how far can a cat move in one night

[BWTB]

This is my first year lion hunting and I am wondering how far a lion will travel in one night. The last time it snowed here, it quit about 8:00 PM. The next morning I cut a track at about 7:30 AM. I took my pup and followed it she would run out on the track a couple of hundred yards and then come back to me so I kept walking thinking I could jump the cat and get my dog on it fresh. After 4 or 5 miles of rough country the tracks turned up a ridge and almost disappeared from snow that had blown into them. The morning had been calm with no wind at all so I knew I was still atleast 8 hours behind it. I had no food or water with me so I decided to head back to the truck. This cat never ran or got distracted from where ever it may have been going, just put one foot in front of the others all night it seemed. Is this the normal or the exception? Do bobcats cover this much ground?

[justjared]

a ramblin male will cover tons of country

[huntinlass]

sounds normal, especially if it is a tom. when you are hunting, and especially alone, I recommend you never leave your truck without a backpack with snacks, fire starting items, extra socks, extra beanie hat, water, etc. YOU ABSOLUTELY NEVER KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN and you should be prepared.

[Ranger]

BWTB, u just described lion hunting. GET YOUR BACKPACK ON AND GET AFTER IT!!!!! Once in a while youll get on to a short race but u have to be ready for anything. I have left on foot thinking Id be able to hear them treed in the first canyon I come to and end up getting back to the truck at noon the next day.

[catdogs]

Most races will be less than 5 miles, but I've had a couple that were near 15 miles on a day old track. One I finally caught at over 13 miles by GPS from the truck, the other I quit him at 12 and I still don't think I had gained much on him. Those are a couple of my longest races anyway, and that milage is as the crow flies.

[horshur]

further than I can walk.

[Mt Goat]

I have a question as well. Once the Mt Lion is jumped how far do they normally run before treeing ? and if the terrain is in the foothills and is flat to rolling with washes, with LOTS of scrub oak, but very fast running country will a Mt Lion tree faster or run further ?

[catdogs]

When the dogs jump a lion, he'll usually tree in a few hundred yards. They are sprinters only and have very small lungs and heart compared to their size. If they are in deep snow, somtimes a lion can stay on top and get further, but I would say it would be very rare a lion would go more than a 1/4 mile before treeing JMO.

[Mt Goat]

Thanks catdogs thats what I thought. I've read some storys where guys say the lion jumped tree in the morning, and not caught again until later that evening. I didnt think they ran that much.

Larry

[BWTB]

Thanks guys sounds like I better start getting in shape for next year.

[Mike Leonard]

Mt. Goat that does happen and it all depends on the lion, the country, the conditions and if you hold your mouth right.
Seriously most lions do tree quickly if they are blown out of a lay up bed and find themselves in a smoking race with a bunch of flop eared hounds bellering and running on hot scent. Lions have tremendous muscles in their front especially and their lungs are rather small in comparism so they run out of air quickly. Exceptions can be a lion that is up moving in front of the dogs and going thru difficult country. If a lion goes into a long trot and the country is very broken and rugged many times the dogs will hit hot spots and blow and go but this lion doesn't panic he just keeps jogging along making time. I have followed lions like that all day and never caught up to them . I have heard a lot of old time hunters say if you get a tom in a long trot and he has his mind set to go someplace you are not likely to catch him till he gets there. Female lions that have been spoiled by treeing and jump outs are very bad because their body size ration is much lighter that big toms and they don't run out of wind as quickly and they also recover quickly in the tree if it is not too hot. (Still do not jump out and re run these lions unless they jump on their own becasue you stand a very good chance of over srtessing them and having them die later from respitory and or cardiac arrest. It happens much more frequently than most would even imagine.Forces jump outs also stand the chance of your dogs catch9ing it on the ground and killing or you paying some big vet bills. Or if it gets away completly and it does happen becasue of the country you have another spoiled lion on your hands and you may have some very long and frustrating days in store with this cat. A small adult female that is spoiled in very broken country on the bare ground can make the very best dogs look like crap.

