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Saturday, December 20, 2014

Sunrise and Mountain Lions

Shyla and I plunged out into the frosty cold air this morning, with me on my snowbike and Shyla running. While we were close to home she stood tall and confident in the glow of the sunrise.
We didn't get much sun, just a brief burst, before it was obscured by the almost completely overcast sky. Shyla watched as the sun disappeared into the clouds.
After the sun faded behind the clouds, I pedaled up higher, to the general area where I've seen so many mountain lion tracks recently. Shyla seemed very worried. We didn't check any trail cameras but I suspect that the mountain lions were still around.

You may remember, in mid-October, that my trail cameras captured a mother-kitten mountain lion pair at multiple locations. Well, I was lucky enough to have the same thing happen again near the end of October. At that time, the mother-kitten pair were still together.

I made a video of their travels. They stopped at a couple of sites to play and to mark the territory. I find it amazing to see these tough predators let down their guard to interact with each other. You can watch the video here or at Youtube.


Note that on 12/1/14, a mountain lion who looked a lot like the mother in the pair was traveling alone. Because the kitten looked almost full grown at the end of October, I wouldn't be surprised if s/he has become independent.

Happy Saturday!

11 comments:

  1. hope the kitten does well on her own and mom, too.

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  2. The mountain lion shots are just stunning! Thanks for posting these amazing photos and videos. It makes a lot of us that live in the Eastern United States want to sell our houses, pack up and head West!

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  3. Nature is so amazing!! So are the winter sunrises in Shyla's eyes!

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  4. Loved seeing them interacting together...being able to relax and play. Hope the little one has a long and natural life.

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  5. More amazing photos!!
    Your having some nice sun,, and we have pouring down rain.
    love
    tweedles

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  6. Those videos are stunning. I notice the mother is wearing a radio collar. Do you know who is getting the signals? When I wrote about canned lions earlier this month I went back and forth between "kitten" and "cub" for baby lions…eventually went with cub as it seemed a common usage but kitten makes more sense to me. There are bear "cubs", but cats have "kittens"…from now on I'm going to use "kittens" too.

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  7. Beautiful Shyla! Those big cats are very cool.

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  8. Awesome video of the mountain lions.

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  9. This is just amazing footage!! We love your trail cams!

    Your Pals,

    Murphy & Stanley

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  10. Fantastic footage. I notice that the mountain lions are active at pretty much all times of the day and night is this normal? For some reason I assumed they were mostly nocturnal . Please excuse my ignorance lol.
    Kiersten

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