Caturday: An Amorous Mountain Lion Pair

Last week, I told you about the mother mountain lion and her two kittens who were in our area. I haven't seen them recently but a new saga started after they departed.

It began with this photo. I am focusing my trail cams on our remaining water sources now because so many natural springs and water holes are dry. This lion stopped for a drink. By itself, that's not unexpected.

Then, there was another drink by a lion. I didn't know if it was the same one or a new one.

When this third bit of footage appeared, I was thinking that a lion had a carcass stashed near this spring and was stopping for a drink on his way to and fro the carcass.

Then came one of the most surprising mountain lion images of a lion that I've seen in a long time. Look closely at the upper left corner. Yes, that's the nose of another mountain lion who was licking the drinking lion's fur.

I believe that the left mountain lion is a male and the one who is drinking is a female. The male repeatedly licked the fur of the female.

Then he got more forward and tried putting a paw on her back. The female growled - by far the lowest and most scary sound I've ever heard from a mountain lion.

Obviously not as impressed as I was by the growl, the male kept licking her fur and making small overtures as the female drank.

Then, the female growled again for good measure just before she got up to trot away. The male was on her heels.

This is almost certainly a mating pair of mountain lions. The above black and white photos were from the only footage of them together but each of them came to the spring in the days before and after they were together.

Here's one lion at the spring, the male I think. He'd drink and then crane his neck to look over his shoulder. I suspect that the female was somewhere back there. He is distinctive-looking with his whitish chest.

This pattern was still going on when I last checked the camera at the spring. A mating pair will spend at least a week together, if not longer. If the female is impregnated, she'll give birth in about three months - in October.

I have footage of this amorous mountain lion pair. I made two versions of it. The first is very short - it shows only the time when the two were together at the spring in front of my trail camera. The second is a bit longer, including snippets of the visits of the cats to the spring around the time when the pair was together on camera.

The short video:

And the longer version:

My trail cameras are incredibly time consuming but the amazing footage that they get makes the effort very worthwhile.

The Runner thought of quite a few one-line jokes to go with this footage. Can you think of any?

The Magic Carnivore Tree - Bobcat, Coyote, Fox, and Lion All Visit

Some of you may remember the big pine tree where mountain lions have marked repeatedly this winter.

You might remember this guy kicking off the marking season back in November.

Since then, the mountain lions have paraded to this spot. Each male has left his own mark in almost the same place as all the other lions.

Other carnivore species have visited as well. Here is a bobcat, small in stature but large in spirit.

As he departed the spot, he looked regally in the direction of the camera.

The next visitor was a coyote who brazenly urinated directly over the lions' scent.

The coyote was very wary, fleeing toward the cover of the forest a couple of times (as you'll see in the video). Here, he stood still to listen for danger. I bet that he smelled the recent markings left by lions who could easily kill him.

Finally, one of the kings of our forest visited just a couple of nights ago. He marked in almost the identical spot as the first lion back in November!

My trail cameras record video, which I put together into a single video of the visits of all of these animals. You can watch it here or over at Youtube.

Happy Wildlife Monday!

Bold Lions out in Daylight

Mountain lions are cruising our forest frequently and boldly. Unlike usual, they've even been nearby during the day.

At a mountain lion marking site where big males have left deep scrapes in the ground, a young mountain lion stopped to sniff. First, she sniffed the ground.

Then, she sniffed the air. Soon, she was back to air scenting with her long lithe neck craned to get her nose as high as possible. The wind was wildly whooshing out of the west, and she clearly smelled something. In fact, it might have been Shyla and me. We were generally upwind of her at about that time.

Then, she bore a hole in the camera with a stare.

Two things make me think that she's young and a female. First, you can faintly see her kitten spots under her fur. They are more obvious in the video. As for being a female, I am basing that on the fact that she did not mark this spot. I think that a male would have.

It was so cool to watch her bound away in a kittenish way. I have *never* seen an adult mountain lion do anything but a lumbering walk.

