A horse owner east of Bismarck vehemently disagrees with an assessment that his mare’s wounds probably came from sharp, broken juniper tree branches rather than an attacking mountain lion.

After a four-plus hour on-site visit, the USDA Wildlife Services’s Jeremy Duckwitz joined Randy Kreil, wildlife chief for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, Thursday afternoon to announce the assessment during a news conference.

"It’s absolutely ... . It’s not a bush. It’s crazy," responded Kyle Bergquist, the injured mare’s owner.

His pregnant mare was part of a herd of horses in his pasture when she was injured Tuesday night.

The herd’s dominant mare had a foal, and she pushed the other mares around, Duckwitz said.

"It’s possible she was protecting her foal and pushed the (injured) mare back in the trees," he said. There was white hair on the ground below the trees, and the injured mare is white. Some of the mare’s wounds were the same height as the broken juniper branches, the wildlife managers reported.

"I want to sit in front of those people. They are totally saying things I know are not true," Bergquist said. "I have a 22-year-old mare with a white belly that rubs against those junipers."

Bergquist said he was considering having DNA tests done on the hair to show it came from his white-bellied, older mare.

He also said he had had several people stop by and look at his mare and support his theory that the wounds were caused by a lion. He said he plans to hold a new conference soon.

A NDGFD handout listed other reasons why the wounds were unlikely to have been caused by a mountain lion:

n The attack was reported to have happened between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., and lions typically hunt at dawn, dusk or at night.

n The largest horse in the group was attacked, not the foal, which isn’t consistent with lion behavior.

n The injuries were not consistent with a lion attack or effective kill technique. Mountain lions kill their prey by attacking the neck and head area, and not the rear end, where they are more likely to get injured.

n The horse had cuts on its front feet and bottom of its belly, which are not consistent with a lion attack.

n North Dakota wildlife officials consulted with Wildlife Services in Utah, which investigates far more lion-horse encounters. “They do not believe these are mountain lion-related injuries, especially with no head or neck injuries to the horse,” Utah officials concluded.

n There was no sign such as scat, hair or tracks found at the site or at nearby McDowell Dam.

n Duckwitz took experienced mountain-lion tracking dogs to the area, and the dogs did not pick up any scent. Using his dogs, Duckwitz treed and killed a young mountain lion in the Grassy Butte area during North Dakota’s first experimental mountain lion season.

n The report that the deer carcasses found in or near the horse pasture were freshly killed was not true. District game warden Jeff Violett, who did the initial investigation Wednesday, collected one carcass and determined it had died months ago.

n Numerous deer were observed in the area the following day. If a lion had been in the area, deer would have moved out of the the area.

"Everyone who looked at my horses said they were going to deny this," Bergquist said.

The foal did have two leg injures and a wound on its chest, and its mother had a leg injury, Bergquist said. He also said he was told that lions did attack from the rear.

"We take these reports seriously and take our time to get it right so people can rely on us and trust our credibility," said Kreil, who added that NDGFD has no reason to downplay a lion report near such a popular area.

The bottom line for Duckwitz, whose job is to investigate encounters between humans or livestock and predators: ”The wounds are not consistent with animal attacks.”

"There you have your answer," said Bergquist. "If you’re concerned about what happened, you need to pay attention. If you choose not to believe me, I hope nothing else happens."(Reach outdoor writer Richard Hinton at 701-250-8256 or richard.hinton@bismarcktribune.com.)