A young mountain lion that had been spotted sleeping in a planter box along a normally busy street and looking at his reflection in the glass of an office tower in downtown San Francisco was safely captured and released into the wild.
The big cat weighing more than 100 pounds came within 10 feet of the hunter before he shot it.
Scientists tracking the mountain lions have found that roadways are largely trapping animals in the Santa Monica Mountains, which run along the Malibu coast and across the middle of Los Angeles to Griffith Park.LOS ANGELES – A male mountain lion that successfully crossed a 10-lane freeway in Los Angeles two months ago was struck and killed Saturday on the same…
Latest confirmation came from a trail camera set up on public land in Delta County.
The study found that wolves accounted for 32% of adult female elk deaths and 28% of elk calf deaths, while cougars accounted for 35% of adult female elk deaths and 45% of elk calf deaths.
But largest was a bruiser that tipped the scales at over 160 pounds.
Research suggests that lion hunters tend to kill older cougars, which happen to be specialists at feeding on elk. However, the numbers of younger lions that tend to eat deer are largely left unchanged.
A necropsy report said the cat that attacked Travis Kauffman was male, 4 or 5 months old and weighed 35 to 40 pounds. Kauffman eventually suffocated the animal.
Widespread extermination of wolves, cougars early last century meant elk herds able to grow in size, eating away willow plants and other vegetation along park’s streams, causing erosion damage. But in recent years, resurgent populations of wolves and cougars have restored the park’s natural balance by knocking back elk numbers and changing the herds’ behaviors.
But state wildlife officials say that because the big cats have all been spotted at night and haven’t attacked anyone, it’s not a public safety concern.
The rare sighting caught on a field cam verified in Gogebic County.
Hunters say they’ve seen the problem coming for years, ever since a ballot initiative in 1994 outlawed the use of hounds to hunt cougars.
The season will provide a harvest opportunity for up to eight mountain lions in two sub-units within the Pine Ridge of northwestern Nebraska.
Rich Beausoleil, the state’s bear and cougar specialist, said it was only the second fatality in the state in the last 94 years.
The mountain lion like this one was spotted in the eastern Los Angeles County community of Azusa, near the San Gabriel Mountains wilderness.AZUSA, Calif. — A mountain lion roamed through backyards in a neighborhood outside Los Angeles before wildlife officers tranquilized it. The lion was spotted Monday morning in the eastern Los Angeles County community of Azusa, near the San…
The mountain lion like this one was spotted in the eastern Los Angeles County community of Azusa, near the San Gabriel Mountains wilderness.SILVERTON, Ore. — Oregon wildlife officials say they were forced to trap and euthanize a cougar after several reported sightings of the animals in and around the town of Silverton. “The cougar was euthanized (last week) because it…
Doug Dufford, wildlife disease and invasive species program manager at the Illinois DNR, says there’s “a good possibility that we will see more cougar sightings going forward.”FRISCO, Colo. — A study by a Colorado university found that although mountain lions normally avoid human contact, they are willing to push past their fear when they are hungry. The Colorado State University…
State carnivore research scientist Brian Kertson called the cat a monster. He said it’s so muscular that the first tranquilizer dart he shot at it popped out as the cat flexed.
One of several cougar sightings in recent months, this animal was recorded on a security camera during the early morning hours of Feb. 7 as it crossed a walkway in front of the residence.
“Mountain lions interact way more regularly and predictably than we ever thought before.”
It is unknown whether this cougar is the same animal photographed on multiple trail cameras in central Wisconsin between early August and late October 2017.
It’s not unheard of for a mountain lion to travel such long distances.PIERRE, S.D. – The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) Commission did not adopt a proposal that would have expanded the use of hounds to hunt mountain lions, the agency said in a news release Tuesday, Nov. 7. The initial request, through the citizen petition process, asked…
Populations appear to be increasing, raising questions about what is and what could become cougar country.
Single animal is captured in a video and photo from two separate trail cameras.
Division of Wildlife Resources models estimate there are between 1,900 and 4,000 adult cougars living in the state.
It is only the fourth known successful crossing of the 101 in the 15 years that researchers have been studying the big cats in the Santa Monica Mountains. The freeway and other roads are life-threatening to the region’s lions – 17 documented road kills since 2002.
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