Congrats Mr. Tinker; you just killed a Bobcat for no other reason than to just kill it.

He harvested the bobcat for it's fur which is what trappers do. Besides, bobcat are a major predator on deer. Good for him and hope he nails more.

Yes, we should kill everything in nature that kills something else, like deer, that you want to kill. If you are so worried about deer why don't you protest shooting them when their numbers are down because of the two past severe winters? The major predator of deer is people not bobcats and to kill the biggest bobcat for its fur and removing it from the gene pool is extremely shortsighted. What a shame.

People are the least of the deer problem. Predators hunt year round night and day including Sunday. Hunters hunt in the fall. You do the math.

Yeah it is killing but it also is harvesting we kill/harvest trees so you can clean your posterior we kill/harvest cows so you can eat at Mickey Ds and have leather wallets, boots and jackets and luxury interiors of our cars. We that grew up in Maine before "Maine the way life should be" know what it is all about, it is a lifestyle that is becoming lost. Yeah it's hard work what a nasty, nasty word, work for a living? no let someone else do it that is the attitude today just like I'll have a Big Mac that some peon has killed for me because I don't want too. Yeah "Maine the way life should be" but don't acknowledge all the work that made it that way, just come on up and reap the rewards of somebody else's labors. Mr. Tinker congratulations on your accomplishment what a catch having trapped a few critters myself but not a cat, I prefer to run em with my hound, I know all to well the work involved. Mr. Brooks that tom has already added his genes to the pool so no loss there

Outdoorsman : A major predator of deer? Neither bobcats or coyotes are major predators of deer but the good old boy network will spread those lies till hell freezes over. The major predator of deer is the cutting of deer yards and everything else the last twenty years. Even the biologists admit this.

Swamp: Lot of work riding around in that truck while a hound hounds the cat. Oughta be a law against you slobs, but hellfire tarnation now we wouldn't wanta stop critter abuse. Might get us confused with them thar Socialitic Commie Obamaites. Pass me another Bud while I pistol whip this stupid dog. If he don't shape up I'll make him bear bait, yeeeehaaawww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Sorry, Cecil, coyotes are THE major predator of deer. Wow, the flatlanders are out in force. Take your bunny hugging back to MA with you, please. Don't like the laws? Move.

Swamp,

Are you a subsistence hunter?If all you eat is what you kill I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with killing for heads and fur and as CecilG, who is a hunter himself, said there is a way to kill that is acceptable and a way to kill that is cruel. I wonder how long that cat was in the trap before Tinker went out to shoot it. Did it suffer? You bet your sweet pa toot it did. Most of the hunters I know still eat at McDonald's and buy their burger at Hannafords and so on. I suspect that you might be grilling your packaged hamburgers yourself. By the way, there are lots of people who have made other choices about the boots and cars. It is a choice if you think about it. I would give my left n-t to see a 50 pound cat in the wild but Mr. Tinker has deprived me of that possibility. And yes, I have seen Bobcats in the wild on three or four occasions. It was a gift.

Someone must be smoking some good stuff if they think coyotes aren't a major factor in the killing of deer .

It's been seen were a pack of Coyotes will run deer onto floating ice packs where they can't go anywhere and have a field day with them.

It's sad and sickening to see Maine Traditions such Trapping and Hunting under fire in the negative posts here.What is this world coming to?

THIS IS MAINE!!!!!

From 1932 to 1975 the state of Maine offered a $15.00 bounty for every bobcat you could bring in. In 1932 this was like winning the lottery, considering a days pay then was between .20 and .30 cents, and many earned it working long, hard, and difficult days as a laborer or woodsman. It would take 1 bobcat to earn the same money you would make in 2 months working. The people of the state of Maine including the governor, senators, legislatures, wardens, hunters, trappers, and yes, biologists, understood at that time the importance of drawing sportsman to hunt deer in the state and most importantly to spend money. In order to secure this, emotions needed to be put aside and to take a good hard look at the predator situation regarding the whitetail deer. Our leaders in Maine understood that regardless the ammount of money needed to pay all of the bobcat bounties, the reciepts would far outway the expenditures when it came to traveling sportsman and a large deer herd.

