Thursday, July 10, 2008
No question in her mind: it was a mountain lion
Bill Cochran
Recent columns
The doe deer Ellen Horn spotted was acting strangely.
“I thought maybe she had dropped a fawn,” said Horn. “She just acted funny, like something was wrong with her, real slow.”
The deer crossed the remote road Horn was hiking and stood in the edge of some trees for a moment. Horn was on one of the 3-mile hikes she takes every other day in Craig County, a break from her duties as operator of the Hunter’s Den, an outdoor store on Virginia 311 south of New Castle.
“So I just stood there watching the doe and I caught movement in the left corner of my eye in a field that had been mowed that morning or the day before.”
When Horn turned her head, there stood what she swears was a mountain lion. “I know what it was -- 100 percent. It was standing in the mowed field, in the wide open, kind of crouched a little bit, twitching that bottom curl of its tail back and forth and staring at that deer. It barely turned its head in my direction, then headed back into the woods. It was almost like, ‘Snap your finger and it was gone.’ ”
The encounter felt like it had lasted 5 minutes or more, “but it probably was 10 to 15 seconds,” Horn said.
“It was a big, big cat, over 100 pounds,” she said. “Big old long legs. It was fawn-colored, like the color of a deer.”
Regular readers know that I am a skeptic when it comes to saying that all mountain lion sightings are accurate. But this sighting is difficult to refute. I know Ellen Horn. I admire her skills in hunting, trapping and observing nature.
This isn’t the first mountain lion she says she has spotted. Three years ago reported seeing a juvenile that she estimated to be 40 to 50 pounds.
“It had been in a field in the same area and had pounced on something. That’s what got my attention,” she said.
Horn has trusted friends in Craig County who also have stories of mountain lion sightings in the same area. Examples: Johnny Reynolds tells about calling one to his turkey decoy. Ray Hollins heard big cats screaming behind his house and reported he got a look at two of them with a spotlight shined off his deck.
Other cats in Craig have been reported to John Lutz, who operates the Eastern Puma Research Network, which keeps tabs on sighting across the country. Some of the reports, Lutz says, are valid. Others aren’t. Lutz has received what he deems to be fake pictures of big cats reported to have been killed on highways in Craig County. Fact is, the Internet has become a carrier of pictures of big cats reported to have been killed in Virginia. Many of the pictures have been traced to the West.
Dr. Pete Bromley, who has a distinguished career in wildlife work at Virginia Tech and North Carolina State, examined a track near where Horn reported seeing her big cat. He eliminated it being a bear or dog.
“I reasoned that it could have been from a mountain lion,” he said. “A plaster cast was not made, as it was too far gone. From time to time, mountain lions are released by pet fanciers who get them as kittens and finally cannot deal with them at home anymore. Whether or not these stocked lions ever reproduce and establish local populations has not been proven, as far as I know.”
I often wonder: if there are mountain lions in Craig County,and other Virginia counties, why haven’t bear hunters treed them? Craig has truckloads of bear hounds and bear hunters.
“Bear hunters have told me that they tree them and they worry that their hunting will be messed with if they report what it is,” said Horn. So they keep quiet when it comes to dealing with this protected animal.
After spotting the cat, Horn said her walk back to her vehicle was a long one. “Every squirrel, every thing made me jump.”
But she hasn’t given up her hikes.
“I started thinking about it,” she said. “I’ve been walking over there for 12 or 14 years, every other evening, 3 to 5 miles. He is living there. He has seen me thousands of times and not messed with me, so obviously he doesn’t want to. I am not going to worry about it.”
