Originally Posted by
Kellen Bassette
I would love to come across a big cat, 99 times out of 100 most animals, even the predators will run...but like Syn was saying, moose are a bit different. A rutting bull, or a cow with a calf can be very dangerous, I've heard and read of lots of people being attacked.
They are just starting to make a comeback near my area...I hope to see the day when spotting one here will be as common as seeing a deer instead or a rarity.
It's really amazing at how much damage we did to predators in the middle and late 19th century, when many states and communities put bounties on cougars, lynx, bobcat, bear, wolves and foxes...basically eradicating all the larger predators from all but the remote mountain areas. This is why the whitetail deer population has exploded and the more adaptable coyote has taken over the range of most other predators...it makes for a very different ecosystem than a century and a half ago.
The funny thing is, this attitude continued even through the great depression, by the time most predators were already wiped out in most of their ranges in the States. I found a hunting license from 1930; it said on it that it was every hunters responsibility to kill wolves, bobcats, foxes, lynx, ect, in any season, as these predators kill the "good game." By the 80's we were trying to bring a lot of these animals back. It's incredible how much public attitude can change in 50 years.