Kat's Mountain Lion Photos (Trail Camera Photography)

Thanks again for letting me share these with you.

@Doug and Ian, I am organizing some info and more details about this little trail camera expedition I have been on. Thanks!

@Mark, I have been extremely lucky here and I know it. Just the fact that the pictures have gotten better and better is a blessing. This cat is the smaller one. I don't think it's skinny though. It's a bit stretched out in the first series I posted today, as it just came up a side trail.

@Sharon, I know about the Puma Foundation, but I have not been in touch with them.
My landlords are just as excited as me and just had me over to show them a slideshow on their big screen. They already offered to get some higher end cameras and to let me use one of their ATV's to go to the more remote trails on the ridge…..

@Craig, Hiking Malto and the others thanks so much.

@ Bob, sorry you did not have anything more exciting on there.

My daughter's first mountain lion, on our road. She got a good look at it; it climbed up the rocks on the side of the road, in the dark. I stopped and handed her the flashlight and she opened the window and pointed at it and it looked back at her …
This one had a collar on it. One of the ones the Puma Foundation has tagged and is tracking.
Another 30 yards and a bobcat jumped across the road too.

Saw this video today and thought about your cats

http://www.wimp.com/meetslions/

@Ian
I saw that. Very cool!

Kat,

Those pictures are the coolest. Thanks for sharing them!

Thanks Dave.
I just came back with many more pictures from the last couple of days, but none come close to the others :(
Many nighttime ones and a few at five thirty pm, half an hour after I was there…..but the lion came too close to the camera and I have dozens of shots like this

The others are hard to beat, but I like getting to know the pattern of this cat.

Approaching the camera; I have a hat with eyes on it, a dog, a hiking pole and….if you look closely I have my knife drawn in this picture. I only do that in this particular spot on the trail where the big cat seems to hang out a lot even in daylight :)

You've posted some great pictures here. Mountain lions can be scary – glad you are taking some precautions!

I've seen two mountain lions in the past two years. One from the safety of my car. And the other one on the trail. I had stopped to take a break near a small creek and a mountain lion came out from some brush on the other side and began growling at me. I suspect he may have just killed a deer (I had scared away a group of about five just a few minutes earlier). My dog (chow-spitz mix) immediately began whimpering and hid behind me and we slowly backed up and then basically ran out of there.

some scientists are tracking a cougarhere in LA in the hollywood hills where a cat roams.

I dunno. The shadows in that photo are all over the place, as though it was done with studio lighting. Suss, a bit suss.

Cheers

The cougars in Hollywood are a completely different species.

> The cougars in Hollywood are a completely different species.
Ah … yes, but do they wear collars quite like that? :-)

Cheers

http://www.panthera.org/node/4206

Really cool photos. Quite an accomplishment getting them.

I think it's natural to get a little nervous knowing their are mountain lions in the area, but the danger likely isn't as high as people might think.

There are perhaps 30,000 mountain lions in the U.S. http://mountainlion.org/FAQfrequentlyaskedquestions.asp

There have been about 8 people killed by cougars in the U.S. since 1980, about 33 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_cougar_attacks_in_North_America

So about .24 people are killed per year in the U.S. by cougars.

There are about 17,000 murders per year in the U.S.

About 1 out of 20,000 people commit a murder in a given year in the U.S.
http://bucktrack.blogspot.com/2011/02/bears-should-you-be-afraid.html

So for 30,000 people in the U.S. there would be about 1.5 murders in a year vs .24 deaths for 30,000 cougars.

I agree that the risk is not very high for the average person. Hiking daily on a trail that is visited several times a month by two mountain lions is a little different though. I still do it, but I believe the precautions I take and the bit of fear is not uncalled for.

I am going to go higher up the trail this afternoon. Ideally I would love to place the camera at the top of one of the steep trails with a beautiful ocean view. That would be a sweet shot :)
Wish me luck!!

"So for 30,000 people in the U.S. there would be about 1.5 murders in a year vs .24 deaths for 30,000 cougars."

Ah, but how many of those murders were committed by disappointed cougars…..

" have a hat with eyes on it, a dog, a hiking pole and….if you look closely I have my knife drawn in this picture."

Your dog is your best asset. He/she'll pick up the cat's scent and let you know there's one nearby by basically going nutso.

Kat, that almost looks like the hill above the coast.

–B.G.–

Something like that….

"Suss, a bit suss."

Anyone here have a translator for this? Best I can google, Suss = realize/grasp/investigate.

Is suss Oz for shenanigans?

Katharina,

Keep the pictures coming. This is one of my favorite BPL threads.

=suspicious/suspect?

"=suspicious/suspect?"

That'll work. Thanks.

These are from my two lower cameras, closer to the house. I have not checked up higher; it is getting too close to sunset …but I am hopeful.

Deleted for the time being. Sorry but People stealing my pics got to me. Will try to watermark.

Excellent work. I like the daylight shots better, but this is good for nighttime.

Geez, I wish the U.S. Army had something this good back forty-odd years ago. All we had were Starlight Scopes, and everything was green.

Now, go look back over your recent shots for the last few weeks and study the animals. Does it look like one animal that shows up time and time again? Or, do you have a whole pride of mountain lions haunting the area? I think that I've seen at least two mountain lions in your shots, but you probably have the high resolution images that may reveal more.

It appears that the exposure is more accurate when the animal is farther away. Can you say about what distance that is? Some trail cameras are more sensitive than others. Or, rather, some trail cameras emit a higher power of infrared light.

–B.G.–