Just two days later, a mature male mountain lion showed up at the old elk carcass from almost a month ago. Look at the size of his paws!

He meticulously sniffed every detail on the ground, and then he sniffed the carcass.

I'm betting that his cat has a kill nearby. He headed further downhill with a purposeful gait when he departed. Moreover, look at that full stomach hanging downward.

I think that he's a male because he left two marking scrapes out of view of the camera. Usually, males mark and females don't. Also, his bulk makes me think that he's a male.

I made a video of the visits of these two mountain lions to my camera sites which you can watch here or at Youtube. If for no other reason. watch it to see the young mountain lion bound away. It was amazing to see!

Happy Wildlife Monday!

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!

A Curious Mountain Lion

I know a clearing in the woods that mountain lions visit frequently. It's on a saddle of a ridge so it's a natural spot for them to cross the ridge. A huge old Ponderosa Pine tree spreads its limbs on that saddle, and mountain lions like to mark their territory by scraping (with their hind paws) in the pine needles under it.

I know all of this because I have had trail cameras in that spot for years. Last year, I started getting worried because my rate of mountain lion sightings had gone way down. I'd gotten no mountain lion photos at that site in about a year. I worried that the lion population had plummeted for some reason.

This was a photo of a mountain lion in that clearing.

Then, one day as I rode my mountain bike through the woods, a cylindrical object on the forest floor caught my eye. I stopped, thinking that it was trash that I should pick up. After I examined it, I saw that it was an electronic device made by a wildlife company. I also saw tooth marks in the neoprene sleeve covering it.

I brought it home and Googled it. To my surprise, it was a light-sensitive device that made animal calling noises when it was dark outside. My reading told me that it was frequently used by photographers to entice wildlife to visit their cameras.

I thought, "What the heck? I've scarcely gotten any mountain lion photos in the past year. It's worth trying it to see what happens.". I put it on that ridge saddle, under the Ponderosa Pine. At first, not much happened except that the darn thing burned through batteries at a surprising rate.

Then, I found a series of videos on one of the trail cams on that saddle. It was a mountain lion who was intrigued by the device.

I thought that it was cool to get to see so much behavior by the mountain lion as he checked out the device and eventually took it away! The funny part, to me, is that theft by a mountain lion is probably why the device was lying on the forest floor to start with (remember that I said it had teeth marks on it?). Now, the device is floating around in the forest again...

Enjoy the video!

More Mountain Lion Action

Yesterday was devoted mostly to trying to keep our black dog calm and not-too-unhappy. I can't blame him for feeling upset. He just went through this same thing so very recently. What he doesn't know is that this episode should be much shorter - assuming that the pathology reports are not bad.

In the meantime, I spent some time sorting through the 200 GB of footage that I have so far of animals eating the elk carcass. For today, I'll share mountain lion footage. No other mammals, like coyotes, dared to go near the carcass while the mountain lion was still interested in it.

In the video, you'll first see one of our favorite dog friends check out the carcass and try to eat a little of it before sprinting back to his human. Then, you'll see the mountain lion arrive for his second night of eating. The contrast between the Lab's size and the mountain lion's size is stunning to me.

The mountain lion was always very wary while at the carcass. He'd stop eating to scan his surroundings regularly. I'm not sure if he'd be so wary if he weren't close to humans. He did one bout of eating from nightfall until 7PM. Then he returned at 4AM and ate for an hour. I wonder if his umbilical hernia limits how much he can eat in one bout because it must hurt if his intestines get full.

His strength awes me. When he first arrived both times, it looked as if he tried to move the elk but couldn't pull it uphill. If it were a smaller prey item or if a secluded spot were downhill, I'm sure that the lion would have opted to move the carcass to a safer spot.

Finally, when he departed at 5AM, he covered the carcass with snow, using his mammoth paws to throw snow backward onto the carcass.

Enjoy the peek into a mountain lion's life in the video.

