After making a kill and taking one meal, the mountain-lion will sometimes, though not always, bury the remainder of a carcass under leaves, litter, or other trash, to return for a later feast. Whether it will thus return depends to some extent upon weather conditions and on its ability to find prey elsewhere. Its killing and feeding habits vary in other ways also. In one instance, a lone lion attacked a herd of ewes and killed 192 in one night. Frequently more than one mountain-lion may feed on a single carcass. Near one cow carcass the writer once trapped six lions, of various sizes, evidently the parents and two litters of offspring.
The presence of a mountain-lion on a range may be indicated by its kill of deer or other game, even though domestic stock may not have been disturbed. If a kill is made in fall or winter, the meat may remain fresh for many weeks.
Control Methods
Where the control of mountain-lions is essential, the principal means employed is the use of trained hounds. Kentucky fox hounds and a cross between the Walker hound and the bloodhound have been found most satisfactory for trailing mountain-lions, though any good dog may tree one. The hunter must keep up with the pack, however, for a mountain-lion that fights at bay instead of treeing, may kill all the dogs. When it chooses to fight, it uses teeth and claws, backed by powerful neck and shoulder muscles, in a telling way.
The use of poisons in mountain-lion control is not recommended. Hunting or trapping is more satisfactory, and it is unsafe to expose poisons on ranges where hunting dogs are being used.
Under certain conditions mountain-lions can easily be caught in traps of the sizes known as Nos. 14 and 4½. ([Fig. 1.]) Although some persons oppose the use of such traps as inhumane, no better or more practical device is yet available.
B4339M
Figure 1.—Trap most suitable for mountain-lions (No. 4½), showing drag chain and double-pronged drag attached