This beast of a mountain lion stopped by a desert waterhole for a long drink last week. This summer’s monsoon rainfall in SE Arizona was well below normal, so water sources are few and far between. This spot not only provides water for top predators, but also mice, various bird species, deer, skunks, ringtail cats, and more… #waterforwildlife
Tag: Mountain Lion
Mountain lion romance?
First, a female mountain lion passed by the seep and scrape site. A few days later, a big male maintain lion passed by. Hoping for kiddoes next year!
More Mountain Lion Action
This location, it turns out, is not just a random mountain lion scrape, but a latrine where several mountain lions (at least two, maybe three), regularly check scents and mark their presence. The latest was this big male mountain lion.
Two bears and a mountain lion
Two bears and a mountain lion passed by this cam in the span of three hours. At 4:08 p.m. a mountain lion makes a scrape. At 5:37 p.m. a big black bear goes by and smells the fresh scrape. At 6:42 p.m. the mountain lion returns and makes another scrape. At 7:06 p.m. a smaller black bear walks by and stops to smell the fresh scrape. I find it fascinating how close in time these two wild predators came to running into each other.
Sky Island Mountain Lions
Over the last few weeks there’s been an increase in mountain lion captures on my trail cams. The following videos are from two different Arizona mountain ranges. It’s important to note that mountain lions in the Arizona deserts and sky islands often look “skinny.” However, this is a normal mountain lion body type in this region. They are healthy and have plenty of prey.
Mountain lion Flehmen response
About three months ago I was checking a camera I had set on an often-used bear wallow. Not far from the wallow, on the trail, was a fairly fresh mountain lion scrape. I decided to move the trail cam from the wallow and mount it on a tree looking at the scrape. This is one of the scenes captured by the trail cam:
Mountain lion and sub-adult kitten
On a recent camera check I found that something had dragged a skunk carcass near the camera (not me). The carcass attracted some attention from a coati, turkey vultures, and a mountain lion and her sub-adult offspring:
Mountain Lions
One of my new camera trap locations recently caught an adult female mountain lion and one of her yearling offspring:
Camera Trapping
Camera traps are one of the best ways to observe wildlife behavior that you’d likely not see because it’s either dark out or your presence would alter the animals behavior. I bought my first camera trap around 2005 and was instantly addicted. I had no idea there were such shenanigans happening when I wasn’t around.
Now, in 2019, I have about 10 personal cameras set up in the desert around my home town, Tucson, including my backyard. I also have another 10 cameras set up at Audubon’s Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch near Elgin, Arizona. We use these cameras for long-term wildlife monitoring, recording which animals and how often pass through the research ranch.
In this post I’d like to share some backyard wildlife action my cameras recently captured.
A bobcat:
A coopers hawk:
A bat catching a sphinx moth at a cactus flower:
And a cute little western screech owl:
Mountain Lions of 2018
While I am still in Costa Rica, I wanted to share a short video of many, but not all, of the mountain lions my trail cameras captured in 2018. Not sure how many individuals are represented here, though I’m thinking around 8 or 9, based off location and physical characteristics. Feel free to comment if you have a guess or know an easy way to visually distinguish individuals. Enjoy!
My Earth 