A Mountain Lion Kill

The other morning, my friend called to tell me that there was a dead elk on her land. She'd seen the carcass as she drove out for the day and asked if I'd go take a look to see if I could tell what had killed the elk.

I went to have a look. I saw the carcass almost right away based on her description of the location, and I stopped to scan the world around it to see if any predators were around. I didn't see anything scary so I went closer.

It was a cow elk. It was partially covered by snow and debris but the body was completely intact. It was obvious to me that the covering was intentional. Based on that clue, I immediately was sure that a mountain lion had killed her. Then I saw the mountain lion tracks in the snow, confirming my conclusion. It was a fast and precise kill, probably a severed spinal cord, that left no blood in the snow.

I took a few steps backward and again scanned the world around me. Was the mountain lion watching me? Was he nearby? Was he up high in the trees that were next to me? I couldn't see him but I imagined that I could feel his eyes boring into my back.

Seeing no danger, I turned back to the carcass, and my heart broke for the cow elk and her calf. I could see that she was lactating and her calf had been nursing up until the time of her death. I wanted to cry for that calf who surely wasn't too far away and for the mother who surely didn't want to leave her calf behind.

I pushed those thoughts aside so that I could work quickly. I had come prepared with trail cameras to document the predators or scavengers who would consume the carcass. It comforts me to some extent to know that other animals will flourish due to this windfall of calories and nutrition. I quickly set up the cameras, and I departed.

I picked up the memory cards from the cameras yesterday at midday. They told me that the mountain lion who killed the elk arrived a couple of hours after I set up the cameras. I was astounded to see from the trail camera photos that he arrived in daylight because this was a spot very close to a road and houses.

He was very wary, constantly scanning the world around him.

In between his nervous scanning, he started to work on the carcass. First he removed a lot of fur. Then, he had to break through the outer body wall. That takes great strength that you can almost sense in the next photo.

He stopped to scan again. When I saw this photo, I realized that I know this cat. He's been traveling through our area for at least a year. He has a distinctive abdominal bulge that you can see in this photo. I'm not sure what it is - but I do know that he seems as strong and as healthy as ever so it isn't preventing him from hunting and thriving.

This photo gives you a good sense of the relative sizes of the lion and the elk. The elk was at least twice as big as the lion, yet the lion took her down seemingly with ease.

This photo shows you how close to people he was. Do you see the vehicle behind him?

He took a break from eating after a while, and he stopped to pose for my camera briefly as he left to rest.

I also have a camera recording video, and I'll share that video very soon. I think that he'll be working on this carcass for a while if nothing goes awry.

I feel privileged to be able to see this secret life of our forest's fiercest predator. I promise that I'll share more of this episode in future posts.

Mountain Lions on the Prowl Again

Cougars have been moving silently through our forests over the past few weeks. It's interesting timing because I'm finding myself out in the forest in the dark more often than ever. I wear a headlamp and scan for glowing eyes all the time. Yet, I'm not really scared - I'm just taking ordinary precautions. I'm glad that something bigger and fiercer than me is out in the forest. It changes the prevalent feeling that humans rule the world because I certainly don't even rule the forest around my house. And, I like it that way.

I am not certain if our feline activity is from one or two mountain lions. At least one of them looks young to me. He still has faint bars on the inside of his front legs, suggesting that he's a young adult. I'm not certain if he's still loosely traveling with his mother or not.

In the video below, you'll see a transition in scene about 38 seconds into the video. There was a mountain lion captured by one camera at 4:51 PM, and then another lion captured by a cam at least a half mile away 5 minutes later. That was a very fast walk for a mountain lion. They usually saunter along, at a fairly slow pace (2 mph or so), as you can see from watching them walk. That timing was what made me feel more strongly that it might be two mountain lions rather than one.

In any case, it is very exciting to have mountain lions so active in our neck of the woods again. After almost a year's hiatus, the forests are alive with our biggest predator once again!

The video is very short (a minute or so) but it lets us see an unprecedented (for me) amount of video of these animals moving naturally around their territory.

