(02-24-2014 03:37 PM)I_LUV_MEMPHISTIGERS Wrote:  Crazy. If Wildlife Control isn't trying to trap it then I'd put the dogs in at night and bait the thing back into the backyard with a big juicy hunk of red meat laced with poison and send out letters to the neighbors to put the cats in at night as well. Or even collude with several neighbors around there and have several of them try to bait the thing as well.

Not a bad idea.

(02-24-2014 03:37 PM)I_LUV_MEMPHISTIGERS Wrote:  Crazy. If Wildlife Control isn't trying to trap it then I'd put the dogs in at night and bait the thing back into the backyard with a big juicy hunk of red meat laced with poison and send out letters to the neighbors to put the cats in at night as well. Or even collude with several neighbors around there and have several of them try to bait the thing as well.

You could leave the cats out and use them as bait. I kid.

(02-24-2014 03:39 PM)mairving Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 03:37 PM)I_LUV_MEMPHISTIGERS Wrote:  Crazy. If Wildlife Control isn't trying to trap it then I'd put the dogs in at night and bait the thing back into the backyard with a big juicy hunk of red meat laced with poison and send out letters to the neighbors to put the cats in at night as well. Or even collude with several neighbors around there and have several of them try to bait the thing as well.

You could leave the cats out and use them as bait. I kid.

lol

I had a fishing guide in Heber that saw a black panther in the woods there, and I know he knew what he was looking at. So, I know they are in Arkansas.

I've seen a coyote in Downtown Memphis and in rural Arkansas.

(02-24-2014 03:39 PM)mairving Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 03:37 PM)I_LUV_MEMPHISTIGERS Wrote:  Crazy. If Wildlife Control isn't trying to trap it then I'd put the dogs in at night and bait the thing back into the backyard with a big juicy hunk of red meat laced with poison and send out letters to the neighbors to put the cats in at night as well. Or even collude with several neighbors around there and have several of them try to bait the thing as well.

You could leave the cats out and use them as bait. I kid.

I live about a mile from Wolf River and when I first move there with my dogs, I was told to not let the dogs or cats go into the woods.....the woods are full of coyotes. I also saw a fox driving on Forest Hill right off Walnut Grove. No, the fox wasn't driving, I was.

(02-24-2014 04:10 PM)Tanyaskees Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 03:39 PM)mairving Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 03:37 PM)I_LUV_MEMPHISTIGERS Wrote:  Crazy. If Wildlife Control isn't trying to trap it then I'd put the dogs in at night and bait the thing back into the backyard with a big juicy hunk of red meat laced with poison and send out letters to the neighbors to put the cats in at night as well. Or even collude with several neighbors around there and have several of them try to bait the thing as well.

You could leave the cats out and use them as bait. I kid.

There are mountain lions/cougars that range from Texas to Arkansas (mostly south and west) and see no reason why they couldn't be in Tennessee.

To answer someone else that a 35 lb bobcat couldn't take down a 100 lb dog...depends on what kind of dog.

A hungry 35 lb bobcat is a can of whoopwho

(02-24-2014 05:12 PM)Tiger46 Wrote:  There are mountain lions/cougars that range from Texas to Arkansas (mostly south and west) and see no reason why they couldn't be in Tennessee.

To answer someone else that a 35 lb bobcat couldn't take down a 100 lb dog...depends on what kind of dog.

A hungry 35 lb bobcat is a can of whoopwho

That would be one bad mumba jumba bobcat. Like a honey badger.

(02-24-2014 04:13 PM)Tanyaskees Wrote:  I live about a mile from Wolf River and when I first move there with my dogs, I was told to not let the dogs or cats go into the woods.....the woods are full of coyotes. I also saw a fox driving on Forest Hill right off Walnut Grove. No, the fox wasn't driving, I was.

I live down Forest Hill right off Walnut Grove. Have seen at least 3 foxes while driving down Forest Hill in the last year coming home late at night.

Having red and gray foxes around is good. They are tiny-- most weigh around 12 lbs-- they just look bigger with their fur. I feed a family of them in Cordova and they get along fine with the cats around here (most of which are as big as the foxes).

Foxes don't like to compete with the larger coyotes because coyotes would win-- so I think their increased presence means that coyotes are getting pushed further out of the city. I haven't seen nearly as many coyotes as I did a decade ago.

I also think some of the cougar sightings around here are actually gray foxes. Although much smaller, from a distance, their facial markings can make them look like cougars. My entire family saw a cougar cross Appling Rd. about 20 years ago, though. Was as big as a deer.

Here is a game cam picture of a gray fox I took in my backyard last week (the date and time are wrong on the game cam). Taken near Dexter and Appling. At a quick glance, someone might mistake it for a cougar.

(02-24-2014 10:36 AM)TigerBill Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 10:23 AM)TiggerFan Wrote:  One of my neighbors close to White Station and Walnut Grove swears she saw a mountain lion walking around.

Cougars once were native to this area, as were lots of other things which are now thought to be gone. Rattlesnakes, for instance. However, I would not be shocked if there were still a few around.

When I first moved into Riverwood I was walking around the lake one day, this had to be the mid 1990's or maybe a little later, and this kid comes up and asks if I want to see what he found on the trail. I said sure and he retrieves a jar with a dead baby rattlesnake in it. Maybe 9 inches long, but definitely a rattler and it was not decayed. He said he found it about thrity feet from where we were standing.

I later found the skeleton of an adult rattlesnake in that general vicinity; hard to mistake the rattle. So even though TWRA says there probably aren't any rattlers in Shelby County, I know there probably are. I feel the same way about cougars of the non-human kind.

