Lion Kills

[BobR]

This was my first encounter with a really big cat. I know some of you have already seen this, but here it is.
Dee, Wade and I were on a remote logging road in June, 2000. We found this fresh lion kill. The cow elk appeared to have gutted by a hunter. The choice vitals eaten, and the others raked out onto the road. An embilical cord stretched out onto the road told me the cow was carrying an unborn calf. The calf was gone.
In this pic my son is throwing rocks. I was making the video and talking and did not hear whan he said until we watched the video later that night.
"Dad, there is something down there, I can hear it moving around."
Dee is starting her 4-wheeler and saying,"I am not waiting around to see what it is."


The cow had died a hard death. Canine punctures to the skull and neck. The whole front end of the cow was covered with lacerations from the big cat's claws.


I called a friend that night and asked if he would go with me in the morning to the kill. I wanted to see if we could drag it off the road so no one else would discover it. I wanted to watch it to see if I could see the big cat and get it on video. When we got there the next morning, it was GONE ! But it was easy to follow the drag marks to where it was not cached.
In this photo you can see where the carcass destroyed two rotten logs. The gray matter near the 6 in the date is intestines that snagged on a stick and were strung out down the hill. We found the carcass 100 yards down in the brushy draw where my son had been throwing rocks. In the video, my friend says,"No way we could have drug that down here."

[slammy]

Oh buddy,

That's exciting. I would love to see sign like that. You gotta think that by smell or appearance the cat knew that this elk was with calf. It must be exciting hunting in a place like that.

[BobR]

Slammy, It think it is exciting also. I have lived here for just over ten years, and I still feel like I am on a vacation.
That is one of forty some odd kills I have found. I am ordering a Camtrakker game trail camera Monday. I wish I had had it years ago. Bob

[BobR]

1996, that will always be remembered by us as the year of the cats. I had never had any dealings with the big cats before that year.
It all started in the later part of May. We found a deer kill 100 yards from our house. The first Saturday in June, a strange noise outside woke up Dee. She asked me to go out to see what it was. When I got outside, it quit. When I went back in, it started again. When I went back out, I saw our three dogs sneaking up on the kids trampoline. I called them back and went to look. The grass was tall under the trampoline because I could not mow it. I found a newborn whitetail deer fawn laying under the trampoline in the tall grass. I called the dogs into the house so they would not bother it. The fawn was obviously hungry and crying for its mother.
I called the game warden. He said to leave it alone, and the doe would return for it. That afternoon, we could not stand the crying any more, so I went to town and got a bottle and canned goat milk. My kids found its mom while I was gone, or what was left of her.
We raised that fawn and she returned to the wild. She came around for several years, once bringing two fawns of her own with her one day.
We ended up finding six deer kills near the house that summer. One evening, I heard the dogs barking. When I went out the back door, I saw they had something treed just across the creek. I went in and grabbed my rifle and went to see what was going on. When I approached a small cougar (yearling) jumped from the tree and took off. I shot at it but could only see its tail.
My son said I missed and he saw it run uphill. I went back in the house, and my son came running in behind me. He said that when I left another one jumped out of the tree and ran off.
We found later we had a large female with two yearlings camped out with us that summer.
In August, when I got home from work, I noticed one of our dogs laying in the front yard. I thought it strange that it did not run to greet me with the other two.
I walked over, and it looked like it was run through a paper shredder. It was all matted with blood and covered with flies. I thought it was dead. I was just going to get the shovel to bury it when Dee arrived from work. She started screaming and insisted we take it to the vet. It survived, but became a very expensive dog.
All this and the State did nothing. They told us we could not keep the fawn, but they never picked it up.
That was the year I started messing with cougars
Guess I got hooked.


our dog the day we brought it home from the vet



our little baby

[ICMCumin]

Outstanding story and photos, BobR. Keep 'em coming!

[jdickey]

;)Great story & pics, BobR. Did you see any other tracks around the carcass? Not to be too weird, but the removal of the intestines is also indicative of a Sasquatch (Big Foot). They are "liver eaters" and have been known to do that very thing!

[Bearmanric]

Bob R great pictures I'm going to start carring a camera more now. was going to do some cat calling today. Raining make it stop. three more day's of work then I'm going to be able to get out more. Happy Xmas. Rick

[Bennie]

Your a great story teller, I always opt for the short narrative. I've raised several fawns but due to different circumstances. There are cats around here but their few and far between.

[Bobcat]

Gosh, Bob, I am glad you are back online my friend!!

Good Hunting,

Bob

[BobR]

I am not going to post too much from past experiences, because I expect to have fresh things in the near future. I plan to spend plenty of time in lion country this winter. I will always have my digital camera with me, so I know I will find some interesting things. Within 10 days, I will have a new digital Camtrakker game trail camera monitoring the best cat area I know. I use an electronic squeaker to arouse their curiosity.
I always see cat tracks in this area. This camera will get them 24 hours a day. Fresh kills are rare, but if that should happen, the camera will be set to monitor it.
Bob

[Bobcat]

Hey Bob,

That Camtracker should be a lot of fun.........

I can't wait to see what it turns up.

Good Hunting,

Bob

[slammy]

Thanks for relating your experiences. I'll certainly look forward to hearing more. The game camera should be exciting also. I have three inexpensive game cams and when I have them set it's always exciting to see the results. It also helps to confirm your suspicions about predator traffic or lack of it. Mine are 35mm so I have to wait till the film is developed. Digital is the way to go.

[littletoes]

Bob, where are you located at? Just courious, there has been a lot of lion trouble here in NE Washington. There was a child attacked in a school yard this past summer, with a couple of others at another school that were being stalked. If it was me, I'd have a gun, and have the camera in the pack.

