Wow tough situation. I can tell you it will continue to come back as long as there is such an easy food source. If it's not carrying them off it is probably a young male. They often kill for sport when getting started on their own. Females will usually take them back their den. Not sure where you are located but for problem animals like this you can often get Fish and Game involved to help trap or eliminate them. I've used some small strobe type lights at night that seemed to help some but normally it's a matter of elimination. Wish I had more to offer, good luck.
Ray --- On Tue, 6/19/12, Elaine Wilson <elaine_wil...@earthlink.net> wrote: From: Elaine Wilson <elaine_wil...@earthlink.net> Subject: [Blackbelly] Mountain Lion To: "Blackbelly Newsletter" <blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info> Date: Tuesday, June 19, 2012, 7:50 AM We seem to have a mountain lion that has discovered one of our pens of sheep. There were 40 in that one, but that was one-and-a-half weeks ago. As of this morning, down to 35. Just over a week ago, not realizing what I was looking at, I saw the predator and actually thought it was a victim being carved away from the herd by a coyote. I have seen countless coyotes here and thought it was rather strange-looking - it was sandy brown, almost as tall as the tallest sheep, about the same body size. What I thought was the potential victim looked at the herd that was heading for their pen, looked at another herd of our sheep in another pasture, then saw me (I was getting ready to leave and coming back to my truck from closing the gate at the end of our driveway) and trotted north, away from the sheep and promptly and effortlessly hopped over the top of a four- to five-foot fence onto my neighbor's property. After doing some internet searches, I am positive it is a mountain lion. Once they have found an easy food source (in this case, our sheep) they will do something called "surplus killing". Repeated killing in the same area, not necessarily consuming the entire animal. The nature of the kill is rip out the guts, then eat the lungs, heart and liver. That is how this morning's kill was found. The last kills we have experienced have been: Day 1 - eviscerate the sheep; Day 2 (the next day) - eat almost everything. Also wondering if this is a female with cubs that she is teaching to hunt. Theorizing that she may be coming in the first night for the prime pieces, then bringing in the others to feed more thoroughly the next night. I have set up a game camera almost every night, but have gotten no pictures. I am not sure exactly which fence it is hopping over to get in this particular pen, so have moved the camera almost nightly. The pen is coyote-proof, so I am sure they are not the current predators. We tried putting a tractor with the bucket in up-position in the pen last week and it deterred the second-night kill for one night. Came in for the kill with the tractor moved to a different position with a down-day between kills. Have read that scarecrows, bright lights (we have a motion sensor light on the sheep shelter, obviously not a problem for this mountain lion), tapes of loud music or barking dogs may help repel mountain lions, but I think this animal has no fear of any of those at this point in time. Have also read that the mountain lion probably wouldn't have a problem taking down a dog guarding the flock in order to get to the prey. Does anyone have an opinion on my next concern: The larger herd, a pasture over from the one currently under attack, has been eyed by this mountain lion but so far has not been attacked. . . when it is finished consuming the herd it has fixated on (unfortunately, I think it will wipe out the herd unless we are able to kill it before then . . . and we have and will continue to try, though timing is everything) is there a good chance that it will move on to the herd of 89? I am so frustrated and feel such a loss of control in this situation, any suggestions would be appreciated. I would trade this mountain lion for the coyotes any day, and we have had our share of problems with them as well. At least the coyotes eat the bulk of the sheep, this mountain lion is picking and choosing the pieces it wants to consume. _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
