In all my time hunting and being in rural areas of Texas I finally had my first mountain lion sighting. I was driving up to Lampasas, northbound on Ronald Reagan. RIght before I crossed the north fork of the San Gabriel river, 2 decent sized mountain lions came off the river bank and crossed a cut hayfield (about 400 yards of open field), bounding into the timber on the other side. I assume they got spooked off the river. They were hauling the mail. What made me take notice was how freeking fast they were, then I realized what I was looking at. It was daylight, they were a few hundred yards out. Close enough for me to know what I was seeing. One of the coolest things I have seen in a while. Just thought I would share.

John

Very cool.
Lots of back yard, well fed deer in that area.
Pretty densely populated area. Wont be surprised if there are other sightings or if Fluffy goes missing.

no joke, That used to be a nice quiet drive out that way. Not anymore......

I'm not surprised. Williamson county has a lot of rats.

there has been sightings over in eastern part of Williamson for 40yrs

colt45, my best friend is a Wilco sheriff's deputy. He said they get reports up that way every now and then. I'm thinking with all of the growth in that area now it is making it harder for them to hide? Or I just got lucky. Who knows. I'd like to see one on my place Lometa. I know that!

Also a lot of pets, makes for an easy meal.

I’d love to see one

Me too...from a little distance!

Yeah I should have clarified that 😎

Western Williamson and pretty much all of Rural Travis counties have had reported sightings since the mid 60's.

Austin unfortunately has grown outward over the years and swallowed up much of the habitat that used to border the city.

But North of Austin along both forks of the San Gabriel used to be fairly unpopulated and has lots of rock outcroppings and bluffs along parts of the river.

Northwest out to Liberty Hill....also good habitat.

Southwest out near Dripping Springs and Henly (us Old Timers call the Devils Backbone) perfect habitat for big cats.

Many moons ago....long time Game Warden 'Grover Simpson' would tell us of reported sightings and sign (tracks) that they could verify as belonging to big cats.

But back then...they tried to keep it mostly hush-hush, because they didn't want people to try and actively hunt them and he said it made their job 'miserable' following up on every 'report' that would come in after a REAL sighting.