Tag: mountain lion

Mountain lion seems to be ‘seeing stars’ after dog owner kicks it

A man walking his small dog in Boulder, Colorado, was confronted by a mountain lion that apparently saw the dog as its next meal.

A man walking his small dog in Boulder, Colorado, on Thursday night was confronted by a mountain lion that apparently saw the dog as its next meal.

The cougar crossed the street and walked toward Juan Gutierrez, who was walking his 14-year-old Pomeranian mix named Riley, as reported by KDVR.

“I’m pretty sure he (Riley) thought it was another dog,” Gutierrez told KDVR in an on-camera interview. “I yelled to stay back, and I yelled it four to five times and nothing, the cat doesn’t hesitate.”

With the mountain lion still approaching, Gutierrez tried something else.

“I just flashed a light at its face and once it was too distracted, I kicked him,” he said. “He looked at me and then he looked up towards the sky. I don’t know if he was seeing stars or something.”

Gutierrez then slowly retreated with the dog, and without further incident.

Credit: KDVR

Gutierrez is convinced it is the same mountain lion that was reported walking the streets a half-mile away two nights before.

While inside his car, Evan Price captured video of that cougar strolling near 16th and Iris Avenue, as reported by KDVR.

That mountain lion appeared to be limping. Some suspect it was seeking an easy meal, in this case Riley.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife told KDVR that its personnel were unable to locate the mountain lion after the encounter with the man and his dog.

For Riley, it was another survival story. The dog has previously survived a black bear attack, a dog attack, and cancer. And now, a potential mountain lion attack.

Feature photo courtesy of Evan Price via KDVR.

Watch: Rescued mountain lion cub snuggles with ‘perfect plushy’

The tiny cougar, being cared for by the Oakland Zoo, is shown taking comfort in the companionship of its super-soft stuffed dog.

The Oakland Zoo has shared adorable footage of its newly acquired mountain lion cub snuggling with its favorite toy and comfort item – a plushy stuffed dog.

“The perfect plushy just hits different!” the zoo exclaimed via social media.

Footage shows Briar, who was rescued in early August after being found without a mom in El Dorado County, is shown cozying up to and napping briefly upon the stuffy’s shoulders.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DALzHKIPf_d/

Briar was 4 or 5 weeks old when he was rescued – a search failed to turn up its mom – and will be cared for by the Oakland Zoo until a forever home can be found.

One of the top comments: “Thank you, for everything you’ve done for Briar. I still think of Mama.”

Cougar kills family cat, returns 9 hours later in haunting visit

Video shows the mountain lion peering through a glass door during the day and night, perhaps eyeing the 5-year-old inside as prey.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story included a graphic video. It has been removed.

A mountain lion killed a family cat, peered through a glass door in the back of the house and then, in a haunting visit, returned nine hours later when it banged its head against the same glass door.

The frightening encounter occurred last month outside Calgary, Alberta, around noon just after Jessica Low had made lunch for her 5-year-old daughter, as reported by OkotoksOnline. The girl had spotted something in the backyard.

“Within about a minute of sitting her down, she cried out to me that, ‘[Oreo] is dead,’” Low told OkotoksOnline. “I shot up off the couch to see what she was talking about and there was a cougar coming right up to the window with our dead cat in its mouth.”

The cougar pawed at the window and hissed, perhaps eyeing the girl as prey.

Low captured video of the scary ordeal and it was posted on the natureismetal Instagram account.

A call to the Alberta Fish and Wildlife Enforcement prompted officers to go to the house and look around, but they were unable to locate the mountain lion. They did remove Oreo’s body, hoping it would deter the cougar from returning.

But it did return around 9 p.m., and this time Low’s older daughter was the first to see it.

“It came back to the window and was banging its head up against the glass and kind of stared at me while I came towards it, and as I got closer it turned around and ran off,” Low told OkotoksOnline. “Fish and Wildlife said that they think it was kind of testing the glass, which is why it was bumping its head against the glass, which is pretty scary.”

Fish and Wildlife personnel returned to the house but again failed to locate the animal. They returned the next day and set traps in hopes of capturing the cougar. It is not known if they eventually caught the mountain lion.

Related: Man calmly videos cougar walking past him; ‘I had bear spray ready’

But less than two weeks later, 10 miles from the attack outside Low’s home, a Foothills resident came face-to-face with a cougar, which attacked his dog. Jakob Strasser returned home and heard a commotion at this front gate just before 8 p.m., according to the Calgary Herald.

“I ran up to it, had nothing in my hands, and I just screamed at the cougar,” he told the Herald.

The cougar dropped the small dog, which sustained injuries but survived. It remains unknown whether it was the same attacking cougar.

