Big Cats

[RickN]

They are here and if you ever hear one scream you will never forget it. Sounds like a woman being strangled. Now one calling it's young can sound like a bird. I have seen tracks off and on, and heard one scream when I was a kid. I saw tracks out at the OKC gun club one night. Much larger than a bobcat track.

 

[PanhandleGlocker]

i have a buddy up here that had a horse get killed by a lion.

Another guy had a horse get killed maybe a month before my friends horse too and the marks were obviously from a lion. He called the game warden and the warden came out and said “looks like your horse got into some barb wire.”

The guy told the warden, “show me exactly where on my pasture that I have any fence tore up.”

 

[Profreedomokie]

I watched a National Geographic Documentary once on the big cats in Oklahoma. One thing that stuck out was that many of the cats seen were black and not brown. I think I saw a cougar a few months ago while returning from Fairfax. My friend was driving and said,

"Look at that". What he first thought was a coyote we both agreed wasn't a coyote. It was too long, too big for a coyote, and it had too long a tail. It didn't look canine at all. I remember the one Dennis mentioned getting hit by the trail near Marlin. The article I've included happened around 30 years ago.

 

[jakeman]

I saw one north of Elmore City a year or so ago. It was feeding on a deer carcass at about 9:30 in the am. Broad ass daylight. I topped a hill and he was in the ditch about 75 yards in front of me. No mistake. It was a long tailed cat, and he was really, really big.

I've talked to several folks over the years that "thought" they'd seen a big cat. No thinking to it. When you see one, you'll know it. That tail looked like it was 4-5 feet long.

First and only one I've ever seen in all my time in the woods and mountains.

 

[Okie4570]

I've had cams out in Oklahoma and in KS since 2009 on various places, and have had bobcat pics on them all, there's no shortage of bobcats anywhere. I used to video them every time I'd see them from a deer stand but have kind of stopped for whatever reasons the last few years. Not sure how many I've trapped over the years either, lots.

I will say on all the facebook groups I'm on, every year there are dozens of folks who post of tracks of what they think are lion tracks, and they aren't even cat tracks. Claws or no claws in the track have zero to do with it being a cat or canine track. Cats actually do leave claw tracks on occasion, especially a rear foot, and not every dog leave nail prints. My first lab had the shortest nails, rarely if ever left marks. My current lab leaves them every step. Feline and canine center pads look nothing alike, completely different shapes.

 

[Osage1978]

I've seen a lion twice here in Osage county, once on the Arkansas River at the Pawnee county line where the bridge is my wife was with me.

Another time when I worked for the Osage Nation Police department a Pawhuska officer caused an adolescent one to tree at the sound of his siren while patrolling at their lake & a few of us drove out and looked him over.

3rd encounter I ran one with hounds one night but never put eyes on it. I know because it was snow covered ground and paw prints were easy to identify

 

[Dorkus]

I saw one north of Elmore City a year or so ago.

Great, that is where I hunt.

 

[Glock 'em down]

I've got one back behind my place. I haven't seen him, but I hear him "scream" from time to time.

Do y'all know the difference between a big cat and a little cat?

A big cat can kill you, but a little pussy never hurts.

 

[swampratt]

I have seen one at Eufaula while hunting and I am pretty sure it was hunting me.

Buddy and his dad watched a Bobcat and Mountain lion fighting for almost 5 minutes in the front of his trailer at Piney Creek which was a 7 minute drive from where I was hunting.

His dad said he seen a lot of animal fights but never those 2 cats together.
He was from Mississippi.

 

[ICanFixIt]

In the early '70's I worked at a Peabody coal mine between Nowata and Vinita. The late night shovel workers often told stories about seeing mountain lions while they were working. I was pretty skeptical. One winter about 4:30 in the afternoon(The sun was still shining.) I saw a mountain lion. He was less than 50 feet from where I stopped my pickup. He just stood on a big rock and looked at me for several minutes. My best guess is that he weighed at least 175#, and yes, he had a really long tail. I didn't have a gun or camera, but that scene will be in my mind forever.