Thanks for writing with more details. Sounds like you have a great community there by your cabin.

Looking into the matter of diet, I discovered that bobcats eat a lot of rabbits and hares (75% or more of their diet from these animals). Lynx eat snowshoe hares (90% of their diet or more). So either of this could account for the drop in rabbits around your place. Cougar mainly eat ungulates, though they also eat a lot of other things. I couldn’t find any evidence of any of these types of cats eating fish though.

Bears do eat fish. Though I hear what you say about there being very few bears in North Dakota. Interesting!

From all that you’ve told me it sounds like there are probably a variety of animals afoot near the cabin, leaving various signs. I hope you and your pets, friends, and small children all stay safe.

Warmly,
Karen

Thanks for looking into the scratches for me. Sent you an e-mail direct on new info. that I found out this past weekend. If you get additional info. on Mtn. Lions/Cougars will you please let me know. I’ll check back here or you can e-mail me direct. Thanks again!

Kim

Wow, those are definitely scratch marks, and from an animal that is using the tree repeatedly. I’ve checked a few different sources. Mammals of BC says a heavily clawed tree trunk is a sure reminder that cougars are still around. But bears also leave claw marks on trees, so it’s a toss-up without more information. The pictures I’ve seen of cougar claw marks are much thinner than these deep grooves in your photos. But size and height on the tree would be the thing to consider.

If the marks are from a cougar, a particular set of marks would be about 3 inches wide, maximum (though as I mentioned in Sign of the Cat, different sources disagree about this). Wilderness Tracks, by Barbara Butler, recounts: “”A scat pile caught my attention. Cougar. It’s abrupt, broken segments [shaped more like whitish chunks of charcoal than the long, twisted segments of coyote scat] and size were typical. Across the trail I noticed further cougar sign. A tree five to six inches in diameter was covered with scratches. From about a six-foot height the tree was deeply scarred with claw marks for about a foot and a half. I measured the width between claw marks, too narrow for the claws of a bear and too fine a claw mark. The marks were old, and the tree was healing itself [like yours]. Below the upper marks was a separate lower group about three feet long. This group appeared older, indicating the cougar had used the tree upon at least two occasions.”

Usually cougars’ favourite food is deer, and they eat about one per week. The declining rabbits you mentioned might be prey for cougar, and they could also be prey for bear, fox, coyote, and many other carnivores.

I can see from the pictures that the tree is indeed very close to your cabin, which would make it seem less likely to be cougar because of their tendency to avoid humans. Unless maybe it was a young one. And the dog behaviour you’ve described could also be a response to either bear or cougar.

So I’m sorry, I can’t say definitively whether the marks are cougar or not. Once you measure them, maybe you will get a clearer idea. Let me know what you find out! And good luck to you!

Warmly,
Karen

Warmly,
Karen

Just a quick note to let you know that I re-sent the pics. Hope you get them, really would like your thoughts on what you think made the scratches. Thanks!

Kim

I saw your message that you’d sent me some pix, and then realized info@monkeyvalleyretreat.com was forwarding to a defunct email address. I’ve fixed the problem now, so if you send them again I would love to see them. I’m sorry for the mix up.

Warmly,
Karen

Thanks very much for sharing your story. I found it very interesting. I would trust your dogs’ behaviour, together with the confirmation that a cougar was sighted nearby. Put that together with the scratch marks, and I think you’ve analyzed the situation correctly–a cougar has been scratching your tree. If you’d like to send me a picture of the scratches, or of the scat, you can send them to: info@monkeyvalleyretreat.com. I’ll take a look and tell you what I think.

Keep safe, and enjoy the presence of this magnificent animal in your neighbourhood.

Warmly,
Karen

I hadn’t been on the computer for some time. I see that you posted on June 13th about accidently deleting my story of the cougar?? at our cabin. Here’s my story:

Last July my cousin and I were at our cabin near the lake. After fishing for the day we were cooking supper (fresh fish!) around dusk on the grill outside the cabin door. I have two very large dogs. One of the dogs went on a barking tangent in the corner of our yard. The other sat near the cabin and stuck her nose out the bars of the iron gate which is about 15 ft. from the front door of the cabin and kept sniffing and sniffing the air. We went inside to eat and the dogs followed. Usually they are beggers but not that night. They stood at the windows and growled and kept sniffing the air. After we ate we were going to go sit on the patio near the door. As we walked out it was one dog (Bella), me and then my cousin. Bella took one step outside and literally jumped in the air and turned and came back inside so quickly she knocked us over. After the way the dogs were acting we decided to sit on the upstairs deck instead but before we could do that we had to shut the garage door and unplug the battery charger and radio outside. We took both dogs out on leashes and crossed the yard to the garage to shut things down. Without knowing it my third dog (a very elderly sheltie) had followed us outside. She was standing by the big garage door that I had just closed and refused to cross the yard to come back to the cabin when I called for her. She would just turn in cirlces and try to get in the garage door. I walked as calmly as I could over to her, scooped her up and went back to the cabin. We then went upstairs to sit on the upper deck. We had only been up there for about 5 min. and I kept getting an erie feeling and thought I heard something. Then we heard it!! A VERY loud growling sound…but only once. We were done sitting outside after that! The next day we looked for anything unusual but nothing seemed disturbed. That night we decided to sit by the fire outside trying to put the previous nights craziness aside. While we were sitting by the fire we could hear the dog from a nearby farm barking and barking. We’ve never heard their dog go crazy like that before. That was the end of us sitting by the fire. Several days later a couple of other fisherman, one of which my husband knows, told us that while they were fishing in a boat they saw a cougar in a field east of our place about 1 1/2 miles the same day the dogs had acted so strang. Then in August scratches appeared on a tree near the front door of our cabin. Or at least what I’m convinced are scratches. We didn’t have anything unusual happen the rest of the summer. Our dogs though would not go outside after dark since they were so spooked by something in July. This spring when we first went to the cabin I checked the tree and the same scratches were there (March). In April there appeared to be new scraches!

I am convinced there is a cougar in the area and he’s decided to mark one of our trees as his territory but no one believes me. I am trying to find out if someone might be able to look at the scraches and tell me if they might be from a cat. I did sent photos of them to someone that deals with tree diseases and they told me that the scratches were either made by man, machine or animal. Any information you might have would be helpful. THANKS!

O’ I should also mention that I have been finding some type of animal droppings in the yard and they are not from a dog.

Kim

Thanks for writing. I understand the hunger for the sweat lodge. I felt it very strongly after I returned from Arizona, so I went to a friend’s sweat in Washington, which was very powerful. Maybe you can find one in your area.

I drummed alone on the night of the summer solstice, praying for the fasters I’ve known during the past year, and that simple ceremony was powerful too, with a visual sense of the spirits of the four directions that I’ve never seen before. Joy in your own sweating and singing.

Warmly,
Karen