I am wondering if the mountain lion(s) in the video might be this mother lion with her kitten. Last winter, almost all the lions in our area had their GPS collars removed, which would explain why she had a collar last summer but not now. I know from the GPS study that this female tended to make big moves from one side of a canyon to another once or twice per year, living on one side of the canyon without crossing it for up to a year. If one of her kittens is still with her after spending a year on the other side of the canyon, he'd be almost a full adult, which would fit with what we're seeing in the video.

I know it may be a pipedream but I am hoping that this mother mountain lion has returned to our neck of the woods to finish raising her kitten and perhaps to give birth to a new litter! Do you see the spotted kitten just in front of her?

As I said in a recent post, our country is unique in the vast open spaces that we've preserved and in our acceptance of some predators living among us. Now, it's time for those of us who value the wildness of our amazing country to step up and help preserve our environment. Let's keep some of our country open and wild so that large predators can continue to flourish.

As the Mountain Lion World Turns

As many of you know, I adore following our wild cats: bobcats and mountain lions. Last summer, we had a mother mountain lion who had small kittens in our neck of the woods.

This was my first glimpse of one of them. The spotted kitten is in front of his mother.

Very soon, his sibling caught up and is by his mother's hind legs in the photo.

These photos were in a dark forested area. Just a short time later, the family passed through a brightly lit area where my cam captured color photos of them. In this photo, mom is just leaving the frame and a kitten is behind her.

The kitten dawdled a little, probably sniffing the tree - which is a tree that is frequently marked by bears.

That was the last that I saw of the family. In fact, my trail cams captured no photos of mountain lions for a long time - a fact that left me very concerned about our wild cats.

Now, many months later, mountain lions have returned to our area. I seem to be capturing photos of them at least once per week. Phew!

In the interim, the study that was following lions wearing GPS collars ended. The researchers tried to capture all the lions in the study last winter to remove their collars. They did a pretty good job although there is at least one lion in our neck of the woods who is still wearing a collar.

One pair that I've gotten photos of has intrigued me because it could be a kitten and a mother from that family photographed last summer. They may have moved to another niche in our area for the past year.

The first set of photos was of a youngish looking lion. He came up a hill toward my trail cam.

Like most young lions I've seen in this spot, the scents of the animal marking post next to him caused him to freeze and sniff. Note the very black "mustache" spot above his mouth - that's one sign that he's young.


Another sign is that his body doesn't look proportioned normally yet. His legs look too short for the rest of him.

Nonetheless, he looks extremely strong and healthy. He's about the right age to be nearing the end of his time with his mother. He's also about the right age to be one of those tiny kittens who we saw more than a year ago in the first photos of this post.

Later that evening, a larger lion who had the proportions of an adult walked past the trail cam very fast.

I suspect that this is his mother. At the kitten's age, the mother will leave him with the carcass of their last kill while she goes hunting for their next meal.

I really wish that I'd captured photos of them together. I will be watching and hoping that I do!

A Curious Mountain Lion

We had an exciting couple of days at a scent post in the forest nearby. The scent post is on a saddle of a ridge, and it has a huge Ponderosa Pine in the middle of it. It's been exceptionally quiet for months, and then there was suddenly a flurry of activity.

First, a very curious but seemingly timid mountain lion spent a few minutes checking out the site. He looked small from this point of view.

He sniffed around very carefully.

He paced in and out of the field of view. The he (or she - I don't know which) marked the ground behind the tree.

And then the lion walked onward. In this view, You can see that the lion was big but probably young. The bar on the inside of his/her front right limb is probably a vestige of kitten markings.

When I looked at more photos taken by that camera, I discovered that a small herd of elk had crowded into the clearing. One was a calf that must have been born very late this year because he still has spots! By this time of year, the calves' spots have usually disappeared.

I also saw that a red fox had come through the clearing. He looks tiny compared to the other animals who had been there.

I made a video of the mountain lion's almost two minutes prowling around the clearing which you can watch here or at Youtube.

Seeing that video made me smile!