Maine had a good predator control program up until a few years ago in regards to coyotes. Snares were used to remove coyotes in deer wintering yards and was most effective. However, the state yielded by allowing a private group to protest this action by threat of a lawsuit. The snaring program was halted.

As the years go by I see a continuous increase of outright refusals to accept the fact or completely ignore even considering predator control to favor animals that are of benefit financially to this state. Moose, deer, bear and birds are big money resources for Maine. Tell me, where is the common sense allowing coyotes to ravage our deer herd in the winter time while the state is making cutbacks in several departments, including numerous job loses?

Outdoorsman: This is 2009 not 1920. Get with the program man. The world has changed and some realize that we humans have totally screwed things up. Like I mean completely and your antiquated way of thinking about the natural world doesn't quite work anymore. Thanks.

Bobbrooks220: Your posts gives one reason to question your sanity. Saying this is 2009 not 1920 does not qualify as a valid excuse to not do the right thing. I cannot for the life of me figure out how we humans have "totally screwed things up." Huh? You have got to be a democrat.

It would be interesting to see some of the Defenders of Wildlife folks on here post about their own extensive "research" done afield. I am sure that in their report it would not include the 17+ deer that were run onto the frozen St. Croix river by coyotes only to break through and die. Surely it would not recall their snowshoe trips into deer yards in the winter only to find dead deer all around. I am willing to bet when the snow has a thick crust on it in the morning all you can think about is what a pain it will be to shovel out my Prius, not how many deer will die do to predators traveling on top of the snow. I would give you more credit if you could actually tell us something you have seen and not read.

Humans are a major reason for imbalances in the natural world which is all the more reason for us to manage it. If you are naive enough to believe that by just stopping hunting and trapping that nature will balance itself out, you obviously do not spend time afield. With NO human interaction wildlife populations are cyclic, but even without hunting and trapping pressure yuppie homes and "cottages" will continue to erode their habitat. I do not believe in eradication, just population control. It is our duty to maintain healthy herds of deer and to maintain an adequate amount of predation. The only time the Defenders will complain is when their Prius smashes into a deer in the middle of the night or when their rose bush gets eaten down to a stump, then its still done quietly so as to not "offend" someone.

By the way, nice Bobcat!

glscaddis-nice post. It's good to see that there are still some folks left who have brains and are with the program.

And for the record I also support Alaskas aerial wolf hunting and bear snaring control programs. I also like to believe the last thing Timothy Treadwell thought as he was being eaten by a brown bear was that he wished he was a hunter. Ah, the irony!

glscaddis, the St Croix deer slaughter was one of the examples I was thinking of.

Coyotes are also no match for a Polaris 700 snow sled either.....

I think it was more like 34-35 deer that the coyotes ran onto the thin ice. Most of those were big does that would likely have had twins in the spring time. Actually then you could say it was around 90 deer counting the fetuses. Sounds like Alaska knows what to do when it comes to animal management. I only wish Maine would do the same.

glscaddis excellent comment yesterday @ 6:42......

glscadis: Timothy Treadwell survived for 10 summers with those bears. He also would have survived the 11th but for a quirk of fate which brought him and his girlfriend back to the area after another successful summer. How do you explain that? Granted he took many risks but the fact remains that he lived for 10 years without the necessary safeguards to protect himself. It was an accident that he got killed by a bear. Better than getting killed by a hunter. It is the way he wanted to go and it is a shame that they killed the bear who ate him. We all take risks when we walk into the woods. I have walked in the woods unarmed for 40 years, have seen every animal up close and personal and have never been threatened. Even on the ground in Alaska, in the presence of grizzlies. Ariel hunting and snaring are simply obscene, unethical and you should be ashamed of yourself for advocating it.

