I once posted about cats stuck up trees .....
..... and the advice from the fire service, which was that they would come down once you left them .... after all they got up, and when exactly was the last time you saw a cat skeleton up a tree?
However, as usual in the USA they also have to deal with the same cat up tree problem ....
....... only bigger .... much Bigger.
So when a Californian householder spotted a cat, possibly stuck about 50ft (15m) up a tree, he naturally called the fire brigade. Only in this case it was not a house cat, but a cougar (aka a mountain lion, panther or puma, depending where in the Americas they are spotted). Now, I don't know about you, but I would be tempted to leave it right where it was, and let it saunter off in its own sweet time.
But in the US, although not very dangerous to humans, with less than a dozen fatal attacks recorded in over 100 years, its not considered wise to leave them roaming in densely inhabited areas. Earlier this month, a man relived my bear mountain story when he killed a mountain lion with his bare hands, after it pounced on him from behind in the mountains of northern Colorado .... so out came the rescue services in the form of the US firefighters and the wildlife service.
The somewhat bemused animal was tranquillised, and lowered to the ground using a harness, where it was released back into a wilder area following a health assessment by biologists.
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| Dead Cats Up Trees Are Rare |
..... and the advice from the fire service, which was that they would come down once you left them .... after all they got up, and when exactly was the last time you saw a cat skeleton up a tree?
However, as usual in the USA they also have to deal with the same cat up tree problem ....
 |
| Big Cat Up A Tree ..... |
....... only bigger .... much Bigger.
So when a Californian householder spotted a cat, possibly stuck about 50ft (15m) up a tree, he naturally called the fire brigade. Only in this case it was not a house cat, but a cougar (aka a mountain lion, panther or puma, depending where in the Americas they are spotted). Now, I don't know about you, but I would be tempted to leave it right where it was, and let it saunter off in its own sweet time.
But in the US, although not very dangerous to humans, with less than a dozen fatal attacks recorded in over 100 years, its not considered wise to leave them roaming in densely inhabited areas. Earlier this month, a man relived my bear mountain story when he killed a mountain lion with his bare hands, after it pounced on him from behind in the mountains of northern Colorado .... so out came the rescue services in the form of the US firefighters and the wildlife service.
The somewhat bemused animal was tranquillised, and lowered to the ground using a harness, where it was released back into a wilder area following a health assessment by biologists.
Their problem is that their paws don't pivot unlike other, tree climbing mammals such as squirrels and gibbons. Gibbons actually have ball-and-socket joints for maximal paw orientation. Cats find themselves up a tree and have to reverse back down which they don't like to do, and when a cat doesn't like to do something...!
ReplyDeleteToo true, especially when their that size. We had enough trouble when the house cats were pissed off LOL.
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