Lotsa lions on Vancouver Island

[Okanagan]

A friend who lives in the northern end of Vancouver Island bought himself an electronic call last week so he can call cougars and wolves.  He called in a lion on his second stand to try for one.  He said that he had looked down at his remote to change sounds and when he looked up he saw the cat leave.  No shot.

He is an excellent hunter I've mentioned here before and we had called in a cougar one time when I was over calling with him a year or two ago.   He also has so many cougars to hunt that it is astounding to those of us elsewhere.  He added, "The neighbour behind us had a cat in his yard yesterday and another fellow down the road who has hounds killed one yesterday as well.  Also, one of the women in the church who lives several miles from us had a cat in the back of her yard this week as well."

Snafu and I can eat our hearts out...   

[FinsnFur]

Snafu's packing his bags...

[Okanagan]

Was talking on the phone with my friend who lives toward the north end of Vancouver Island.  He and his wife watched a cougar cross the highway in front of them last week as they headed into Campbell River, just outside the north end of town.  A bear guide acquaintance of his told him that bear hunting clients in his outfit this spring killed four cougars, all of them incidental to hunting bears, spotted and killed without use of hounds.  I'm sure most of those were a case where a cat crossed a logging road in front of them and the hunter hopped out to shoot, or wandered within sight and rifle range while they glassed for bears.  See the title of this thread...

[pitw]

  Never saw a live lion but the lady I lived with years ago had one walk around the truck twice out in the pasture.  Few years ago I got a call to go trying call and shoot one on a customers place.  Man was that a different way of hunting for me as I was scared poopless.

[Dale]

That's why my signature is what it is...

[FinsnFur]

Yah you need a big pair of shorts. I would anyway 

[snafu]

So far this yr I've heard of a few more lion sightings. I'm pert near use to the torment(not really, I jest :/ ). In the meanwhile I knaw on the old lead based paint chips on the winder sill. A waiting on old man Winter.

[Okanagan]

Stories drift in from hunters and I don't tell them all but one from last spring has been in my mind and intentions to post.

An acquaintance from Vancouver Island guides for a living and last spring he saw a cougar cross a logging road in front of him.  He didn't have a bear hunter client along and had a little time to spare so decided to try to call it.   He marked in mind where it went into the woods and followed.  Ten or 15 yards off of the road the woods opened up to old growth forest with good visibility so he picked a big fir to lean on and sat down to call.   He was sure that he could see any cougar that came back through the woods to check out the call sound.  He is an excellent hunter but has not called predators much. 

After ten minutes or so he hadn't seen nor heard anything so he stood up to leave.  When he turned around the cougar was sitting a few yards behind him, watching him.  He lifted his rifle and killed it. 

Lotsa lions on Vancouver Island.

[snafu]

Stories drift in from hunters and I don't tell them all but one from last spring has been in my mind and intentions to post.

An acquaintance from Vancouver Island guides for a living and last spring he saw a cougar cross a logging road in front of him.  He didn't have a bear hunter client along and had a little time to spare so decided to try to call it.   He marked in mind where it went into the woods and followed.  Ten or 15 yards off of the road the woods opened up to old growth forest with good visibility so he picked a big fir to lean on and sat down to call.   He was sure that he could see any cougar that came back through the woods to check out the call sound.  He is an excellent hunter but has not called predators much. 

After ten minutes or so he hadn't seen nor heard anything so he stood up to leave.  When he turned around the cougar was sitting a few yards behind him, watching him.  He lifted his rifle and killed it. 

Lotsa lions on Vancouver Island.

Doesn't get much better than that. However, myself...I prefer to suffer for many yrs for just one chance on a lion 

[Okanagan]

'Nother Island cougar story.

My friend who lives up island phoned last evening with a lion tale.  He was deer hunting three days ago in drenching rain and fog and after three hours of still hunting on foot, got back to his rig and decided to run the heater and drive one last dead end road before dark rather than walk it.  50 yards before the end of the road it rises over a slight hump and he strongly felt that he should walk up and look over but he drove.  As he crested the hump an extra big cougar was standing down a short side road looking at him from 30 yards away.  He has killed several and seen many and as a former guide, when he says big I believe him.

He grabbed for the detachable magazine (clip) for his 25-06 where he always sticks it in a slot in his dash.  No clip.  It had fallen out coming up the bumpy hill and was somewhere in the pick-up cab.  He opened the door and searched the floor and seat with no luck while the cougar calmly watched his performance.