[BobR]

Littletoes, I will have a gun alright. I live in the Blue Mountains in SE WA. We are about 5 miles from the Oregon Line and about 60 miles from Idaho. There is another thread around here called calling lions. You can see how I plan to use the gun there. We have more than our share of lion problems around here also.
Bob

[jdickey]

:)Hey BobR... just so you don't think I'm a complete nut when I posted a question about seeing tracks around that cow elk! I thought you'd be interested in this report, since it was generated in about the same general area that you live! This was taken from the BFRO (Bigfoot Field Research Organization)website.



Report # 7406 (Class A)
Submitted by witness on Tuesday, November 18, 2003. Father and Son Hunting Mill Creek Drainage Near Walla Walla, WA see biped walking across slope

YEAR: 2003

SEASON: Fall

MONTH: November

DATE: 4

STATE: Washington

COUNTY: Walla Walla County

LOCATION DETAILS: Walla Walla Mill Creek Watershed. On the intake trail between Green Peak and Lewis Peak. Sighting occurred on an open, rocky face, within 1/4 mile of Lewis Peak, just before leaving the National Forest boundary.

NEAREST TOWN: Dixie

NEAREST ROAD: Lewis Peak Road

OBSERVED: My dad got drawn for a big bull elk permit in the Mill Creek Watershed. He harvested a bull on November 1, off of Green Peak. We were packing out meat on Tuesday, November 4 in the late afternoon. We were taking our time following the trail back to Lewis Peak. There was about an hour of light left. We stopped at a rock outcropping to take a breather when I saw motion out of the corner of my eye.

I told my dad that there was something coming across the openning we had just previously crossed. I was not sure what it was, as it had moved behind a tree. As it continued across the ridge, I noted that the animal was walking on two legs. The distance from where we were to the animal was approximately 500 yards. It was very clearly a bi-ped. We are very experienced hunters (20+ years for me, 40+ years for dad), with a lot of time in the field. We have harvested many, many deer, elk, and bear. This animal walked upright, and very quickly covered the distance across the openning, which was over a steep, loose-shale part of the trail. The trail was covered with packed snow from foot and horse traffic, and was fairly slippery in the cold weather. We had just crossed it, and had to take our time with the backpacks to make sure we did not slip. The animal crossed this openning very quickly, with no apparent difficulty whatsoever. It appeared to be approximately 7-8 feet tall and very dark from head to toe. It did look our direction, but did not stop to observe us.

After a quick debate about what the heck we had just seen, noting that we were not carrying firearms at the time, it was heading in our direction, and that we had two loads of elk parts on our packs, we quickly left the area. I watched the trail as my dad tied the packs to the 4-wheeler, but did not see anything come down the trail.

ALSO NOTICED: Hiking through this area for several days we noticed an odd smell that was not familiar to any of the animal species we regularly encounter.

OTHER WITNESSES: There were two witnesses, myself and my father.

OTHER STORIES: Have heard of many many sightings in the Blue Mountain areas between Dayton and Walla Walla.

TIME AND CONDITIONS: Late afternoon, about an hour before dusk.

ENVIRONMENT: The Walla Walla Mill Creek Watershed is a large area, closed to public access except for one week out of the year, when 40 elk hunters (selected by state game department) are allowed entry by a special Forest Service Permit. The permit holder may bring one other person in with them after they have harvested an animal, to assist with removal of the animal. The area is heavily wooded, extremely steep and rugged terrain, with numerous water sources, and natural grasses interspersed across some open hillsides. The watershed functions as a large funnel, supplying water for the city of Walla Walla. The upper perimeter has a semi-maintained trail, and there are several less-than-maintained trails that run through the watershed. At the time of the sighting, there was snow on the ground, and conditions were slippery. Weather was below freezing, partly cloudy with periodic snow showers.

The hike from Lewis Peak to Green Peak takes about 1 1/2 - 2 hours, depending on the pace. There is some public land surrounding parts of the watershed, however, neither of these peaks have good public access points.

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Mel Skahan:

I spoke with witness and the following is from our conversation.

The witness was with his father at the time of the sighting. His father had downed a bull elk that morning and they were in the process of packing the animal out. They had to make four trips to pack out the animal, about a three-hour pack back to the truck. They were on the third and last trip of that day.

They had driven the witness’ truck to a point and then used an ATV to get to Lewis Peak. Permission was needed from the landowner to use the area for travel, and then it was another three-hour hike to where the elk was harvested, the slopes being up to 70%.

They were walking back to the ATV and just crossed an open area on an icy, steep shale slope and the witness looked back at the area they had just crossed, approximately 500 yards away, to see a dark figure about 7 feet in height and moving very fast across the same slope that took minutes to cross.

Because they had another twenty minutes to pack and another half hour of daylight, the witness could not look for tracks. The witness and his father were not the only ones using that area for hunting. There were other hunters, some with horses, in the same area. When they went back the next day to retrieve the rest of the elk, he looked for tracks, but because of other traffic in the area and limited time to pack the animal out there was not enough time to completely search the area for tracks.

When they arrived where the elk was downed they had noticed tracks in the snow and the elk had been partially eaten. They had recognized the tracks of a bear. It appeared that this bear had finished the best cuts of the elk and partially buried the rest of it and looked to be coming back later to finish.

At no time after the sighting did the witness feel any different, only after seeing that a bear had fed on their elk. There was no feeling of being watched even when they had to return the next day. There was an abundant source of game in the area, from the other rifle shots heard in the area, and the bear was still feeding.

The witnesses have a number of years hunting that area and are very comfortable in being in the outdoors, hunting, hiking, biking et cetera.

They will continue to hunt the area and this sighting of a dark biped will not deter them from the area.