I just got back from Colorado in the USA and its interesting being in an area that has three variety's of big cats.
Everywhere you went on the fringes of Colorado Springs you could be confronted by Mountain Lion, Bob Cat and another cat (the name eludes me). We stayed at the Glen Eyrie castle and walked the grouns till 8pm. The next morning at breakfast two guests said they were confronted by two mountain lions at 9pm which came onto the grounds. The next day when my wife and I walked to a waterfall we both carried big sticks as apparently there had been a number of fatalities recently in the USA from mountain lion attacks.
I was juxtaposing that with growing up at Bowen Mt/grose Vale NSW, where there are now regular sightings of big cats, and I am assuming when we were kids constantly walking the trails between Grand View Lane and Cabbage tree Rd we must have been in proximity, but had no fear or knowledge of what was going on. In Colorado we had full awareness and were on high alert.
Having said all that, it was great to be in bear and mountain lion country and I really enjoyed seeing squirrels for the first time.
Baz.
BIG CATS IN THE USA
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Shazzoir
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Re: BIG CATS IN THE USA
Great to have you back, Pastor Baz!
I've enjoyed your posts in the past, and what you've said here is quite true: if you live in an area with known hazards, you go prepared.
Maybe, the 'prepared' mindset is what makes our Yowie friends hang back from us, whereas when our minds are on other things, and not emitting a low-grade 'caution' wavelength, they might find us more receptive to an approach.
Was the other kind of cat you couldn't recall the name of the Lynx? In the Americas, I can only think of mountain lions (catamount, puma, etc), bobcats, lynx as being indigenous, though there might be others.
Kind regards,
Shazz
I've enjoyed your posts in the past, and what you've said here is quite true: if you live in an area with known hazards, you go prepared.
Maybe, the 'prepared' mindset is what makes our Yowie friends hang back from us, whereas when our minds are on other things, and not emitting a low-grade 'caution' wavelength, they might find us more receptive to an approach.
Was the other kind of cat you couldn't recall the name of the Lynx? In the Americas, I can only think of mountain lions (catamount, puma, etc), bobcats, lynx as being indigenous, though there might be others.
Kind regards,
Shazz
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Dr. Carl Sagan
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bazporter
- Approved Member
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- Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 10:01 am
Re: BIG CATS IN THE USA
G'day Shazz, thanks for that welcome!!
I think it was a Lynx, it had little tufts on it's ears. I'll have to check the Rocky Mountains field guide that I bought.
Maybe one day, when the cats in Australia 'come out' so to speak and are scientifically recognised they'll be in our field guides as well. One thing's for sure - when we visit our parents at Bowen Mt/Grose Vale and spend time on Carters Lane etc, you always have the cat thing in the back of your mind just like we did in Colorado.
The funniest story I heard was when a friend of ours, and he won't mind me using their names, Mike and Jo Parsons of Carters road, had their sister and brother in law over for Christmas Eve dinner. They told many stories of sightings of the Black Panther on Carters Rd, basically that everyone on one stretch had seen it. The idea was scoffed at by the visitors.
The next morning, Christmas day 1995, the sister and brother in law were driving home and when they got about 500 metres from St John of God Hospital a black cat as big as a German Shepherd ran in front of them, jumped the barbed wire fence to their left and bolted into the paddocks that back onto the North Richmond side, only a kilometre from suburbia. They were no longer skeptics. I'm sure Mike and Co have heard a hundred stories like that from the area.
God bless ya - Baz.
I think it was a Lynx, it had little tufts on it's ears. I'll have to check the Rocky Mountains field guide that I bought.
Maybe one day, when the cats in Australia 'come out' so to speak and are scientifically recognised they'll be in our field guides as well. One thing's for sure - when we visit our parents at Bowen Mt/Grose Vale and spend time on Carters Lane etc, you always have the cat thing in the back of your mind just like we did in Colorado.
The funniest story I heard was when a friend of ours, and he won't mind me using their names, Mike and Jo Parsons of Carters road, had their sister and brother in law over for Christmas Eve dinner. They told many stories of sightings of the Black Panther on Carters Rd, basically that everyone on one stretch had seen it. The idea was scoffed at by the visitors.
The next morning, Christmas day 1995, the sister and brother in law were driving home and when they got about 500 metres from St John of God Hospital a black cat as big as a German Shepherd ran in front of them, jumped the barbed wire fence to their left and bolted into the paddocks that back onto the North Richmond side, only a kilometre from suburbia. They were no longer skeptics. I'm sure Mike and Co have heard a hundred stories like that from the area.
God bless ya - Baz.
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bazporter
- Approved Member
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Re: BIG CATS IN THE USA
My apologies, there is a typo in that story, it was Christmas day 2005 not 1995, that's jet lag speaking.