It was no accident that he was eaten by a bear. He was simply lucky that it had not happened earlier. Aerial hunting and snaring are just plain effective game management tools, period. I would not volunteer to hunt from a plane as it does not interest me, but it is necessary to effectively and more quickly bring about balance. Ashamed I would be if I spoke of things that I did not know what I was talking about due to first hand experience. And by the way, I am sure that Treadwell did not have being torn apart and digested as tops on his list of ways to die, just guessin'.

a happy and healthy hello to all,

dear sir, congratulations on the harvest of an ultra magnum maine bobcat. may the art of trapping live on in the beautiful state of maine.

jason

anchorage, ak

glscaddis: Don't you think 11 years is a little bit more than luck? I agree that he was living on borrowed time because he refused to take precautions like using an electric fence around his camp or carrying flares but what he did was to get to know the animals as individuals and survived on his instinct about how to behave around them. I suggest that you read "Among Grizzlies" by Treadwell. If nothing else it is a page turner. He always claimed that he was willing to die the way he did which is what enabled him to continue his work with the bears. The thing is that he really didn't believe they would kill him which was a fatal mistake. He certainly had a lot of guts. Did you happen to see the film "Grizzly Man"?

Congrats Mr. Tinker. Ok lets not get into a pissing contest with the other side. Lets keep things cool.

I do believe it was luck, and I do believe he was not right in the head. Whats to say a bear with the same attitude might not happen along the first year and not the 11th. His interaction with that bear is what lead to its demise, end of story. I am a ethical hunter and fisherman in both Maine and Alaska and will support anybody or any cause to ensure my children have the same opportunities I have had. And yes I did see "Grizzly Man" and watching it solidifies everything I have said.

glscaddis for governor god damn herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The idiot got what he deserved playing with Grizzlies..

Play with fire your going to get burnt..

glscaddis: For me, this is not at all about Treadwell and whether he was nuts. I have mixed feelings about what he did as it relates to the bears. There was good and bad . Was it good to acclimate bears to humans? Probably not. The fact is that you are completely correct that he got the bear killed which is what the people in charge of the park and others feared and they were thinking seriously of not allowing him to go out there. On the other hand he prevented poaching in the area because he did behave like a lunatic when he saw them so he in fact saved bears as well. They were probably more afraid of him and the way he acted than they were of the bears. I am surprised that they didn't kill him first to tell you the truth. I believe you are an ethical hunter because you will not shoot an animal from a plane which I think gives the shooter an unfair advantage and it is a tactic that terrifies the animal. There are other ways to manage wildlife that are ethical and I agree with you that we sometimes have to manage wildlife but we disagree on why. Again, I don't have a problem with hunting for food but head hunting and trapping an animal which causes it to suffer sometimes for days does not seem ethical to me. No death should be drawn out, no animal should feel fear in a trap and so on. I respect your right to hunt and fish, and your children will most likely have the same rights in the future, if there is anything left to hunt and fish. BTW nice talking to you. I don't see this as a pissing match.

Yes, by all means, congratulations on the big cat. Hee hee! I remember sitting on the porch with Casey, catching cusk at night and leaving them out by the holes on Moosehead to freeze. Coyotes came out and we'd take 'em under the moon. Casey killled a LOT of Coyotes and collected a lot of bounties, but never put a dent in the population. Had to. There'd have been no deer.

What's his name there with IF&W . . . "Raven" . . . the deer guy . . . used to eat roadkill . . . the biologist. Eh. I'm old. Anyway, he told me 25 years ago the influx of coyotes was (and had) wiped out the deer population in Washington County. Number one killer. Smoke that, there, fellah.

Its sad to have to fight theses imported liberals, seems like there genepool is growing daily. Thank god for educated game officials. The Maine way of life is strong and will continue to be as long as we stand up for our rights. Those liberal treehuggers put up a smokescreen of sentiment but the facts will blow them away!!