stampeding cows

[super white hunter]

Have a local rancher who has about 200 calfs that have twice been run through the fence in the middle of the night, he is convinced it is a Lion. there are cows around them and is also dry ground so I can't find a track

Any Ideas.

[Glen]

mabey try some trail cams to get a pic of what it is for sure.

[zipper10]

Not sure what part of Colorado you're in, but there are plenty of guys on this board that have good dry ground dogs that could come and help out.... whether or not they actually will is a different story.

Take your dogs out and let them poke around next time it happens, you never know, you might have some dry ground dogs without knowing it...

[Deff]

Could well be a mountain lion. Over the years, I have had a few incidents of cats stampeding my cattle. We wean our calves across the fence from their mommas so the ground is so trampled it is almost impossible to find a track to follow but the hounds may locate a print or two to help verify the culprit. It seams to be a curiosity thing or a consequence of deer being attracted to cattle feed grounds as the only calf I've had die in an “attack” was from a broken neck from hitting the fence and was not fed upon. Possibly all the commotion tends to spook the cat off. Unless the lion happened to make a kill close by, it can be miles away by morning. The attacks I have had typically occur about two or three weeks apart and usually end after the deer migrate out of our area to the lower elevations for winter.

A neighbor had problems for three years in a row. He called out some of the top houndsmen in the area (guys way outta my league!) for help and finally after three years and many tries, I was told that a 6 mile deep snow chase finally ended with a large male lion in a tree.

My hats off to anybody that can effectively respond to predation complaints. Since I have a couple of hounds, I have always tried to “skin my own cats”. When responding to an incident, you have to deal with the tracking conditions as they are and they often suck with howling winds and blowing snow and may go through heavily trampled feed grounds etc. and the cat may not pass through the area again for weeks. You are not simply after a mountain lion -- you are after THAT mountain lion!
It is a whole different game than cruising some roads on a still morning after an inch of fresh snow.

Our mountain lion season opens tomorrow morning and it is snowing right now. OH-YEAH!!!

[super white hunter]

Thats the key I am after that lion, just wanted to think what everybody thought about situation. I did bring my dogs in to see what we could find and my 10 mounth old picked up a trail, I wasnt' sure what she was on and was nervous she was following deer, she went up and down behind the lots and like deff said this area also has cows and tons of deer trails. but I finally found one small looking lion track on the trail she was on. She followed it back down into a different feed lot and we lost it there. I was pretty excited she found it at all. even my older dog didn't catch it. hopefully we can find it when the snow comes, or hopefully I have a dry ground dog.

I do like being the guy that ranchers call when they have a predator, just is lots of pressure because I want to produce for them.

[Mike Leonard]

I get called out on a lot of weird calls on similar situations. Never know could be a sud adult lion just raising cain but a big tom doesn't do that stuff if he wants a cald or a cow for that metter he slips in and kills them.

Here is a little idea that might send some light. I was called out on a similar stampede deal some years back. Ofcourse they didn't call me till about mid morning the next day( usally about the time they get up and around and think about it. Well by the time i get out there it is noon and high sun. I look all over and I can't find a lion track but they were convinced tHAT IT WAS A COUGAR! Well i got out my two old strike dogs and sent them around the trampled up scene and it wasn't too long and old Jack a black and tan dog lit up on a hillside and the other black dog Duke went to him and he also opened. Well I cut loose the pack and it wasn't just a little bit and we had a race going. Well it went off into some canyons and pretty sandy wash country but they kept it up and acted like they were running jumped. I finally heard them catch and the battle was on. I grabbed my pistol jumped out of the truck and headed to them. Well was I surprized when I got there becasue they had a big yellow about half pit bull wild dog in the circle and they were working on him. Before I could get him shot the dogs got him down and killed him. He was a nasty looking critter but he was part of a rather large wild dog pack we had in the country at that time and the dogs ran him just like any other wild animal. by the way many dogs will run wild mustangs even if they are along with you on your saddle horses) ( wild smell wild!). Anyway that eliminated that cow chaser but it took me two weeks to get the rest of the pack and there were dogs of all sizes including great dane crosses. Bad news and also very dangerous for children in the area.

