12-10-07 along with a three by three incomplete print of a left front paw.

Whew! Slow down on hwy 75, stranger, every early morning pick-up truck has a big number 3 or 28 or 34 painted on its side door. Be wary, good citizens, the gentlemen have already started their engines on the four-lane and there are no traffic lights for twenty-five miles. Zoom! Splat!

[LittleBit]

I was thinking my husband was pulling my leg, but after reading this post it has me thinking. we just moved to Hayden in the middle of November. My husband was coming home on Friday, Dec. 14 (night). He said he saw glowing eyes in a field when he turned the curb he saw the lion. We brought a house in Orchard Mountain or I think the locals call it Hog mountain.

[kenredux]

LittleBit said:

I was thinking my husband was pulling my leg, but after reading this post it has me thinking. we just moved to Hayden in the middle of November. My husband was coming home on Friday, Dec. 14 (night). He said he saw glowing eyes in a field when he turned the curb he saw the lion. We brought a house in Orchard Mountain or I think the locals call it Hog mountain.

Say hey, litleBit.

A year ago near Hog Mountain a mountain lion was sighted at night by a woman whose dogs were agitated well beyond their postman mode. Co-incidently or not a neighbor's young bull was unaccountably castrated as if by a surgical knife that very night.

Watch your pet cats and smaller dogs.

[flamingo1813]

kenredux said:

I feel sure that Jim will appreciate the phone call. Really it is refreshing to know the gentleman type is still around. Did Jim also report his sighting to authorities? It seems when a certain number of reports are filed the gov'ment people start to pay attention.

Heck, lots of farmers in Middle TN have told me they have seen mountain lions over the years. It has been my experience that the farmers are in-the-know when it comes to wildlife.

Scoffers? Well shute...everyone needs to have a hobby! Right?

Right. But first everyone needs a job and government people have nice jobs paid for by us for them to know what is moving about in our Alabama woods, and they don't.
Jim and Faye Lacefield's report on their sighting of a mountain lion on August 27 was casually regarded by the state wildlife folk. Here you can decide reality for yourself in this abstract of their account of their meeting with a cougar in Franklin County as they gave to me by phone yesterday.

(1) Faye and Jim were riding in a Ranger 4 wheel drive sports vehicle with their two dogs on the dirt roads through the massive sandstone bluffs on the backside of their nature preserve.

(2) Without apparent cue the two dogs (one big, one tiny) jumped from the Ranger and bolted into the woods and disappeared.

(3) Faye and Jim were not very much concerned until the dogs begin baying strangely. Jim dismounted the Ranger to call to the dogs, and then in the sand he saw smudges that looked like big cat tracks.

(4) Knowing the configuration of the cul de sac canyons he drove the Ranger down the dirt trail to where the dogs must be.

(5) Slowly walking along the edge of the bluff was a mountain lion. They watched until it disappeared from view.

(6) Happy ending, the two dogs suddenly appeared and ran yipping toward the Ranger and jumped in. It was a heart warming reunion. But short lived.

(7) Suddenly the little lap dog jumped down from the Ranger and ran into the brush. The big dog didn't follow. But Faye and Jim did.

(8) Soon they saw their little dog, he was barking at the bluff. But before they could reach him the cougar appeared and jumped down to a boulder about ten feet above the dog. Without hurry the cougar turned around and crouched down ready to spring and focused the sum of his worldly interest on the yipping dog.

(9) Faye and then Jim shouted and waved their hands and the mountain lion ran off.

(10) Jim is a noted geologist who is author of the most authoritative general interest book about fossils and the geology of Alabama so he has some standing as an acute observer.
But not among bureaucrats. The state wildlife people that he contacted were tactful but they carefully explained that there were no big cats in Alabama.

Not far from Jim's and Faye's place a member of a nearby hunting club is said to have shot and killed a mountain lion last year, but today he denies this and brags no more. The fine for killing the non-existent Alabama mountain lion can be several thousand dollars and that is several thousand good reasons for anyone who kills a big cat to keep their big mouth shut.

I was extremely interested in this account of a cougar sighting in Franklin County, Alabama. On Nov. 19 my daughter was coming home from college and passed within 10 miles of the location you describe your friends seeing their cougar. She was just north of the Dismals Canyon in southern Franklin County on Hwy. 43/17 at dusk and saw a black cougar/panther carrying a dead dog. It was walking along the road slightly angling away from the road so she pulled her car off and shone her headlights on it. She called me and was telling me what she saw. I questioned her specifically about the size and color and she stated it was black, very large, and carrying a large dead dog. My father knows a man who has land in western Colbert County, which is just north of your friends' place. The man was starting his chainsaw to clear up a brush pile and startled a pair of panthers out of the brush pile (several years ago). I am so envious of my daughter seeing the panther, and so very excited to hear of other sightings in the same area.

[kenredux]

Flamingo1813 wrote...

I was extremely interested in this account of a cougar sighting in Franklin County, Alabama. On Nov. 19 my daughter was coming home from college and passed within 10 miles of the location you describe your friends seeing their cougar. She was just north of the Dismals Canyon in southern Franklin County on Hwy. 43/17 at dusk and saw a black cougar/panther carrying a dead dog. It was walking along the road slightly angling away from the road so she pulled her car off and shone her headlights on it. She called me and was telling me what she saw. I questioned her specifically about the size and color and she stated it was black, very large, and carrying a large dead dog. My father knows a man who has land in western Colbert County, which is just north of your friends' place. The man was starting his chainsaw to clear up a brush pile and startled a pair of panthers out of the brush pile (several years ago). I am so envious of my daughter seeing the panther, and so very excited to hear of other sightings in the same area.

Good report Mingo, I have forwarded it to the Lacefields for their perusal and comments. Ever think about getting your observant daughter one of those little telephones that take pictures?

Here in Remlap December was jumping.

In a two week span just before Christmas a cougar was seen respectively by...

1) My youngest son Dan. (who saw a cougar near my house walking along a newly fallen tree.)

2) My daughter-in-law (Who saw a cougar near Dan's house walking along with a black house cat)

3) My daughter-in-law's mother-in-law. (who was loading her car at Dan's house when a big blur of a big cat raced by and scrapped her leg and then disappeared into the woods.)

4) My mother-in-law (Who saw it at close range (15 yards?) apparently following (stalking ?) the same darn black house cat who was walking towards the criblette)

Sons Dan and David have baited the log and nearby spots with chickens and an infrared motion camera but so far the pictures have yielded no cougar albeit an assortment of less handsome creatures have had their pictures taken trying to free a nailed-to-a-tree chicken.

I'll keep you updated.

[plainasty]

Has anyone noticed a drop in the population of any species around there? Or do you think these cats are pretty much survivng on whatever they can find?