Do lions come to bait?

[Machias]

P.S. I don't think it would be nearly as effective in thick timber or brushy country. I think the open ridgelines in the Blue Mountains makes it particularly effective. I think they key in on the magpies, crows and ravens.

[R Severe]

I've used bait in my job. The lions will come check out the bird party but seldom feed except in winter. For just getting them in, a call box with lion sounds is more effective and targets lions alone. If they can hear it they come check it out.
It's not legal here to use bait for sport hunting, has to be for damage when they revert to predator status.

[Machias]

I should have clarified that in the beginning, this is a winter activity. We can't bait bears and I would not do this anytime the bears are out. They would be on the bait and take it over way too quick for most of the cats here. But in winter, I think it's an excellent tatic.

[memo jaramillo]

Here in Mexico we use sheep alive, when we put GPS collars on jaguars and many times the lion kills the sheep, and we realize how to kill the animal that is lion and jaguar, a few days before to capture and we see that the lion killed a ewe we loose dogs to train, we had cameras in 3 different types of cats eating from the same sheep on the same night ocelot, jaguar and lion
I have tried to put dead bait but I have not been successful
I think the Liones go take a long time, and other predators like the coyote eat
instead to live bait to be careful to put it and you do not win that there are thousands of coyotes.
is different when using the caller, you work around with your dogs loose and have had some successes and I think it is thanks to the caller the same thing happens in the jaguar
Flames and jaguar does not always answer, but many times they let slip the dogs detected the trails very close call.
decomposed animal eats the jaguar and that I have not seen here in Mexico with the lion I have never seen a mountain lion eat more than 2 times in the same animal may be due to the heat is here, but not impossible.
I'm no expert, but that's what I've seen

Greetings to all and Merry Christmas

[R Severe]

Good information Memo, Thanks.
Merry Christmas to you Also.
Robin

[Brent Sinclair]

Memo
Very interesting!!!
When I hunted in the Yucatan we put out baits for jaguar, hung fresh horse meat about 3 feet off the ground.
We also found that all 3 cats fed on them, but the cougar would quit feeding if the meat got to rotten after about 3-5 days and a jaguar had not found it, if a jaguar had fed in most cases it would take the entire bait and we would have to replace it, that made the cougar move on.
I have found several cases here in Canada where lions will scavenge on carion, one of our collared liond stayed on a domestic cow carcass for 27 days however that was in winter....tey will scavenge on dead animals in summer but as you say only for a short time.
This is one of our collared females that we removed the collar from last month...she has found 2 of our wolf baits and has stayed on them for over 3 weeks now....they are not frozen or rotten .
Chances are she heard the birds and followed the other scavengers to the bat sight as she has found both locations in the area!!!!!
Lions will feed from a carcass when they find one it is a proven fact.... in most cases they move on within a short time...baiting for the purpose of getting a lion would be difficult, but not impossiable.

[memo jaramillo]

Mr. Sinclair I like this site to learn a lot from you, and I'm getting addicted to see, I never thought that a lion eat rotting meat, only once I got to see a lion that ate a foal after 5 days of eating the last time, and ate only the part where you hit the ground, believed to be the freshest of the body.
the reality is that in Mexico there have been no studies of puma only jaguars and ocelots.
this coming year is the first study that hase lion in Mexico and believe that we learn a lot from this ghost.
I also know that not all animals are equal and sometimes abnormal behavior.
the puma of the jungle and the desert are different in size, color and habits, these studies will teach us much about them and friends will touch me learn with them.
Adios Amigos

[Sierra Madre]

Muchas Gracias,
Great info sharing.

The lions are eating the my deer and I gotta hunt something...
I love this stuff.

[Mr.pacojack]

I love the guys that say a lion wont do this or wont do that or will do this or will do that. What I have found with any wild animal is they kind of do what they want to do, they haven't read the same books as some of us have so they just don't know what we expect them to do
I also find that a wild animal is dictated more by his stomach that what we think he should do. Hungar is very powerful.
I have heard over my life time, like Mike said that a lion prefers to eat only what he kills. I don't believe this at all, I believe they will eat just about anything when starving. I have seen many and many times, lions come to road kill that has been there for weeks or months. Seen them dig threw 2 feet of snow to get at an old kill, nothing left but bones. Many strange things that I have seen a hungry lion do.
A cat is a cat and the question was do lions come to bait? The answer is Yes. Do they always eat it? No, but alot of times yes.
Alot of lions are caught in traps, foot snares and cage traps...now I know for a fact that lion didnt kill the thing that caught them
I think any bait or lure, you would have a good chance of at least having the lion come investigate it. Like I said a cat is a cat and they are curious.

[Big Thunder]

Back in 2002 i was in the BLM office in Kfalls getting maps for an antelope hunt. they had a display of mt lions feeding on deer they had hung in trees and got photos from a trail camera. there where all kinds of photos of martins ,fishers,coyotes, foxes, bobcats and birds. all these photos where in the winter
BT

[Brent Sinclair]

It would make the average houndsman sick to know how many big lions or any lion for that matter are killed each season in wolf snares on traplines in Alberta alone.
Lions feed on wolf baits and get caught on a regular basis....it's only a matter of time for it to happen ( again ) " in the late 90's a trapper killed 4 hounds at one time..." 3 in snares and the third in a leghold where the hound had to be put down.
The houndsman turned out on a lion track and that cat went right to a wolf bait where the trapper had a mess of snares set at a bait ,and also a ways off where the lion came into the bait.
I have seen where lions wander around bait sites and make alot of tracks, the hounds get messed up and start making circles trying to figure out the track no different from a natural kill and then it's to late.... with the new stinger springs we are now using on the wolf snares a hound has no chance to live unless someone is right there within a couple minutes and without cable cutters chances of getting the snare off in time is slim.
I've missed opportunity at killing alot of wolves just because a lion moved in on my baits...so had to go with leghold traps and set up accordingly.
I personally am reluctant to run in an area that I know a trapper has wolf snares just for this reason, with my sets I know exactly where everything is and can work the lion through things in most cases but the chance for a wreck is always there.
So to get back to the topic....lions come to bait ALOT!!!!!