Cougar (Puma)

[Michelle@wescofarms]

If it is truly a cougar/mountain lion/puma you should take precautions. A young one or old/sick one could be dangerous if they're hungery not just to your horses, but to your pets and yourself.

Most cougars go for small game or something easy to catch - I know people that have lost their flocks of chickens to cougars.

My favorite deterrent to any predator is a gun. I'm not shooting to kill, but the noise generally will convince them to go elswhere. My BIL recommended a starter pistol - it's the noise they respond too, as most coyotes, cougars out here have been shot at - they leave.

If the animal is coming in the same direction/path you could 'convince' it to go elsewhere - blare your car horn, bright lights, bags of empty soda cans, firecrackers - anything noisy that will convince your unwanted guest to go away.

 

[outlawridge]

In our area we have cougar, bobcat, lynx, coyote. And ALL have been witnessed hunting, taking, and eating full grown sheep, lambs, goats, full sized horse foals, and smaller (not mini) donkeys. Naturally the bobcat and lynx usually take the foals and lambs. However, it is not uncommon for cougar here to attempt to take, and sometimes succeed, full sized full grown horses. Our mailman even saw a cougar take down and carry a large full grown sheep, drag it through the four line fencing and run with it across the highway so close in front of him he nearly hit it. And this was MID MORNING. A friend of mine had her herd of full sized horses come running into the pasture by the house and one mare (16 hh) was had fresh claw marks the length of her body, at 2 in the afternoon! So minis would be nothing for a cougar to take. Another predator that is very common here is eagles. I always worry about our mini foals as during lambing and calving season, eagle predation is nothing out of the ordinary for ranchers. In fact, my best friends are Master Falconers and they have really educated me about eagles. This winter they found a fight between an adult deer, an uninjured and healthy doe, and two eagles. The eagles won. Not trying to scare or freak out everyone, just want people to realize that our minis can be taken by these types of predators. We have the largest population of whitetail deer per capita in the nation in our county so there is no lack of natural wildlife for these large predators. We also have lots of rabbits, prairie dogs etc too.

We use horse fence, welded wire, that is at least 5 feet high with a hot wire at the top and bottom. We also have donkeys and are in the process of getting a livestock guardian dog. Another resource we have here is Federal Varmint hunters. They patrol and hunt problem predators from the air and ground. They must investigate all reports asap and attempt to remove the problem animals. Out here in sheep and cattle country, you are talking about peoples livelihoods and this is taken seriously. Currently, they are hunting some large fox and some coyotes who have taken to dining out at the sheep ranch where our minis are located. Our minis are secured at night and kept close during the day. Our big horses are monitored as well. Thankfully, we have never experienced an attack let alone losing one of our precious animals.