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Heartland Cougar Watch Society Home
| THANK YOU FOR VISITING OUR SITE. We hope you will choose to sign in and become a member. Our membership profile has been customized to deal with your interest in Mountain Lions so I hope you will take the time to answer the questions. As a MEMBER you will beable to contribute to this site, post pictures, videos , ask questions and share items you've seen or read about mountain lions. PLUS as a member a bi-monthly update on this sites activity will be sent to your e-mail inbox. Be sure to return often for new information and articles As well as our BREAKING NEWS FLASH page!!!!! If you have any information you would like to contribute we would love to hear from you. You can enter it on this site or e-mail it to us at heartland.cougarwatch@hotmail.com We'd love to hear about your COUGAR (aka... mountain lion, panther, puma) sighting stories. We are located in the Heartland of the U.S. Some of the areas we cover are Iowa, Northern Missouri and Eastern Nebraska but we look forward to hearing about your sighting stories wherever you are located. We are excited as we track and monitor the return of the magnificent MOUNTAIN LION!!!!!! We firmly believe that mountain lions are here in the Heartland and are gathering sighting information to determine if a pattern exists or if an area has a high number of sightings. Once a pattern is determined or a high number of sightings are reported in a specific area we will initiate a more intensive search in that area to gather evidence and stratigically place trail cameras with the hope of getting the lucky picture that will confirm their presence. The more sightings we hear about the better chance we have in proving their existance here in the Heartland. Even if your sighting is older and you don't have all the specific details we still want to hear about it. One of the main characteristics of these big cats is their ability to elude humans which makes it harder to prove their existance. Part of our intent is to find out if they are wild cougars or if they are "domesticated" cats that have been released or escaped from their owners. With my own personal sighing of one of these magnificant creatures at our farm and the sense of awe that just the memory still gives me, I know for a fact that they are here. I was able to get pictures but with the angle of the setting sun the pictures didn't come out clearely. If they had, I wouldn't be having people questioning what I KNOW without a doubt that I saw a cougar................ PLEASE HELP ME PROVE THEIR EXISTANCE HERE IN THE HEARTLAND! There seems to be a LOT of activity in the Osceola, Iowa area. Hopefully someone will be able to gather the necessary evidence to PROVE their existance and possibly pictures from a trail camera. We have received a couple of reports of a female mountain lion with her cubs. One incident was seen by 4 adults in two separate vehicles in Eastern Page County on highway 2 near Clarinda IA. The report states that the female was on the side of the road waiting for her 3 cubs to cross over to her, forcing the cars going in opposite directions to stop while the cubs crossed. Another sighting was by 2 adults in Western Ringold County near Mt. Ayr, IA. This report said that the female and her cubs were seen laying on top of a bale of hay sunning themselves. If you have any information on either of these sightings or others PLEASE CONTACT US with information. ***While hiking and during hunting season, more of you are out in areas not normally traveled. PLEASE keep a watchful eye out for evidence of a Predator Kill. Identifiable signs of a Preditor Kill will show that the prey's neck (usually a deer) has deep puncture wounds with a broken neck as well as the abdomen being opened and the major organs being removed as it's their meat of choice. It will sometimes appear that the prey's hair/fur has been pulled out since a mountain lion will often pull out the hair/fur of their prey before breaking into the skin. After eating their fill a cougar will then attempt to bury the uneaten remains under a bed of debris such as dirt, weeds and branches for later consumption. Once the buried meat spoils the big cat will not return to feed, preferring instead to go after a fresh kill. A cougar will normally average 1 to 2 deer kills per week. Be careful to NOT disturb the kill site so as to prevent damaging any evidence not easily seen without a closer inspection. IT IS ADVISABLE THAT YOU REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THE KILL SITE ASAP as the cougar may still be in the area. When taking pictures of any evidence place a dollar bill or other standard measurable item as a means of setting scale beside your evidence. Allow extra pictures to capture the evidence with the surrounding landscape