A Mountain Lion and her Two Kittens

Some of you know that I've been lamenting how few mountain lions my trail cams have been capturing. Some of my cams have been in the same spots for years, and far fewer lions have passed them in the past year than most years. Recently, I had the excitement of a trio of mountain lions passing two trail cameras!

I saw this photo from my trail camera, and I expected it was just one mountain lion passing by.

Then, I saw this photo. Another set of eyes had appeared.

Then, I got very excited because yet another set of eyes had appeared to the right. Moreover, you can see the eye and body of another mountain lion on the left side of the kitten.

The kitten glanced back toward his/her family.

The kitten looked the other way...

... and then the kitten departed to follow mom.

I also captured footage of the mountain lions with a trail camera that records video. It is just so cool to see three mountain lions together! Check out the video!

The trio remained in one area for at least a few days so I suspect that they had prey cached nearby. I hope that we catch some more glimpses of them in the future!

Bobcat Family

You may remember that I followed a mother and her two bobcat kittens last summer. You can see the posts here, here, here, and here.

Usually, I see mother bobcats with their kittens for the last time sometime around February. It turned out that the mother bobcat and her two kittens were in front of my trail camera in late January!

Mom arrived.

She sniffed a bone that has laid in front of this camera for ages and always attracts the attention of bobcats. As she sniffed, one kitten arrived.

Mom and her kitten sniffed together. If you look to the left of them, you can see the other kitten approaching from the snowy background.

As soon as the other kitten arrived, mom walked away. You can see her on an animal path in the background.

The first kitten quickly followed while the lagging kitten lay down in front of the camera.

The lagging kitten rolled around and showed us his white spotted chest and belly. It's moments like this one that only trail cameras can capture. Most of us would never see such a sight with our own eyes.

After this fun photo, the kitten sprinted after his family, and I'm sure he caught up. By now, these kittens are at least 7 months old, and they will soon strike out on their own. For now, they travel "loosely" with their mother, meaning that they are usually in the same area as her but not necessarily right next to her.

In fact, in the days after the family visit, that same trail camera repeated photographed single bobcats, likely members of this family, who passed it by themselves. This is part of the pattern of the kittens gradually becoming more independent.

Getting trail camera photos of our wildlife really helps me through February which always feels like the longest month even though it's actually the shortest! I wish that we would get photos of the mother mountain lion and her two kittens who we followed last summer (posts are here and here). I suspect that they made a "big move" for the winter to an entirely different area. If they were still near here, I would probably know it. However, I do have a "snowed in" trail camera that I probably won't check until the big spring melt. Then, we'll know for sure if they've been in this area for the winter or not.

In the meantime, I'll dream of the next time I can pick up memory cards from our "den cams" that are monitoring the black bear in her den. I am so curious to find out there are noisy new cubs in the den with her. They would've been born in the second half of January!

To keep February happy, I'll keep playing with the ever-joyful Shyla!

If only I had Shyla's athletic capabilities, I'd be able to frolic in the snow in February, and then I'm sure it would seem too short to me!!

I hope that all of you are enjoying your Saturdays.

National Cat Day - My Trail Cam Cat Photos

I read that today is National Cat Day so I wanted to share some new bobcat mother and kitten photos plus some of my favorite wild cat photos from the past year. If you don't have much time, just look at the pictures - I tried to pick out the best ones!

Just the other early morning, the mother bobcat and her kittens passed a trail camera where they've never been before. The mother arrived first.

Here's a closeup of her. She is scent marking. That involves kicking backward once with each hind paw while urinating or defecating into the scrape marks. In this case, she urinated.

Just as she finished, her kittens arrived and dove for the spot that their mom had marked.

As Mom departed, she seemed to notice the trail camera and paused to look at it while her kittens lagged behind.

Then, mom moved along, and the kittens continued to roll in their mom's scent.

A few seconds later, one of the kittens sprinted after mom while the other remained behind.

Suddenly, the solo kitten realized that he'd been left behind. He looked up and sprinted away so fast that the camera couldn't record it!

That evening, mom headed out, past the same camera, to hunt for food for the family.

The location of the mother and kitten bobcats is exciting. It's in an area that I know extremely well, and I can even visualize where the mother might have stashed the kittens. We might get to see a lot of them in the coming days (but I won't go anywhere near the possible den site because it would disrupt the family).

In honor of National Cat Day, I thought I'd also share my favorite wild cat photos from the past year. The first one was of the same mother bobcat and her two kittens back in August. I think it's my favorite all-time bobcat photo taken by my trail cams.

For mountain lions, my cams have captured a lot of photos that I've liked over the past year. I've captured more photos of interactions between mother mountain lions and their kittens than ever before.

In this case, a mother lion and her kitten passed my trail camera. The kitten noticed it. This was the last photo before he pounced on it, and knocked it so it was pointing at the ground. He made me laugh when I looked at the photos later!

Also, about a year ago, the same mother mountain lion and her kitten played right in front of my trail camera.

Finally, mom got worried about something, and the play session ended.

This spring, a mountain lion family passed through our neck of the woods, and I was awed to see three long lithe tails in one photo. The mother mountain lion had done an amazing job of raising two kittens who looked close to the point of becoming independent.

Then, this year, we have been so lucky to get many glimpses of a mother mountain lion who has two young kittens in our area. Here is the mother...

