Deer kills cougar

A fun conversation with retired Fish and Wildlife endangered species biologist,Ted Kuch. In another episode, Ted revealed something that surprised me and that was the fact that wolves are not only NOT the largest predators on elk, but COUGARS, at least in Idaho and Montana, kill more elk than wolves. However, a friend of Ted’s had one experience that might astonish many of you who are familiar with mule deer. “I once had this friend of mine tell me this awesome story. He's actually radio tracking deer in the wintertime, and he had found that this deer had died in the bottom of this ravine and he went to go check it out. So they hiked up to this ridge and were tracking the trail that they had originally seen and they saw the deer going along. All of a sudden, they see signs of this cougar jumping on the back of the dee. The deer bails off this ridge, apparently slammed into a tree trunk, broke the cougars neck. And the cougar was laying dead in the snow. The deer ran down the mountain and died. And so they found both. The deer killed the cougar. (laughter)