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No doubt, but rscott is right for the most part about elk. Lion do prey on calves as do all the larger predators and even to a small degree, coyotes.

I jumped one off a rock ledge about 10 yards in front of me a few years ago while grouse hunting. It wasn't near as large as this monster, but it sure spooked me. It hit the ground right in front of me and took off down the mountain thru the timber. Looking at that giant makes me cringe at the thought of that thing landing on my back under similar circumstances. I'd have been pasted to the ground before I knew what hit me!

A few years ago a friend who is a real estate agent was looking at a piece of property in the winter. In deep powdery snow he set off down a logging road by a cut bank and after pushing snow for a while he finally gave up and decided to return to the pickup. Just before he planned to stop to turn around he heard a "Whump" behind him and as he turned he drew his Smith M28 Highway Patrolman he carried for grouse and such. Good thing as he was facing a big lion semi-crouched in the snow behind him, it having leapt off the cutbank. He got one shot off before it leapt again and tagged it somewhere in the body. The thing blew up like a house cat and took off into the woods spurting red all over. He was pretty shook up.

I've been in on the killing of a couple of these things and while the races are pretty boring compared to a good bear race, they are without a doubt a beautiful animal and pretty neat to watch in a tree 10 feet away. They don't seem to care to climb as high as a bear, and will sometimes merely climb just out of reach of the hounds and sit there almost tantalizing them.

And yes, the deer population breathes easier...

A couple years ago we had one killing deer in my neighbor's driveway in front of her house during the drought. It set up shop right by her house and she was mortified at losing her horses to it, but it never monkeyed with them, tho it did spook them. She woke up one night to a bloodcurdling screaming bleating of a deer that was in process of being killed. I saw that lion in my sunburned hayfield just by accident. We were standing in the front lawn and I saw it leap out of the grass onto something in front of it. Bedded deer?

The biologists tell us lion kill approximately one deer per week, about 50/year.

Save a deer, kill a lion actually should read, save 50 deer a year, kill a lion...

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What are the Rosary, the Cross or the Crucifix other than tools to help maintain the fortress of our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?

Edited by 9.3x57 (05/04/09 11:27 PM)

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