Short story about how far even a big tom can run when jumped. I had cold trailed this tom since sun up it was bare ground and March about this time of year. Light freeze at night and high 60's to low 70's in the day.
Struck the track about 8:30 am made sure the dogs were going the right way and then just mounted back up and we followed as best we could. They were trailing along a narrow rim that ran out about 5 miles and was very steep and rocky on the left side but opened up and was flatter and just big washes on the right. The dogs were having to work pretty hard so I assumerd the track was made early the evening before. It was a very large track so we knew we were after a large male and some of the scrapes he made along our way were certainly the large industrial sized models. At these scrapes the dogs would buzz up harder and trail out with more excuberenc ebut later the rocks and the stready heat of the day climbing slowed them to a walk. Well we had come about 3 miles and the dogs made a big lose at a point where another canyon ran into this ridge. By now it was nearly noon and pretty warm I would say pushing 70 and the dogs were wearing down. Sucking all that air thru their mouths and nose coming off those steadily heating up red and tan sand and granite rocks really takes a toll on their scenting ability.The trail went to a stall phase and we sat there on our horses watching the dogs pecking thru the rocks below trying to locate the outgoing trail. I told my partner I am not sure but I have a feeling he laid up in there some place and they can't find him. Many times just before a lion lays up he will go thru a series of movements and to me it seems he can all but shut his scent down. I know folks think I am crazy to say they can do this but more old dry ground hunters than I beleive this and Dale Lee was one of them. I have seen dogs literally almost step on a laid up lion before he moved and they saw him.Well most of the dogs were down below us a ways and there seemed to be a little pocket of scent there but they couldn't move it away from there and they kept coming back. My eye caught a flicker up higher in the rocks and I saw Gunner a spotted walker dog up there trotting along sorting thru the rocks and he didn't even have his nose to the ground. This dog was a vetran of some 200 lions and he knew the score nd he was going to find Senior Leon. Well he bopped around up there for a 10 minutes or so and we lost track of him when all of a sudden I heard a yelp I mean a distress yelp not a bawl or chop. Only on yelp but every other dogs was streaking towards the spot going flat out. When they got there they just left out bawling all at once. Up thru the rocks and out over the top where it was easier going. We scrambled to get to them but we had to work thru the rocks, boulders and trees. I looked down where they had come thru and I saw Gunner standing their on weak and wobbley legs. He was shaking and I knew he was hurt. I went to him and he was in a daze of sorts. I couldn't see any blood or gashes on him and I was about to load him up on my horse and carry him out and he struggles away from me and wobbled off down the trail the dogs had taken.Obviously the tom had swatted or stampeded Gunner off a ledge and banged him up as he blew out of his hidey hole. Well he seemed to sort of come around but couldn't go faster that a slow trot. Well we got up on the top fully expecting to hear the dogs treed nearby and all we heard was the wind, they were flat gone. So we just started in behind Gunner as he headed in the direction they had gone and we moved out. Well even with the heat, and the open run on top and this being a monster sized lion he went over 1 1 /2 miles after being jumped out of the rocks. When we got to the tree he had regained his breath pretty good and wasn't doing the usually pant till they almost pass out that some big fat full bellied toms do. Some of which I have had fall asleep in the tree and nearly fall out from exaustion.

So it is never a sure thing and about the time you think you have a pattern figured out these dang lions will pull another deal on you. But that sure does keep it interesting. I was out early today and rode a bunch of country and I am excited to go again in the morning becasue there was another canyon I saw over there that sure looked good to me. Crazy isn't it after all these years of folowing these dogs I still get excited about going to check just one more place. Loco may be the word. LOL!

[JDAWG]

NICE story Mike like usual. I talked to a hound hunter that did studies for USU, He caught lions and collared them and tracked there movements. He said it wasnt unusual for toms to travel 20 to 25 miles as the crow flies. This study was in north western Wyoming mostly big mountains.

[high desert hounds]

I rode some desert country one day on my sled and never found a track. I went back in the next morning and that cat had crossed my track some time during the night. I clocked 19.5 miles on my sled following that track before I seen where it entered into the rim rock. I probley could have walked down there and shot that big tom. Instead I rode home got a restless nights sleep and took the dogs back the next morning. I started from where I left that cat in the cave and the dogs ran him less than 2 miles no kills no nothing. so why did he travel 20 miles one night and 2 the next. Same reason the chicken crossed the road i sapose. because he can. I never killed that tom thinking I would run him a few more times. Never seen that cat again.

Mike how did that other canyon that looked so pritty turn out for you?

[chilcotin hillbilly]

In this country if a track is last nights track you are wise to start the track with the hounds until things heat up. once I did this and let the hounds go after 17 miles of walking, good thing for a lynx that crossed infront of the hounds as they were treed a couple miles a head. never did catch up to that old tom. That tom hunted all night and most of the day, tried to get a wild horse and missed, put a stalk on a cow moose, chased a coyote, and made a run at a mule deer and then lined out in a straight line at a trot. My guess is he heard a female in heat and was going to investigate.

[meguide01]

mike nice story and well some day i intend to read your stories as you write them i will read with furver and an open mind to exorb all your knowledge and hopefully someday put it to good use, by the way my two bluetics are doing well with training for bear already. showing that they are silent trailers which is something i know nothing about but willing to let them show me the way and learn from them how bizzare. i am training and also in trainning!!! LOL