Encountering Vicious Puma With Government Hunters

To appease its desire for horse meat the puma has often gone from hunted to hunter. One government hunter was given the most stimulating fifteen minutes of his career by a puma such as this. After tracking the cat for several hours the trail led into a canyon. Here the trail was so treacherous dangerous the hunter had to follow his dogs on foot. When he glanced up, he saw a puma creeping along the rim of the canyon towards the tree he had tied his mount to. As the hunter and his dogs closed in, the puma launched its attack. The moment the puma sprang onto the horse's back, the hunter dropped it with his .30/30 rifle.

Puma caused a great deal of distress for early settlers of the South and East, but they were gradually eliminated by hunters such as Meshach Browning. Browning killed more than 50 puma in the forty-four years he spent hunting the backwoods west of Maryland. By 1880, puma were nearly extinguished east of the Mississippi. Despite this, puma remained a serious danger throughout the West for many years. The puma were so adept at keeping out of sight, that only a few were killed in chance encounters with sportsmen or cowhands; which caused stockmen to hire professional killers to rid the range of them.

John B. Goff was one of the most famous of these professional hunters. Goff killed more than three hundred pumas from 1855-1900, most of them in the rough country north of the White River in northwestern Colorado. Goff used foxhounds to track his quarry and mongrel fighting dogs to keep it cornered until he could kill it. In 1901 Theodore Roosevelt, then Vice President, went hunting with Goff in 20-below-zero weather. They were out five weeks and killed fourteen puma, the most impressive weighing 227 pounds.

Roosevelt narrowly avoided serious injury on one of these expeditions. Roosevelt's hounds had brought an old cat to bay. Three of his fighting dogs had the puma by the head, so impulsive T.R., his six-gun in his left hand a long hunting knife in his right, leaped in to make the kill. At the same moment the puma wrenched its head free and targeted Roosevelt. One of Teddy's fighting dogs got a fresh grasp on the old cat's paw. Roosevelt crammed the butt of his gun into its mouth and, as the sharp teeth crushed it, killed the animal with a thrust of the knife between its shoulders.

The puma is one of the most fickle of all predators. On occasion the cat cannot be found, even in areas where it is known to be plentiful and others it has been known to stalk and even attack men. Their varying reactions to dogs are more evidence of the unpredictability of the puma. Despite growing to over 200 pounds and being armed with paws and wickedly sharp claws, they will sometimes allow a single wire haired terrier to run them up a tree and keep them there. Yet sometimes a puma will choose to fight to the death with a pack of dogs, and may kill several of them before the hunter can get in a finishing shot.

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