I moved to Riverwood in 1989. I don't live there anymore. I saw the grass cutting guys holding up the biggest cotton mouth I've ever seen. They killed it on the path down by the levee. The guys told me to never wander into those woods, that were near Cordova Cellars. More deer stands than any place in the county. You have to realize how much development has taken place in these areas.

(02-24-2014 06:02 PM)KRB Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 10:36 AM)TigerBill Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 10:23 AM)TiggerFan Wrote:  One of my neighbors close to White Station and Walnut Grove swears she saw a mountain lion walking around.

Cougars once were native to this area, as were lots of other things which are now thought to be gone. Rattlesnakes, for instance. However, I would not be shocked if there were still a few around.

When I first moved into Riverwood I was walking around the lake one day, this had to be the mid 1990's or maybe a little later, and this kid comes up and asks if I want to see what he found on the trail. I said sure and he retrieves a jar with a dead baby rattlesnake in it. Maybe 9 inches long, but definitely a rattler and it was not decayed. He said he found it about thrity feet from where we were standing.

I later found the skeleton of an adult rattlesnake in that general vicinity; hard to mistake the rattle. So even though TWRA says there probably aren't any rattlers in Shelby County, I know there probably are. I feel the same way about cougars of the non-human kind.

I moved to Riverwood in 1989. I don't live there anymore. I saw the grass cutting guys holding up the biggest cotton mouth I've ever seen. They killed it on the path down by the levee.

There are for sure rattlesnakes in Shelby Forest and also in T.O. Fuller State Park. Not sure about outside of woodland areas that border the river.

(02-24-2014 06:04 PM)MtownTigers916 Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 06:02 PM)KRB Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 10:36 AM)TigerBill Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 10:23 AM)TiggerFan Wrote:  One of my neighbors close to White Station and Walnut Grove swears she saw a mountain lion walking around.

Cougars once were native to this area, as were lots of other things which are now thought to be gone. Rattlesnakes, for instance. However, I would not be shocked if there were still a few around.

When I first moved into Riverwood I was walking around the lake one day, this had to be the mid 1990's or maybe a little later, and this kid comes up and asks if I want to see what he found on the trail. I said sure and he retrieves a jar with a dead baby rattlesnake in it. Maybe 9 inches long, but definitely a rattler and it was not decayed. He said he found it about thrity feet from where we were standing.

I later found the skeleton of an adult rattlesnake in that general vicinity; hard to mistake the rattle. So even though TWRA says there probably aren't any rattlers in Shelby County, I know there probably are. I feel the same way about cougars of the non-human kind.

I moved to Riverwood in 1989. I don't live there anymore. I saw the grass cutting guys holding up the biggest cotton mouth I've ever seen. They killed it on the path down by the levee.

There are for sure rattlesnakes in Shelby Forest and also in T.O. Fuller State Park. Not sure about outside of woodland areas that border the river.

Interesting news about the rattlers, I believe it. As for the cottonmouths around the lake at Riverwood, I damned near stepped on the biggest one I've ever seen on the path near the pier. Had to be five feet long and a really ugly brown. I thought it was a stick until it moved with my foot about three feet away.

(02-24-2014 05:56 PM)MtownTigers916 Wrote:  

Here is a game cam picture of a gray fox I took in my backyard last week (the date and time are wrong on the game cam). Taken near Dexter and Appling. At a quick glance, someone might mistake it for a cougar.

We have foxes and coyotes out here, and big deer.

Bears are moving into Middle TN right now, I'd imagine we'd see them back in West TN in the next 20-30 years.

(02-24-2014 07:16 PM)supertiger Wrote:  Bears are moving into Middle TN right now, I'd imagine we'd see them back in West TN in the next 20-30 years.

Black Bears have been in Shelby for decades. However, they used to be called something else.

(02-24-2014 07:03 PM)TigerBill Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 06:04 PM)MtownTigers916 Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 06:02 PM)KRB Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 10:36 AM)TigerBill Wrote:  

(02-24-2014 10:23 AM)TiggerFan Wrote:  One of my neighbors close to White Station and Walnut Grove swears she saw a mountain lion walking around.

Cougars once were native to this area, as were lots of other things which are now thought to be gone. Rattlesnakes, for instance. However, I would not be shocked if there were still a few around.

When I first moved into Riverwood I was walking around the lake one day, this had to be the mid 1990's or maybe a little later, and this kid comes up and asks if I want to see what he found on the trail. I said sure and he retrieves a jar with a dead baby rattlesnake in it. Maybe 9 inches long, but definitely a rattler and it was not decayed. He said he found it about thrity feet from where we were standing.

I later found the skeleton of an adult rattlesnake in that general vicinity; hard to mistake the rattle. So even though TWRA says there probably aren't any rattlers in Shelby County, I know there probably are. I feel the same way about cougars of the non-human kind.

I moved to Riverwood in 1989. I don't live there anymore. I saw the grass cutting guys holding up the biggest cotton mouth I've ever seen. They killed it on the path down by the levee.

There are for sure rattlesnakes in Shelby Forest and also in T.O. Fuller State Park. Not sure about outside of woodland areas that border the river.

Interesting news about the rattlers, I believe it. As for the cottonmouths around the lake at Riverwood, I damned near stepped on the biggest one I've ever seen on the path near the pier. Had to be five feet long and a really ugly brown. I thought it was a stick until it moved with my foot about three feet away.

True about the rattlesnakes in Shelby Forest. We killed one back in the 60's right off the trail.