Please note, images and descriptions in this post may upset some readers.
Earlier this month we noticed a large bull elk that was deceased behind our off site cabin, Little Bear. It was huge, a large 8×6, and was dead and partially buried under a spruce tree right on the banks of Fall River. There was some fur missing on its neck and it’s nose had some wounds and was bloodied.
I was certain it was a lion kill as it had all the signs. The only thing that made me second guess was the size of the bull. There are plenty of smaller prey that the lion could have targeted and I would have assumed that a lion wouldn’t risk the battle with a bull of this size. We also found tracks on the frozen and snow covered river that confirmed it was a mountain lion.
I quickly ran and grabbed my Stealth Cam from the mountainside behind the lodge and set up on on a bench that was maybe 5 yards from the kill. Within an hour we had confirmation that it was, in fact, a lion kill. But it was a little frustrating as the lion noticed the camera and, upon inspection, knocked the bench over. We had a close up picture of the head and ears of the lion, and then a couple of pics of the sky! The camera takes three photos when triggered, so that’s all we had.
My daughter and I were at dinner at The Post (yummy, by the way) so we ducked out quickly to run back and set the camera up again. Then the same thing happened. About 10 minutes after setting the bench back up, the cat knocked it over again. They are very curious animals and are known to have many of the same behaviors as your typical house cat.
We set it up one more time but in my haste, I didn’t get the angle of the camera set correctly and we got no more photos that night. It was pretty eerie righting the bench in the dark knowing that a mountain lion was so close, so I didn’t take the time to make sure the angle was perfect.
The next morning we went over and strapped the camera to a tree and got some wonderful photos and videos of this beautiful creature. As well as some of the scavenging coyotes that helped themselves to a snack.
Click on the image to see a larger version:
