Mountain lion suspected in death of hood county man

[img]https://dfw.cbslocal.com/?p=940933[/img]

That’s a sad deal, Might make the walk to and from the stand in the dark around that area a little tense for a while.

WOW that is a very sad deal hope the catch it.

I was on a hill country deer lease years back, mid 90’s. One of the guys on the lease was scared to death he was going to get ate by a pet lion or tiger that got loose/escaped etc. He was convinced people raising exotic cats would turn them loose if they got to meant to keep and he would get ate on the way to his deer stand. If I recall one of the guys told me he was really bad scared of the dark too.

As crazy as this world is getting running across an exotic cat on a deer lease would not surprise me.

We had big monkeys running around in the brush that escaped from research center in South Texas in the 80’s

🙏

From the article: "A governmental trapper with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) who specializes in tracking and removing mountain lions was called to help, the sheriff’s office said."

I bet I know the guy they called in. Best lion trapper I ever saw.

If it's still in the area, Gil will get it.

I’m on the cat’s side and hope he gets away. They’re just too purdy!

I find this comment lunacy. I also know mountain lions are far more common than most think.

Used to be a rarity here in Nebraska. Pretty common any more. I believe one had to be euthanized in Omaha last week. I’m not that familiar with Texas geography. Wouldn’t stumbling across illegals or a meth lab also be a possibility. Then later preyed upon by wildlife?

Probably not. I'm sure the coroner can determining cause of death.

I'm no forensic scientist, but I would say what the coroner can and cannot do depends on the condition of the remains. But I probably don't have all the info here and perhaps they have already made their determination. Regardless, I think normally an adult sized human is not in jeopardy of being attacked while walking to and from a treestand or blind. Where I really get a little nervous is when turkey hunting and not using a blind. As you sit there in the underbrush, making noises that emulate the prey of a mountain lion, never forget that the way mountain lions normally kill is to sneak up from behind or above and clamp down on a vertebrae or two, it does give you something to think about. I've seen tracks where I hunt but given the large territory that mountain lions are known to cover, I really don't give it that much thought.

I have looked into a lot of mountain lion attack reports. People attacks are often (not always) on the move. Attacked hunters are usually one the move. Attacks on people are usually not fatal, even on children. Attacks on adults are certainly common as far as mountain lion attacks go.

My favorite turkey hunter attacked by mountain lion story comes out of California where a guy claimed one attacked his foot. So he shot it with his 12 ga shotgun but shot himself in the foot as well. The only problem is, his story was faked.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-12-13-sp-13496-story.html

This turkey hunter claimed to have been attacked as well, suffering a leg wound and arm wound, claiming the cat jumped him from behind, but he waited 3 weeks before telling anybody, his wounds largely healed, such that there was no evidence of his claims.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/envir...was-attacked-by-florida-panther/2174401/

Good info. Like I said when I’m Turkey hunting is the only time I think about it. Actually, I don’t think there has ever been an attack on a human here. I live in a town of 30,000. We have had two incidents here. One cat was near a school and the police had to shoot it. The other one escaped. We have a season here for them but until they attack a human, I choose to leave them be.

lions gotta eat. hunters need to be prepared, they are going into the lions turf

mother nature can be a beech

Lion kills are very distinctive. Almost always a bite to the base of the skull or trachea. They then feed and drag the carcass into the brush and cover it. Found one lion killed deer on our lease out in Stephens county. Was pretty evident what did it. The tracks were also a dead give away. Much larger than bobcats.

It's a damn shame all the experts always say that wild animals
don't attack humans and larger animals like deer and livestock.
They need to get out and sit out in the rain and heat and cold
and endure the bugs and such, and stop depending on cameras
and helicopter surveys and textbooks for their information.
If they'd read some of the old historical accounts and eyewitness
accounts from the early days of Texas, they'd find that felines
big and small would regularly attack humans and all manners
of livestock and game animals and farm animals such as mules.
One I can think of offhand is an account of a woman and her
children alone in their cabin while the husband was off checking
on their livestock in the days when your livestock ran loose and
grazed wherever they found food. That night a lion jumped on the
cabin roof and was clawing the roof apart trying to get inside
at the woman and her kids. They built a big fire and the lion
lost interest and ran away. This was in the day when a roof was
built of split boards, not flimsy thin shingles like we have now.

So yeah, wild animals will kill you and eat you
if they're hungry enough.
They didn't have bounties on all those animals
all those years ago for no reason.

Never have I heard an expert say this. It has always been the exact opposite.

Seen em on television, read articles and newspaper stories
where they nearly always say- cats just eat mice and rats
and rabbits, and bears just dig around and eat worms and
grubs and berries


Oh well

Again, never seen it. If you find a clip with an expert saying such, you should post it here. Should be good for a laugh.

TPWD put out a release a few hours ago stating that they found no evidence of a Mountain Lion being involved in this death and that the USDA trapper that was brought in agrees. The medical examiner said in a preliminary report, something about a "wild animal, possibly a mountain lion" and Hood County SO just ran with the lion part.

We lost a calf the night before last. She had definitely been bitten in several places, but not a lot of blood. My first thought was coyotes, but this was a 450# calf and she was still intact and not eviscerated. One bite was on her snout, one on the cheek, and one on the neck, plus scratched/tears on her chest. So already on edge, and then read the article above. Not sure by any means it was a cat that got the calf, but i am sure i won’t be anywhere on my place without my sidearm close.