Might have been a lion but I suspect DOGS!

[Kevin Jackson]

A bunch of fresh weaned calves will "stampede" for so many different reasons they couldn't be counted. You can watch them for hours and never figure out what is spooking them. Always a lion behind every bush causing the problem. I get calls every year like this and very seldom find a lion track anywhere near the "stampede". Lot of deer tracks, elk tracks, and coyote tracks. Ever seen what happens when a deer jumps into a pen of fresh calves? They all stand at the fence with necks stretched trying to figure out what it is and then BOOM the deer leaps the fence and the calves about turn inside out. Not saying that it's never a lion, just that lions get a lot more blame than they earn.

[super white hunter]

I get called out on a lot of weird calls on similar situations. Never know could be a sud adult lion just raising cain but a big tom doesn't do that stuff if he wants a cald or a cow for that metter he slips in and kills them.

Here is a little idea that might send some light. I was called out on a similar stampede deal some years back. Ofcourse they didn't call me till about mid morning the next day( usally about the time they get up and around and think about it. Well by the time i get out there it is noon and high sun. I look all over and I can't find a lion track but they were convinced tHAT IT WAS A COUGAR! Well i got out my two old strike dogs and sent them around the trampled up scene and it wasn't too long and old Jack a black and tan dog lit up on a hillside and the other black dog Duke went to him and he also opened. Well I cut loose the pack and it wasn't just a little bit and we had a race going. Well it went off into some canyons and pretty sandy wash country but they kept it up and acted like they were running jumped. I finally heard them catch and the battle was on. I grabbed my pistol jumped out of the truck and headed to them. Well was I surprized when I got there becasue they had a big yellow about half pit bull wild dog in the circle and they were working on him. Before I could get him shot the dogs got him down and killed him. He was a nasty looking critter but he was part of a rather large wild dog pack we had in the country at that time and the dogs ran him just like any other wild animal. by the way many dogs will run wild mustangs even if they are along with you on your saddle horses) ( wild smell wild!). Anyway that eliminated that cow chaser but it took me two weeks to get the rest of the pack and there were dogs of all sizes including great dane crosses. Bad news and also very dangerous for children in the area.

Might have been a lion but I suspect DOGS!

This sounds like exactly what happened minus the dog chase, this ranch has had problems with dogs before being so close to town but usually the dog stays around and problem is solved. I do agree that lions get the blame most of the time and I am always skeptical but I did find a lion track so I think they might be right on this one.

[Powder River Walker]

You can rule out wolf because they stay in yellowstone and don't leave the area!!

[Deff]

I pretty much agree with everything written above. I've been ranching over 40 years and have only had 3 occasions of lions stampeding calves. Cats can be pretty bold at night and the commotion of the cattle might arouse their curiosity or the calves might be stampeded by deer dashing around do to a cougar. I have had way more problems with loose dogs over the years than with cats. Whatever the cause, it is a cattleman's worst nightmare! Instead of settling in and eating and growing, the calves get thinner and spookier with each incidence. The added work of rebuilding fence and gathering and sorting livestock is the least of your problems.

I use to have a B&T hound and a cowdog that hunted well together. They were fearless when it came to stray dogs, coyotes, bear, or bobcat but must have had a real bad encounter with a mountain lion. At the slightest whiff of the big cats, the hound would head for home and the cowdog would cower behind my legs. Those dogs did help verify when a cat was the cause of the problem. On those occasions the calves were stampeded about once every three weeks or so -- until the deer moved out of the area and I assume the problem cat followed. Although I have had rare isolated problems with juvenile cats tagging horses or cows, none of my calf stampeding incidents displayed any direct physical contact between the cat and cattle.

The most recent problem I have had with calves being stampeded was do to a bobcat! My lot is fenced with wire panels and poles about 5 feet high. Wild turkeys would fly in and scratch through the manure for bits of grain. A bobcat discovered that the turkeys would run along the fence and not fly when chased in there. The commotion of birds flapping and feathers flying would instantly put the calves out through the fence. It got so bad that the calves would run at the sound of a pigeon flying out of the barn!

Sometimes the only thing more dang frustrating than hounds is cattle!!!