• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

  • Beginning April 1st, and running through April 30th, there is a new 2024 BMW MOA Election discussion area within The Club section of the forum. Within this forum area is also a sticky post that provides the ground rules for participating in the Election forum area. Also, the candidates statements are provided. Please read before joining the conversation, because the rules are very specific to maintain civility.

    The Election forum is here: Election Forum

Let the cougars reduce the deer population

I like the idea too. The author made one interesting observation however: "the lawn and garden community would be willing to sacrifice a few pets and joggers if mountain lions could be brought to the suburbs to get rid of the Bambi plague."

Also, as to definition, it's also called a "mountain lion" and other names. Here's a quotation from WikiPedia:

"The cougar (Puma concolor), also commonly known as the mountain lion, puma, panther, or catamount, is a large felid of the subfamily Felinae native to the Americas. Its range, from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes of South America, is the greatest of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere."
 
Wait, I'm confused. This is the definition I got for cougar; Cougar is a slang term referring to a woman who seeks sexual activity with younger men.

Can't see how this will help with the deer population. :banghead
 
akbeemer said:
wait, i'm confused. This is the definition i got for cougar; cougar is a slang term referring to a woman who seeks sexual activity with younger men.

Can't see how this will help with the dear population. :banghead
Click to expand...
ftfy
 
akbeemer said:
Wait, I'm confused. This is the definition I got for cougar; Cougar is a slang term referring to a woman who seeks sexual activity with younger men.

Can't see how this will help with the deer population. :banghead
Click to expand...

I think those cougars would help with the deAr population.
 
Just introduce a few prides of African lions, that ought to put a dent in the whitetail deer nuisance. :)
 
I can remember when there were not any deer in our part of the country! At first, it was a big deal if someone spotted one, but now I have herds of them on my property. I think I like the idea of the cougar (4 legged one) to help control them. Of course then I would be a little scared to go for a walk in my woods :bolt. FWIW, I walked right up on a fawn bedded down yesterday.
 
shortythorne said:
I can remember when there were not any deer in our part of the country! At first, it was a big deal if someone spotted one, but now I have herds of them on my property. I think I like the idea of the cougar (4 legged one) to help control them. Of course then I would be a little scared to go for a walk in my woods :bolt. FWIW, I walked right up on a fawn bedded down yesterday.
Click to expand...

Ya, well I live in an area where there are cougars. You will never see them, unless they are attacking you.
I suspect if there is a lot of food (e.g. deer) then there might never be any cougar attacks on humans.
Every now and then, in BC, someone is attacked, and sometimes school kids go missing... - those ones make the news! (doesn't happen frequently).

So, I don't know if is a good idea or not, but if they liked your area, why are they not there now?
 
:nod Yep. It is probably better to just leave things as they are and not create another problem. Years ago, cotton & corn was the most commonly grown crops for larger farmers. When they started planting soybeans is when the deer population really exploded here. I lease some of my property for farming and in some areas that are pretty secluded, they cannot plant soybeans because the deer will demolish them as soon as they come up. What would really be helpful, is to have several, back to back "doe only" hunting seasons,& stop planting year after year crops the deer will eat (soybeans). Some farmers here have switched to peanuts, as they won't touch them :dunno. They are a BIG problem for sure.
 
I was thinking the wrong cougar also. Reminds me of a when me and my son went to the restroom at a University of Houston home game. They are to cougars. My son was young at the time. Maybe fist grade. He asked me what were we. Meaning what was the mascot of the home team. I told him cougars. He asked what was that. I said it's a 40 year old woman who what's to go out with a 20 year old guy. He said ohh. And everyone cracked up in the bathroom.
 
I read, "Let the cagers reduce the deer population." and immediately thought of people driving cars and trucks. :scratch

When I ride my biggest fear is getting hit by a deer.
 
gfspencer said:
When I ride my biggest fear is getting hit by a deer.
Click to expand...

It's ironic........that used to be a quaint rural problem. Today, with the increased deer population, concentration of working age human population around metro areas and increased speed limits......it's a suburban / metro problem. Sadly, for many of our states, the political divide between metro and rural areas has basically prevented any meaningful public response / action.

Democracy......the least bad alternative;)
 
Blue Hills Reservation is a State Park with a weather observatory, hiking trails, horseback riding trails and even a small ski area. Reports are that the deer have overrun "natural" population limits. The Reservation is in a highly urban setting, used by many.
There was a deer hunt last year which made the news continually. This area is also located at a major highway intersection and there are many deer strikes.
For the actual hunt, it seems it's hunters vs non-hunters using all the usual rationalization for the pros and cons.
I have my own opinion of things but prefer to keep it off the forum.
The cure on a national level- :dunno The turkey population is exploding around my place as well as some deer. It would seem the turkeys are a favorite of the coyotes.

Blue Hills Reservation- http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dcr/parks/trails/blue-hills-map-2014.pdf

Around here, it's the deer at Blue Hills Reservation that has everyone riled up- https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2...d-this-year/tcRYXiJVDO38WwDnLxWdrN/story.html

https://www.mspca.org/animal_protection/blue-hills-deer-hunt/

OM
 
Cougars in urban areas

"60 Minutes" just reran an interesting story on the cougars in L.A. (yes, that means Los Angeles). There is a thriving small population, rarely seen by humans, who evidently have figured out how to live in an urban environment. In the story, the largest problem researchers have seen is that the various populations are trapped in the areas they live in by freeways and such; this results in incest and the resultant genetic problems of inbreeding. They track a number of these animals using gps collars, and give them physicals, blood tests and the like by darting them.
One couple who live within sight of the Hollywood sign had one under their house. This was discovered by the cable guy when he was running wire down in the crawl space. The couple had no idea the cougar was taking naps down there. The researchers didn't know because the house blocked the gps signal when the cougar was down there.

This story is probably on 60 minutes' website; it's a great story.

I live in central TX most of the time, and have had a huge interest in nature all of my life. When I was a child (a looong time ago) cougars were purportedly pretty much wiped out in most of the state. Now there are sightings reported in EVERY county of Texas, so they're reestablishing, at least somewhat, on their own in big portions of the US.

However, there would have to be a really large cougar population to significantly affect the deer population in TX (and other places). And there ARE attacks on humans by mountain lions, although statistically rare; many times menstruating females are the targets. I guess that would be an attack on a cougar by a cougar?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top