Fourth mountain lion killed since North Dakota season started
Associated Press
BELFIELD, N.D. - Taxidermist Rick Froehlich says killing a mountain lion means having to retell the story dozens of times and finding a room big enough to display the trophy.
"I'm trying to skin this thing, but the phone keeps ringing off the hook," Froehlich said Monday.
"Everybody can't believe somebody around here killed one," Froehlich said. "But they are here ... It's the first time I've ever tracked down a mountain lion."
It was the fourth mountain lion killed in the state since an experimental hunting season opened in September. State officials say another mountain lion season may be held later this year.
Froehlich said he shot and killed the cougar north of Belfield on Friday, after tracking it with friends and two dogs for about three hours.
Froehlich said a woman in town told him a trucker had spotted a mountain lion, and she got an approximate location. He followed tracks from a rural road to a ravine, where he heard the cougar growl. He said he shot and wounded it before it came charging out.
The cat then moved into another brush patch and injured one of his dogs before he killed it, he said.
"I kind of ran down the hill more, and I kind of run a half-circle around it," Froehlich said. "I got a clear shot into that brush at it, and I killed it real quick."
Froehlich said he shot the cougar with a long-range .22-250-caliber rifle. But he said he could have used a pistol "because he was no more than a pickup truck's length away."
His dog, a Treeing Walker Coonhound, needed stitches in his chest.
"The dog ended up getting away from it, and it came running up to my side," he said. "He took a cuff across the chest and a couple of bites to the back."
The mountain lion weighed 111 pounds and was nearly 7 feet long.
The state Game and Fish Department examined the mountain lion Sunday. Wildlife Division Chief Randy Kreil said it was a 2-year-old male.
Froehlich said the hunt was exciting and he plans to do a full mount of the carcass.
"I don't know where I'm going to put it yet, because my house is not big enough," Froehlich said.
Froehlich said "tons" of people have been calling him from across the state to hear the details of the hunt.
Andy Anderson of Williston, who killed a cougar in late December, was one of the first to call.
"He had to hear the story and I had to hear his," Froehlich said. "He warned me that I would get steady phone calls for two weeks."
Dorothy Fecske, a furbearer biologist with the state Game and Fish Department, said all four cougars have been killed in the same general area in western North Dakota, but Froehlich's cougar was killed farther south that the other three.
"It's possible this young male was born in North Dakota but more likely it was in immigrant male from Montana or South Dakota," she said. "Young males often will travel long distances before establishing a territory of their own."
The state began its experimental hunting season for mountain lions Sept. 2, to get more information about them. The season runs through March 12, or until five mountain lions have been killed.
Kreil said another season is likely later this year.
"We will review the various components of season to see if any changes need to be made," Kreil said.
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