Bismarck Tribune

By RICHARD HINTBy RICHARD HINTON

George Linz and his girlfriend, Linda Kapp, were enjoying a Saturday afternoon walk on his property near the Missouri River in Washburn.

"We were hoping to maybe pick up a pheasant," the Bismarck man said Monday, two days after he shot and killed the third mountain lion of the state's second experimental season.

"We were walking and talking, and we commented that there were no deer down here," Kapp said of the woody draw they were walking. "No deer, no bunnies, no squirrels. Then we got into this one area, and George just kind of stopped and swung around."

"I happened to glance behind me at a washout, a kind of sandy area, and much to my surprise, (a lion was) in a crouched position, eyes as big as saucers. I remember the tail twitching," Linz said.

"It was no more than 10 feet away and down about 2 feet. I swung on it. Everything happened so fast. Ican't even describe it. The animal decided to leap, not away but quartered alongside of me. Instincts being what they are, Ifelt the need to take the animal."

He fired one shot from his Remington 1100 shotgun.

"I hit it in the head. It died, in effect, instantly. I looked at it and said, 'Gosh, what happened?' It happened so fast."

"The animal seemed, at that moment, so huge. Idon't know if it was a threat, but I certainly was closer to it than any animal in a zoo. I'm certainly glad he didn't take any chances," Kapp said.

After Linz's shot with a pheasant load of No. 4 shot from his semiautomatic shotgun, Kapp wondered if he should shoot it again.

"I had no second shot. The shotgun just hung up," Linz said.

A 107-pound male, the mountain lion was estimated to be 1½ to 2½ years old, Dorothy Fecske, a furbearer biologist for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department, said Monday. It measured 82 inches from its nose to the tip of its tail, she added.

"It was a dispersing-age male roaming the countryside, and the Missouri River provides a natural travel corridor," she said. Young males are forced from the area where they are raised and have to search out new territory.

She did did her initial work on the cat Sunday and will perform a necropsy on the carcass later this week.

Linz shot the animal at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday on his property, which abuts the Washburn city limits. "You can see the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center," he said.

There had been reports of a possible lion seen in the area, Linz said.

"I didn't feel threatened, but I felt like I needed to protect myself and my friend who was with me without a firearm on her," he added. "I can't describe how beautiful they are."

Linz is a biologist at the U.S.Agriculture Department's National Wildlife Research Center field station in Bismarck.

"I recognize the need to gather data on the animals. I hope the public understands a few have to be taken in order to manage the population so we don't have negative interactions occur," he said.

Linz was the second bird hunter to shoot a lion this season. Kent Ferguson, of Mohall, shot and killed a female lion that got into a scrap with his bird dog Oct. 18 near Lansford.

The season's first cat was a kitten, shot by a Minot hunter last month near Grassy Butte. Ken Herslip said he did not realize the animal was a kitten, which are off-limits to hunters under new state regulations.

The state's second experimental mountain lion season opened in September and will run until March 11 or until a fifth cat is killed.

The new regulations this year also prohibit hunters from killing lion kittens with spots or females accompanied by kittens. Hunters may not actively pursue lions with dogs until Jan. 1.

The Lansford lion remains a puzzle. The six lions harvested before it were killed in the vicinity of Grassy Butte, roughly 120 miles southwest of Lansford.

"That was a little more unexpected," said Greg Link, NDGFD assistant wildlife chief. "Whether it was hanging out or in the area for a while, we don't know."

Linz said he probably would have the mountain lion mounted.

"I do not feel joyful. Something happened, and an animal was taken. Game and Fish will use the data. I would not purposely go out and try to hunt a lion. If I were out deer hunting and saw a lion running on the property, I would not shoot.

"In this situation, I felt I needed to do it. It was in a crouched position, and its tail was flicking. If you've watched house cats, it's not a good sign for the mouse. In this case, we may have been the mouse."

(Reach outdoor writer Richard Hinton at 250-8256 or richard.hinton@;bismarcktribune.com.)