to be used later to identify and verify the actual location. If you have a GPS unit or your cell phone has the GPS location try placing it beside the evidence and take a picture zooming in to get the GPS coordinates. Near the Preditor Kill there would be a high likelihood of evidence such as hair, scat, paw prints or other evidence that would need to be collected and handled properly inorder to preserve the integrity of the evidence. The collected sample of evidence could then be sent for analyzation by the experts. PLEASE try your hardest not to disturb the area anymore than absolutely necessary. We request that you contact us with your information so that we may visit the acutal site if possible to take pictures and gather evidence to send to our experts and for our own tracking files. *** It does need to be stressed that if you find evidence it would be advisable for you to contact the local DNR also. We ask that even if you do contact the DNR that you also share the evidence and information with us. Follow this link to our Big Cat Sighting Report Form which can also be located in the upper left hand corner of this page. PLEASE fill out the sighting report form and give it to us if we visit the evidence site. You can also mail the report to us or send it through e-mail to heartland.cougarwatch@hotmail.com THANK YOU FOR YOU ASSISTANCE IN COLLECTING EVIDENCE!!!! Check out what your STATE experts say by following the links below: MISSOURI Department of Conservation IOWA Department of Natural Resources NEBRASKA Game & Parks Commission We look forward to hearing of your sightings and any photos you were fortunate enough to capture. We also look forward to getting answers to any questions or comments you may have. ***** If you have any big cat ...( cougar, mountain lion, panther & puma ) ...articles, information or items of interest that you would like to share on this website please feel free to do so. We certainly look forward to reading it....don't forget to add your pictures and videos!!!! | |
HeartlandCougarWatch |
Latest page update: made by HeartlandCougarWatch
, Jan 29 2011, 8:10 AM EST
(about this update
About This Update
Edited by HeartlandCougarWatch
1 word deleted view changes - complete history) |
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Keyword tags:
Mountain Lions } CONFIRMED
Mountain Lions } REPORTED
More Info: links to this page
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| Started By | Thread Subject | Replies | Last Post | ||
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| HeartlandCougarWatch | PUMA SHOT AND KILLED IN BLENCOE IOWA 12-22-11 | 0 | Dec 24 2011, 8:45 AM EST by HeartlandCougarWatch | ||
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Thread started: Dec 24 2011, 8:45 AM EST
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Keyword tags:
Mountain Lions } CONFIRMED
Mountain Lions } REPORTED
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| HeartlandCougarWatch | TRAINED MOUNTAIN LIONS?????? | 1 | Jan 12 2010, 8:25 AM EST by southbrowncounty | ||
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Thread started: Jan 7 2010, 3:38 PM EST
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While reading more about the mountain lion killed in Iowa, an "expert" said cougars will not attack humans, livestock or pets without being trained to do so. Who "trained" the 2 cougars to attack the 7 & 11 year old boys near Vancover B C on 12-31-09 & 1-22-10. And who "trained" the cougar to kill two llamas and severly injure one in Wyomming or the Yorkshire Terrier dog ki...lled in Utah? HEY "EXPERT" to a wild animal prey is prey when the opportuniuty presents itself and they are hungry enough!!!
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| HeartlandCougarWatch | Evidence Gathering Trek In Ohio | 4 | Dec 20 2009, 11:43 AM EST by HeartlandCougarWatch | ||
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Thread started: Oct 30 2009, 6:05 PM EDT
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It is our understanding that the Ohio Mountain Lion Watch group is going in search of Big Cat evidence in areas with several sighting reports on Sunday, November 1, 2009.
We at Heartland Cougar Watch wish you MUCH SUCCESS in your evidence gathering mission! We hope you will share with us the details of how your search went, if you found evidence of big cat presence, how many searchers participated, how you selected your target search area, how you managed your searchers......and anything else you wish to share with us :-} .... AGAIN GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR SEARCH WE WISH YOU FAVORABLE WEATHER CONDITIONS AND MUCH SUCCESS IN FINDING EVIDENCE that these magnificant cats are indeed in the area you've chosen to search !!!!!! Happy Hunting, Joanne |
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