Hot Pursuit: Nebraska Trail Camera Captures Cougar Attacking Deer

by Game & Fish Staff • August 26, 2011 • 17 comments

Cougar sighting stories in the Great Plains states used to carry with them a sense of mystery and lore like one would encounter with a sasquatch tale. Those days are gone though as more and more midwesterners are seeing cougars and hard evidence in the form of trailcam images are popping up like thistles in a pasture.

The latest cougar sighting comes from Valentine, Nebraska where a trailcam owned by Kirk Sharp captured an amazing sequence as reported by the Omaha World Herald. A mature cougar was apparently jonesing for venison as the image shows the predator just steps behind a whitetail deer that forgot it was invited to the dinner party.

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I wonder if Sharp will think twice about heading out to hunt in the woods the incident happened. Would it impact your hunting plans?

To read the whole account, make sure to visit the Omaha World Herald.

In Featured, Hunting • Tagged ,
  • Ed Bennett

    Wouldn't bother me a bit to go and hunt in the same area. My arrows won't just kill deer.

  • Robert Andrews

    This is no big news, the police had to shoot one in the City of Chicago a couple of years ago. They are all over the place.

  • Kevin Pettit

    Good example of why Oregon needs to let people use dogs to hunt these animals. Our deer and elk herds are both in decline and the cougar is one of the highest contributors as to why it's happening!!

    • Dennis J. King

      Sorry Kevin but they are not nor could they alone cause the decline of both the deer and elk populations, before humans came along there were thousands more of these animals then there are today and all specise were equal. Like always blame the other predator in the environment not the encrochment of Humans on the environment or the fact that Humans kill for a set of antlers. I am not against hunting or hunters just alarmist who really aren't informed, nature can take care of itself without your input and will be better off !!

      • chcopela

        But like deer cougars need to be managed. With a greater population comes other means of management. Besides motor vehicle kills and hunting are the only ways that most animal populations are managed. Take the coyote for example they are in more places now than ever before. Most states can not change game laws fast enough to combat the booming population. So while the cougar may not be the only reason in Oregon for elk and deer herd declines the fact the they are moving outside of there intended range should alert officials to a potential problem.

      • Bill Cude

        Next thing you're going to say is they only take the weak or injured. BULL!

        • chcopela

          Doesn't every predator do that……don't you go the the store to by your steak

      • D Nelson

        You can't compare cougar populations now compared to 50 or 100 years ago. California is loosing and alarming amount of wild acres every year to human development. Unfortunately we must manage our deer and elk herds because of this. The populations stay low because because of weather conditions and with California's no- burn policies that make public land brushed up and useless to support any wildlife. We control the populations by hunting, predation, and mother nature, only the strong will survive. Problem is there are no policies in place to control the mountain lion population . They have no natural Preditor. There numbers are more now than what our deer herds can support. We see this every year with the increase in depredation permits by ranchers to remove problem cat. We also have alot more sightings in suburban areas. In Los Osos you can't even let your dog or cat out at night.

  • Rhonda

    Cats gotta eat too.

  • Kammie

    I had one come across me one morning during gun season in Oklahoma decided to not hunt that day and went back the next day and shot a doe. It was pretty cool to see one during the day. I was glad I was in a tree stand. We have no big problems here with them, we have plenty of deer to go around.

  • Cameron

    Cougar – the other white meat!

  • Pegleg Pete

    The Eastward expansion of Coyote and Cougar range coincides with observed and documented Northward and Higher Elevation migration of other species,Flora and Fauna.

    Polar Bears moving Inland are another consistent phenomenon.

    Global Warming is REAL,folks.

    The arguments about it are valid only as to its causes and effects; NOT as regards whether or not it's happening.

  • Rod

    We got them in the state of Iowa, DNR for a long time tried to convince everybody that we didn't have that big ""Kitty"", Camera's don't lie……………

  • r. brown

    One was killed during deer season last year near Marengo, IA. It was documented in the news and the DNR examined it

  • cdr. P.w. Prawl, usn

    Well, we have been feeding 8-10 does, 4 bucks, 10-12 fawns all summer at Canyon Lake, Tx. They were looking really distressed (drought) when we started in april, and soon will be fattened up for fall harvest! The little fawns are just precious. Being raised on the farm, i can appreciate them, and eat them!

  • LANE

    One was killed in creighton NE last year to…. But they are all over and we are going to SEE THEM more and more.. But they are just an animal we just have to get use to them!! WE HUNTERS just have to be CAREFUL where we hunt b.c they are SMARTER then us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    by: Lane B

  • Yours?

    Not only are they increasing in I.Q, they have began to communicate with more dominant species, and surprise the more conventional ones. As comfort zones for them are narrowed, so they in turn have the advantage of being seen for what really is, in my opinion more untouchable, more beautiful, and of true magicians of the wild . Like that playful Mountain lion, depth perceptive illusionist. we gave to our own , its deception of fairy tale fantasy long ago, hiding it in forests insuring its fur stay in our dreams,claws and teeth forgiving, soft and oh so unpredictable..In the meantime the wasp has many tactics, some not so pleasant, some gifts unnoticed and right out in the open so we may see a natural blue print to our own self, Keeping a tidy and elite design we yet to comprehend and in its perfection exclaims, I once a praying mantis, green and spokes model of Earth and have wore its marvel and now! I must wear suited awareness of respect, my tolerance armed, venom from the sun. Black and yellow ,buck and arrow, if it taken, or asked then borrowed, we are opened and nourished .Or ? Confused like a child who catches his first creature at the time a crocodile, a tiger and really only wants the excitement of getting closer, to it. To touch it. To feel its unknown bite, our nervous rush that comes with survival, our own nature. There is no competition of truth, the most masculine Alpha is again caught! catching the butterfly and letting it go, not missing a single bit of pleasure it brings to that moment. Shamed,and scared carries the bullet with the cure. Winning nothing and missing trues of a hunters honest sport….. jack pines,you also walk soft every sense challenged closer towards it , swift ,are there wings and without sound greeting its prey, Claws like your arrow you baked from a clay. Nature has no limits, regulations,number of catch, has no tags, no licenses and possesses no endangered or protection laws. I tell you this, balanced, clear and intrusiveness will insure a realness and endless flood of light to our domesticated heart once wild. We have always walked forward with intent on going back to places we've been, these rivers yes I …….and all of us followed.