Silly Kitty

This type of trail camera photo is becoming commonplace. The silly mountain lion, who I think is a mother who is staying in a very small area, visited a remote camera of mine. Mountain lions stash their kittens in dens, moving them from one den to another frequently, when the kittens are young. Early in the kittens' lives, they can't move too far so the mother will frequent a small area. You might remember that we spotted enlarged teats on this lion fairly recently.

She wasted no time in started her wriggling. She is not the first to mark this spot.

After rolling and wriggling, she seemed to suddenly realize that a soft red glow was coming from my camera.

She rubbed the camera with her fur. Indeed, I could see the tawny fur on the cover.

She sniffed the spot once more, before ambling on her way.

I'm hoping to see some sign of her again soon because I believe that she may have a kitten or two traveling with her before too long. I would love to see them on camera.

Her behavior is remarkably similar to a mother bobcat's behavior - which I've seen in multiple years in the general area of this camera. With patience, my cameras eventually capture photos of the young cats. However, I've had to move several of my cameras which were in this lion's core area (this camera is outside the "core" area)... so we might miss the kittens this year. But, we can hope!