And, it was a true treasure to get photos of her kittens. Here is my favorite (with mom's tail in the right of the photo):

I believe that kitten was less than 2 months old. The kittens have not appeared in front of the camera since that day. I'm not worried about them because the mother mountain lion has appeared going to and fro secluded areas frequently. No doubt, she's tending to her well-hidden kittens.

Last but not least, there's a "mountain lion spot" in a small clearing with a big old Ponderosa Pine in the middle of it. For the past 15 years, there have always been mountain lion "scrapes" (like the bobcat made in the first two photos of this post) and mountain lion scat around the tree. The first time I noticed all the signs of mountain lions there, I freaked out. I wasn't yet experienced with living with mountain lions, and I believed the sensational hype like what I'd read in the book "Beast in the Garden". In fact, I now believe that mountain lions watch me regularly, and they let me go about my business peaceably.

To make a long story short, I remembered the "mountain lion spot" when I got my first trail camera, and I put it there. Although there are sometimes long quiet periods, it has turned out to be a great place to get lion photos.

And here is the grand finale - my favorite mountain lion photo from my trail cams of all time.

Happy National Cat Day!

Mountain Lion Monday - Kitten Glimpses

I discovered that a trail camera captured a few more peeks at the tiny mountain lion kittens as they passed under a bear marking tree with their mother. Their mother was probably taking them from one den to another. When they're so small, they stay in a den almost all the time.

The first glimpse was the collared mother with one kitten in front of her.

Mom was all business, herding her kittens toward their next den.

The second kitten was following close behind mom's tail. Look at the kitten's camouflage!

Like the playful kitten that he is, he decided to climb up a small rock. It gave us a better view of him!

With his stern mother keeping him moving, he didn't linger on the rock. He hurried back to his place in line.

I hope that we get more glimpses of these two kittens in the coming months!

The Bad and The Good - Mountain Lion Kittens!

I am trying hard to remember that most of the people in the world are good and to focus on the good and beautiful parts of the world. This tiny wintergreen flower that is now blooming is a minute detail in our forest that awes me.

We returned from a trip to the high Rockies today, and I discovered that a low-life jerk had stolen one of my trail cameras. I had my usual burst of anger and despair. The individual who stole it has shown up on my trail cameras for years. He seems to like to walk where no one else goes. I figured that he was a nature-lover like me and that I didn't need to worry about him stealing anything.

I was wrong. He noticed a trail camera for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Then, he returned with tools for a quick theft. In the midst of my fury, there is good news. He'll never be able to use the camera due to technological innovations that make it only possible for me to use it. Moreover, I have photos of his face which the police plan to use to try to ID him. So, there's a chance that I'll see the camera again.

On the good news front, finding the one camera stolen caused me to ride my bike all over creation checking on my other trail cameras. No others were stolen.

And, one of them had photos on it that made my heart sing!!!! You might remember a recent post about a mountain lion who I thought had kittens stashed in a den near us. She does have little tiny kittens!!!

Here, mom and one tiny kitten appeared in front of my trail camera. That kitten is smaller than a bobcat!!!!

Then, the first kitten continued forward and the second kitten walked into the frame almost below mom.

They didn't linger long. The trio departed quickly.

When mountain lion kittens are this small, they stay in dens almost all the time. The mother periodically moves them from one den to another. I suspect that the mom leading them to a new den in these photos. I wish the photos were in color but I'm not complaining!

Finding these photos on a trail camera on the same day that I discovered that one had been stolen reminded me why I love these trail cameras despite the constant worry about bad people stealing them.

Because I love our wildlife so much, that one series of mountain lion kitten photos was enough to pay for this trail camera. I'd never get to see such a wonderful sight without using trail cameras. Wow!

I'm also reminded that, in some ways, I love animals far more than most people. Animals are pure in spirit. If Shyla looks at me with a playful face like the next one, I know that's how she feels. She doesn't lie.

Life is such a mixture of bad and good. I do my best to focus on the good, like mountain lion kittens and my wonderful pack!

Mountain Lion Family of Three

You might remember that I captured this photo of a mountain lion next to our house.

Since then, I've checked some other trail cameras, and I discovered that a family of three mountain lions were in our neck of the woods around that time.

Here's the arrival of the first one in front of a trail camera about 3/4 of a mile from our house. Immediately, I noticed that he had fading spots, telling me that he's a kitten.

Just after him, his mother arrived. She is larger in stature and has no spots. They both sniffed beneath a tree where many mountains lions have marked in the past.

Then, to top off the party, another kitten arrived. Do you see the stripes on the inside of his front right leg? That's another sure sign that this cat is a kitten. Adult mountain lions have no spots or stripes. My guess is that these kittens were 4-5 months old at the time of these photos based on the visible spots.

The three of them sniffed the ground together. I must say that three mountain lion tails in a row is an intimidating sight to me when I'm standing next to where they were photographed!

Mom was the first to depart.

And then the trail camera captured my favorite photo of them all. The kitten who is looking at the camera actually looks cute! And he is so obviously a youngster!

There was clearly one larger and one smaller kitten. I'm not sure why they are different sizes. Perhaps one is a male and the other is a female. Or perhaps one is better at claiming his/her share of the food than the other.

Soon, all three had departed. I didn't get photos in any other locations of the three together, although I did get a few photos that could have been the mother by herself (like the first photo in this post).

This is the first time that my trail cameras have captured photos of a mother and two kittens in our neck of the woods. I hope that we get more glimpses of them as they grow up!