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When 39-year-old Wisconsin bowhunter Ben Karasch climbed into his tree stand on Nov. 11, he hoped to identify one of many legendary bucks that Buffalo County is understood for. As an alternative, he noticed an grownup cougar stalking him. Because the lion crept nearer to his stand and obtained inside 15 yards of him, Karasch realized he was in a kill-or-be-killed second. He selected to shoot.
After self-reporting the incident, the Wisconsin Division of Pure Assets investigated it and determined to not carry any fees towards him. Though cougars are protected within the state, officers concluded that Karasch shot the animal in self-defense.
“I’d climbed into my ladder stand that afternoon and by early night I hadn’t seen a deer,” says Karasch, who had a buck decoy out alongside the sting of a slim discipline. “At about 3:45 I seemed to my proper and about 40-yards away noticed motion that I assumed was a deer. Then I noticed the cat-like face gazing me and thought it was an enormous bobcat, they’re not unusual right here. Then I noticed the large physique and lengthy tail and realized it was a cougar.
“I might see it was sneaking up on me, staring proper at me with its tail swishing forwards and backwards,” he continues. “It could crouch and conceal, then begin creeping towards me once more, all the time together with his eyes on me. There by no means was a minute in the entire episode when he wasn’t coming towards me. I feel he noticed the deer decoy first, then noticed me shifting within the stand and began concentrating on me as an alternative.”
Karasch says loads of ideas ran by means of his head as he watched the cougar come nearer.
“I used to be strapped into my harness, so my motion was restricted, and since he was to my proper, I needed to flip to face him. I waved my arms and yelled at him to get out of right here, however he stored coming. The carabiner on my security harness even banged towards the tree stand once I turned, however that didn’t trouble him both, he simply stored sneaking nearer.”
That was when Karasch realized he may very well be in deep trouble if the cat lunged up the tree.
“I’ve hunted deer since I used to be 12 years previous and most of my photographs have been at about 20 yards. This cougar was half that distance away,” he says. “All these ideas are working by means of my thoughts, I felt extraordinarily scared and weak at that second with the cat nonetheless gazing me. With how shut the cougar was and his lack of concern although I attempted to scare him away, I felt like the one choice I had was to shoot.”
Karasch drew again and launched. His arrow hit the cougar within the shoulder at what was later measured to be 13 yards.
“I watched him run away after which climbed out of the stand and obtained out of the realm. The following factor I did was name the DNR hotline and switch my self in. That was the suitable factor to do.”
The following morning, Karesch met with two sport wardens and a biologist close to the stand. They adopted the blood path and located the cougar mendacity lifeless roughly 120 yards from his deer stand.
“I used to be relieved, however not shocked, when the wardens and the District Legal professional determined fees wouldn’t be applicable,” Karesch says. “I’d give something for this to haven’t occurred. I suppose you can say we had been each within the mistaken place on the mistaken time.”
DNR biologist Mark Rasmussen says it’s probably that path digicam footage taken within the days earlier than the occasion had been of the identical animal. It’s the primary cougar to be shot in Wisconsin in 115 years.
“It was a two-year-old male that weighted 128 kilos,” Rasmussen explains. “It’s additionally probably it got here from the Dakotas like different cougar sightings in Wisconsin have discovered. We’ll do a full necropsy of the animal and use it as an academic software.”
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Rasmussen says there have been 23 verified cougar sightings in Wisconsin this 12 months. However with so many path cameras out, he thinks most of those sightings are of the identical few people.
Conservation Warden supervisor Lt. Tyler Strelow tells Outside Life that Karasch did the suitable factor by self-reporting this incident. Strelow added that he hopes it doesn’t give different hunters an excuse to shoot at cougars and different predators akin to bears and wolves.
“There’s loads of bears and wolves in Wisconsin hunters will encounter in the course of the deer gun season, however the one time they are often shot is in safety of livestock and for human security.”
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