Wildlife Encounters

 Some of you may have seen the story of my encounter with the cougar.

The encounter with the turkey is a new addition.

Stay safe out there

Happy 4th!

COUGAR ENCOUNTER

 

Living in the forest of southwest Oregon it is common to see wild animals on a daily basis, mostly deer, birds of all kinds and occasionally a few other critters.   There is a system of trials on our property we utilize for recreational hiking and taking inventory of our trees.   One trail has a foot bridge crossing a seasonal creek and leads uphill to our house from the lower 10 acres.  A few years back while hiking this trail on a pleasant spring day, looking at trees and just slowly taking my time I approached the foot bridge and noticed a deer laying down on the other side of the bridge.   I was about 15 feet from crossing the bridge when I noticed the deer had long tail.    Deer do not have long tails.  Then to my shock I realized it was a cougar.  I had no weapon, except a Swiss Army knife in my pocket.  I looked around for a big stick, there was nothing.  I could not see the cougar’s head as it seem to be busy chewing on something.  I slowly backed away thinking it must have heard me and I will probably have to fight for my life using my Swiss Army knife.    After getting some distance away without being attacked I made it home by another route and called the neighbor down the road.   We both returned with weapons, but the cougar was gone and we could see it had killed a deer.  Another neighbor informed us that he had been working near his house a few days before my encounter and a cougar was sitting about 20 feet from him just watching what he was doing.   We all came to the conclusion that this cougar or cougars were too familiar with us humans in their habitat.   A government hunter with dogs was called in and a cougar scent was picked up and the dogs chased it out of our area.   No harm came to the cougar.  

Cougars usually avoid humans and when they do kill a deer they will bury portions of it and return over time to indulge in a meal.   When hiking the trails now, I keep an eye out for them and carry a tool or run power equipment, such as my DR power wagon down the trial to let them knows I’m coming.  

TURKEY ENCOUNTER

 

A year or two after the encounter with the cougar I went down the trail below the house to check on some trees I had planted the past winter with a shovel to clear away any brush that might be growing near the newly planted trees.   As I made my way off the trail through the tall grass and blackberries a hen turkey jumped out at me.   She was not happy with my presence and began coming at me.   I used the shovel to keep her at bay as I made my way back to the trail.  She was jumping up toward my face as I was swinging the shovel in self-defense.    In between swings she would try again to get my face with her claws, it was hand to hand combat.  At times I could not swing the shovel fast enough to keep her away.  Once on the trail I tried to out run her, but she was hot on my heals as I had to turn and swing the shovel to get her away.   She jumped up above the trail to overtake me, but the brush slowed her down and I was able to escape in one piece. 

Thinking back, I wonder how it would have turned out if I did not have that shovel, purely hand to hand combat.