A 150-pound mountain lion was no match for a squirrel-chasing terrier on a farm in eastern South Dakota.
Jack the Jack Russell weighs only 17 pounds, and yet he managed to trap the cougar up a tree on Tuesday.
Jack’s owner, Chad Strenge, told The Argus Leader that the dog “trees cats all the time,” and that the plucky terrier probably “figured it was just a cat.”
Professor Jonathan Jenks, who tracks cougar migration patterns, says hunters usually need two or three hounds to chase a lion up a tree. He says the cat probably wasn’t hungry enough to attack Jack.
Strenge used a shotgun to knock the mountain lion from the tree and — assisted by Jack — chased and fatally shot it.
Arden Petersen, of the wildlife division of Game, Fish and Parks, told The Madison Daily Leader that no charges will be filed.
