A Mountain Lion Mother and her Kittens

We often think that mountain lions are the invisible kings of our forests. However, one sign of their existence is omnipresent - the parts of the animals who they've killed and eaten that get strewn across the forest floor. Shyla finds those parts at least once per week. It makes me more aware of how active our lion population is.

This week, on one of the rare days of no snow or hail, I went to visit a trail cam at water hole that has been silent all winter. No animals visit it in the frigid days of the year. It was dry last fall but has some water in it now.

I was ecstatic when I looked at the tiny LCD viewer on the trail camera. For about five minutes, a family of mountain lions drank and played in view of the camera. Almost always, multiple mountain lions together means kittens!

For most of the video, only two cats were in view. In this snapshot from the video, I bet that you can guess which one is the kitten!

And, you know that the one who allowed his paws to be immersed in the water is a kitten!

It turned out that two kittens appeared. In this snapshot, mom and her kitten hear the other kitten attempting to sneak up on them.

When he arrived, it was with a flying leap! The trail camera's shutter time was too long to capture him sharply but perhaps you can see the streak flying down from the upper right of the photo.

At the end of the video (soon after this moment), you'll hear crazy scampering noises. I think that the whole family sprinted into the forest for some reason.

It is quite possible that this is the mountain lion family who we saw last fall. That family had three kittens that were probably born in October or so. The kittens would now be about 7 months old. It would not be surprising if one kitten did not survive but it's also conceivable that one stayed outside the view of this camera.

Here is the video of their water hole visit. Enjoy.