I’ll try to post photos and also put a trail cam up over carcass to see what comes in...

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/crime/article247656155.html

That's just stupid.

I've seen lions kill big deer like that.

Bites on the nose and face, and deep lacerations to the underside of the animal because the lion was kicking/scratching with it's hind legs.

Not much else leaves a pattern like that.

Hmmm...I appraised land for the Federal Land Bank in Parker, Palo Pinto, Erath and western part of Hood County back in the late 70's and early 80's. I was over a lot of that country and shocked how many folks were living there and I am sure that there many more today. The Brazos River would be a natural highway for a lion to travel and a young male driven from the Possum Kingdom area would follow that natural corridor.
Another strong possibility is that someone got tired of feeding a pet that was eating three times what they expected and turned the critter loose. Either way, I am sorry for the family who lost a loved one that was much too young.
If they bring in someone with decent hounds, catching a lion in that terrain should be very easy.
Adios,
Gary

good plan Dalroo. gettem.

I bet the guy died of natural causes and body was scavenged.

There has never been a documented case of a mountain lion killing a human in Texas.

I know the USDA expert folks are talking about on this case. He is likely the best mountain lion tracker in the United States. Likely the planet and I don't say that lightly.

Hopefully someone sits the Hood County Sheriff down and explains this all to him that there is nothing to gain politically from spreading panic. TPWD won't do it because they don't get involved with politics. Which is what this is all about. A politician.

I am sorry for the loss of the young man who passed away. Hope his family can find solace and peace with is passing.

When you stop hunting predators they start hunting people. We need to thin the population back down to the minimum and persecute them relentlessly where they cohabitate with humans so they can only survive in the most remote parts of their habitat. That is the only way. That will re instill fear of man.

Wolves will be the worst to fight off being most see them as fluffy and harmless. They can literally wipe out herds of elk in a blink all for fun! The fight will be with what the people see not how the animal acts.

Natural? Like he fell and hit his head on a rock?



While untrue, what would it matter if a mountain lion had never killed a person in Texas before. There is nothing geographically limiting the ability of mountain lions to kill people in Texas or geographically superior about the people in Texas to withstand such attacks. That it had not happened before doesn't mean that it can't happen or won't happen. The same could have been said for Oregon until 2018, when Diana Bober was killed in Mount Hood National Forest. History is a poor predictor for mutually exclusive events.

By the way, a 3 year old child was killed by a mountain lion in Beaumont in August of 1911.



Hard into instill fear into something that is dead. It isn't like when you are shooting one mountain lion that all the others are watching the event go down. Mountain lions are largely solitary animals. You aren't going to get a herd of them together in order to 'instill fear' into the population.

I hunted in Mason

no blinds, just ground blinds

early dark one day I just settled in the cedar ground blind
and to my left in the early twilight was a mountain lion
making his way slowly to a tree in the dark

I have my 30-06 but it was worthless, can't see crap
so I reached down and gripped my 1911 and waited..
he wasnt hungry that morning but that was a tense
hunting moment to remember

the local rancher came by to visit and shared what
I saw with him; he said that's normal , ,,, there used
to be more. The county used to pay bounties for 2 ears

Where at in mason? we have a place just north of mason. I talked to the biologist a few years back and he said there were a couple around they had documented. They sure can cover some ground, chased one in Arizona with hounds for 40+ miles. Those toms will reach 100+ sq miles of territory.

I saw an article circulating saying there was no evidence of a mountain lion attack on the dude in hood county. They actually said no evidence of an attack by a mountain lion, or any other wild animal.

Reports are conflicting. TPWD says not. The ME says maybe, that it was not homicide or suicide. TPWD does not make legal determinations in such cases, however, only advisory.
https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/12/06...k-north-texas-area-where-man-found-dead/

Would think it would be obvious if a animal killed someone.

it was probably covid.

That depends largely on how much damage has been done in the event, how much damage was done after the event, and how quickly the remains are found after the event.

If the victim died of another cause and was scavenged significantly, body moved from the location of death, etc, it can be difficult to put all the pieces back together to figure out the exact order of events.

It can be difficult to determine the difference between being killed by an animal and scavenged by an animal, for example.

I forgot where it was exactly, it's been 25 years

it borders a wildlife preserve
and a mountain/hill.... supposed to have gold stash from Jesse James/outlaws

I tend to believe the Medical Examiners Office before I believe Texas Parks and Wildlife.

TPW struggles with basic animal identification; I'm not sure I trust their expertise in forensics.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/education/hu...conservation/SikaDeer_614.1_118.png/view

.

if they actually communicated that to the press/printing department.... that person should be fired

Parks and Wildliffe knows animal biology, behavior, ecology

ME knows human physiology and trauma
I would trust the ME's assessment more than PW

The Medical Examiner killed said by a wild animal, possibly a mountain lion. I would guess that it would more likely be a pack of wild dogs.

It’s not the killing of one. It is the persecution of all. Just because it hasn’t been killed doesn’t mean it hasn’t been hunted. Sometimes wounded, etc.

If you hunt them hard enough in an area survivors learn to keep out of there, and the bold ones get killed.

Just like deer, they learn to avoid humans where they are hunted. But will eat out of your hand at times by Lake Tawakoni for example where they are not.

We had a big cat on a lease in Wichita Falls years ago & it was always a little sketchy walking into the deer stand in the dark knowing that you're not the apex predator in the area.

Being on the ground with other apex predators always adds a little spice to life.