Large Cougar Treed, Photographed in Sawyer County
By Dick Ellis
A large male cougar estimated to weigh up to 170 pounds was photographed in Sawyer County Saturday, January 19th after its track was discovered and the Tom was eventually treed by an experienced Wisconsin bear and bobcat hunter with his black and tan hounds.
“I just came in and took the photos after they did all the leg work,” said Sawyer County resident Russ Smith after OWO contacted him Tuesday. “I don’t want to look like I’m looking for the spotlight. They did the work.”
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| Russ Smith took these pictures saturday, just off the flowage. He said it was bigger than the cat he shot out west, which was 125 lb.s | |
Smith wasn’t comfortable providing other names involved in the story without permission. He said he has personally hunted bears and bobcats with the hound owner and made the call for the Dunn County resident to bring the dogs to Sawyer County after another friend rabbit hunting stumbled on the large track.
“The track was much bigger than a bobcat track,” Smith said. “Every guy in every bar up here claims to have seen a mountain lion. I’ve hunted bobcats for 15 years and have never seen a mountain lion. My friend drove two hours from Dunn County to get here with his dogs.”
The hound owner had just returned from Montana where the team had treed seven cougars. The eighth cat, the Wisconsin cat, would be the largest Smith said. Once the track was found again and the dogs released, Smith said the cat was treed after a short chase.
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| Russ Smith took these pictures saturday, just off the flowage. He said it was bigger than the cat he shot out west, which was 125 lb.s | |
“Mountain lions don’t run long,” he said. “When I was coming in with the camera to take the shots, it jumped from the tree but treed again a short while later.”
Smith said he has talked with the Wisconsin DNR and believes he may have recovered some of the cat scat which will hopefully help with DNA and tracing the animal back to its origin prior to its journey to Wisconsin.
“We think this Tom is about 160 or 170 pounds,” Smith said.