Desperate, he grabbed a possibles pack where he keeps an extra box of ammo and jerked the zipper open.  He kept his eyes on the cat to see where it went if it moved, and felt for the box of shells.  He opened it, grabbed one round and fed it into the chamber all by feel without taking his eyes from the cat, which had now walked into brush on the road edge and stopped.  He could see its face looking at him. 

He put the crosshairs on the cat's face and... clicked.  He had grabbed an empty fired brass case.  Out of a box of 20 there were 16 live rounds and four empties he kept to reload.

The cat left for good.

[HaMeR]

Sad funny & damn exciting all at the same time!! Great story Ok!! 

[FinsnFur]

Wow...you relayed that with incredible detail.

[snafu]

I would think the deer pop would be nill on that island with all the lions about.


It's been a few yrs now. I was hunting coyote a few miles south of the small town. Where my oldest Bro lives. Unknown to me @ that very time. My Bro was headed to work on a secondary highway. He came across a man pulled over on the roadway shoulder. He stopped to see if the man needed help. The man said, NO! I just had a mountain lion cross in front of me. Et I'm calling the law to report it (it's a big deal around these parts to see a lion).

Anyway, my Bro drove on. My Bro also knew I have been (passively) looking for a lion when I hunted coyote. I had told him if you hear of any reports to let me know asap. But he failed to call my cell right then. I was less than two miles East of the wide open 1 square mile section. The lion walked East bound into @ that section @ that time. That mile section was wide open (cropland) with a mile long draw/creek running North/South. Had Bro thought of calling me right then..DUH! The lion hunt would've ended that day. As it would not of been able to escape my view, nor my rifle fire. No ground cover for miles.

I blame the crows.

[Okanagan]

I would think the deer pop would be nill on that island with all the lions about.

Too bad you didn't catch that lion in the open country.

Re cougars eating up the deer population on Vancouver Island, first of all the island is a big area about 175 miles long.  Deer numbers are way down compared to 30 years ago but most people blame it on wolves, whose numbers have soared.  I don't even know if wolves were on the island 30 years ago because I never heard about them but we see them and see tracks regularly now.   I think that somehow deer and cougars had reached some kind of population balance, maybe for the past 1000 years.  Lots of both anyway.  Vancouver Island deer are smaller blacktails, not as small as the Gulf Island blacktails along the US/Canada border but so small and with such small racks that I don't think an Island buck has ever made Boone & Crockett and the island people have their own record book. 

Lotsa cougars but not as big on average, lotsa black bears that get huge, lotsa Roosevelt elk that get huge bodies and big racks by Roosie standards,  lotsa wolves, and used to be lotsa little blacktail deer but their numbers are down.  No coyotes, no bobcats, no moose and supposed to be no grizzlies but grizz are moving from the mainland onto the northern end of the island with increasing numbers of proven sightings etc.  Islands are interesting.  Deer swim from one island to another a lot in salt water.  I'm sure killer whales snack up on them.

There are strong rumors and speculation about a species of small caribou that died out on Vancouver Island within the past 100 years or so and supposedly people find small caribou racks in the alpine still.   

[KySongDog]

Isn't Vancouver Island where the History channel films that "Alone" show?   The participants are always worried about bears and cougars. 

[Okanagan]

Never heard of the show but looked it up and yep, they film it on Vancouver Island.   Dunno how worried they should be but there are lots of both bears and cougars around them.

Along the salt water shoreline it would be relatively easy to survive, but away from the beach inland it would be tough compared to many places.  Two trappers starved to death there in I think it was the '20's.  A float plane flew them into some lake for the winter and their journal told how they starved.  Don't think the lake held any fish and either there wasn't much to catch in traps or they couldn't catch anything.  Don't recall details but they starved.

A good bit of the old growth forest has so little sunlight that there is virtually no small game, few smallish edible plants and in many places, virtually no big game because of the dearth of anything to eat.  Let some sunlight in by cutting some trees and there is a relative explosion of plant life like grass and berries and animals that eat them. 

[KySongDog]

It is a great show.  The last man standing gets $500,000 so there is a big incentive to survive as long as possible.   Each participant is totally alone. No film crew, just hand held cameras to document their stay.  The longest anyone has made it was a little over 60 days.  The lack of food, boredom, the elements, and predators forces most to tap out early.   

[riverboss]

Great show! Some of those contestants have great skills.

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