Larcher, you make a great point.

Lion hunting here takes place in winter, in snow typically, with fresh track found before turning loose.

Bear on the other hand varies, but even here we experience a lot of very dry and hot conditions as you describe in early September.

Having said that, once a fresh track is found, the lion race is short, the bear much longer.

A cougar running 2 hours here would be a long race altogether, from what my hound hunting friends tell me. In fact, tho, rarely are hounds turned loose on cougar track here until snow. I do not hunt cougar, but have hunted bear quite a bit, and shot 8 of them. I believe one or two were killed after a race of 2 hours, but most ran quite a bit longer than that before baying or treeing. Those of course were the ones killed. Many bear simply outrun the dogs.

The dog in the picture looks like a Walker. Do you know what breed it is?

Incidently, I have also run monkeys in the Congo with Walker hounds. Great sport, tho the dogs died of disease or crocs before a breeding pack could be established.