April 11, 2012 Cougar Family

My parents who live up north in Duluth, MN sent me these.

From my Dad's e-mail.

"This gives new meaning to the phrase, "Honey would you go outside and warm up the car for me?"

These were taken in the Central Hillside area in Duluth, MN."

Wow!

Tha's awesome. What a rare shot, thanks for sharing them with us.

Amazing, just amazing.

I saw three bears (mama 2babies) mtn biking Monday morning, that was beautiful... three large cats are just scary.

What pretty rugs they would make!

Not that I'm crying "shopped", but I actually live in central hillside, Duluth, and I don't think those photos were taken here.
Despite what the DNR says, yes, there are cougars that come near town, but you'd never find them lurking in central hillside (which is near downtown Duluth - lots of apartment buildings and small houses stacked next to each other, hardly a tree to be found).
The license plate on the white truck also is not a Minnesota license plate (though it could be from an out-of-towner).

Looks like a Colorado plate.

If they were mtn biking, I guess those circus bears really aren't that talented after all...:eyebrow:

Three on one bike even, wild bears have moar madder skilz than circus bears.

Griff;805997 wrote:

I saw three bears (mama 2babies) mtn biking Monday morning, that was beautiful... three large cats are just scary.

Beautiful??! Surprise a mother bear with cubs closer than about 60ft and I'm sure that would be about 10 shades whiter knuckles than the cougars.

Majestic kitties!!!!

SPUCK;806054 wrote:

Beautiful??! Surprise a mother bear with cubs closer than about 60ft and I'm sure that would be about 10 shades whiter knuckles than the cougars.

You've got to be careful around cubs but at least black bears see you as a potential threat, while cats only see prey.

"The first of my father's illusions was that bears could survive the life lived by human beings, and the second was that human beings could survive a life led in hotels."

*google* John Irving eh, that bears some looking into.

:)

One of my favoritest books ever.

So I got curious once the Colorado license plate was pointed out to me. I did a Google image search and although I could not find the New Jersey article (The cougars have been claimed to have been seen there) I did find this comment in a thread.

According to the New Jersey Herald, the photos seem to be from Colorado.

It is also the same set of photos that has circulated in Colorado since at least Dec. 18, 2009, according to Tyler Baskfield, head of public affairs for the Colorado Division of Natural Resources.

He said the same series of pictures was taken in Conifer, just west of Denver on Route 285, with a totally different sense of direction.

Seems a bit more plausible. I was just repeating the info my Dad had sent me me. I apologize for misleading anyone. (I did confirm that Tyler Baskfield exists and is actually an employee of the Colorado Division of Natural Resources.)

ADDED: From Googling "Conifer Cougar Pictures" it eventually led me to this forum. So far this seems to be the earliest posting of these pictures so may be the true origin of them. http://www.hayabusa.org/forum/random-thoughts/121383-colorado-kittys-want-pet-them-pics.html

ADDED # 2: So seeing how much I could find out on this potentially "original" photo I entered it into a meta-data reader. (Cool program/site you can find here. http://www.findexif.com/) The info there lists that the photo was taken November 2nd 2003. I could not find a Geotag on it.

http://www.findexif.com?l=GjakQ9f

Assuming no one gets eaten:

That was ƒucking awesome!

It's good to have the correct facts for amazing photos.
But even not being sure, those are still amazing photos.

Gorgeous creatures.

P.S. If UT or some other admin wants to edit my original post with the updated info on the correct background, go for it. I lost the ability to edit that top post.

It's all good --

IotD is a ball buster in many ways and today we had a pair. There are many errors of mine well-documented in the IotD archives, not the least of which is the foam fire prevention test, which went as planned but I documented as a failure.

Are we sure they're cougars? They don't look over 40 to me.

Two guys.

A dare.

A meat suit...


This where the next YouTube viral video comes from.