“We are next to the Ann & Sandy Cross Conservation Area, so we know that they [predators] are potentially around here, but we’ve been out here for about two and a half years, we have a camera on our door, and we’ve never seen anything at night, let alone during the day,” Low told OkotoksOnline.

“I would just not in a million years think that a cougar would come out in the middle of the day.”

She told the Herald, “Cougars around here are just getting bolder.”

Mountain biker mistakes a house cat for a cougar in attack from tree

A mountain biker reported being attacked by a mountain lion that jumped on him from a tree as he rode by, causing scratches to his leg.

A mountain biker reported being attacked by a mountain lion that jumped on him from a tree as he rode by, causing scratches to his leg. Turns out, it was a case of mistaken identity.

The 19-year-old was riding on James Way in Arroyo Grande, California, when the encounter occurred last Wednesday, according to the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

Wildlife officers investigated the incident and took some of the victim’s clothes and bicycle helmet to the Wildlife Forensic Laboratory in Sacramento for DNA testing, which began on Sunday.

By Monday morning, lab technicians had properly identified the feline.

“Lab results came back not with evidence of a cougar, but domestic cat DNA instead,” the The Tribune stated.

“Mountain lion DNA was not detected on any of the samples,” Patrick Foy, a captain with California Fish and Wildlife’s law enforcement division, told The Tribune.

Foy told The Tribune that the victim declined any medical treatment.

“Only 24 mountain lion attacks on humans have been reported since 1984,” The Tribune reported. “The majority of incidents were nonfatal, although in four cases in El Dorado, San Diego and Orange counties, victims died. No cases have been reported in San Luis Obispo County, however an attack in Gaviota State Park in Santa Barbara occurred in 1992.”

Generic photo of a real mountain lion courtesy of the Pocatello Police Department.

Rare sight as cougar hauls deer across Colorado ‘backyard’

Colorado Parks and Wildlife explained that the mountain lion was “on its way to cache (or store) its food.”

A Colorado resident has captured extraordinary footage showing a mountain lion hauling its deer kill across a meadow in Larimer County.

“Our Backyard. Glacier View Meadows, Livermore, CO,” Shari Fortson described Friday via X.

Mountain lions, or cougars, commonly prey on deer. But the cats are most active at dawn and dusk so predation events are rarely witnessed.

In the footage, the mountain lion pauses occasionally as if to rest or obtain a better grip on the carcass.

Fortson’s video was shared by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department, which remarked: “This is a rare look at a mountain lion on its way to cache (or store) its food. The lion will return to their cache over the next few days to continue eating.”

The most popular comment beneath Fortson’s post was in reference to the cougar: “Looks more like his backyard.”

Glacier View Meadows is a rural paradise near the Arapaho National Forest along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains.

–Generic cougar image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Extremely rare cougar sighting documented in Missouri

Missouri biologists say the recent sighting of a mountain lion in Shannon County was only the 117th known sighting in the state since 1994.

Biologists in Missouri have confirmed that a mountain lion did, in fact, kill an elk in Shannon County on Sept. 12.

The confirmation is newsworthy because there are no known breeding populations of mountain lions in Missouri.

In fact, the latest sighting – confirmed via trail cameras positioned near the elk carcass – was only the 117th known cougar sighting in the state since 1994.

The Missouri Department of Conservation explained Friday that all sightings likely involved animals that were passing through the state.

The predation of an adult elk, the MDC added, was not considered abnormal.

“Mountain lions are natural predators to elk, and this scenario is nothing to be concerned about,” biologist Nate Bowersock stated in a news release. “Here in Missouri, we have an abundant of natural foods for mountain lions. While we do get questions regarding livestock, there has never been a confirmed instance of a mountain lion killing livestock in Missouri.”

While mountain lions inhabited Missouri at the time of European settlement, “the last known historical specimen was killed in the Bootheel area in 1927.”

The nearest states in which mountain lions do exist include Wyoming, Colorado, North and South Dakota, and Texas.

Biologists collected genetic samples from the site of the Sept. 12 sighting in the hope of learning more about the animal.

–Mountain lion image atop this post is generic

Cougar pursues coyote past trail camera, audio reveals likely result

Recent trail-cam footage showing a mountain lion hunting a coyote is reminiscent of a similar but more dramatic scene captured last fall.

On Monday we featured trail-cam footage showing a mountain lion’s successful nighttime hunt in the Southern California wilderness.

The mountain lion, or cougar, was shown following a coyote past the camera and returning minutes later with its kill. The footage revealed a predator-prey interaction that plays out routinely on trails when most people are in their beds.

It’s also reminiscent of a similar but more dramatic scene also captured via trail-cam in eastern Orange County. (See video below.)

In Nathalie Orozco’s footage, captured last fall, the coyote is shown trotting down a trail and a stealthy mountain lion sensing opportunity. The ambush occurs in the darkness beyond the camera’s infrared light, but audio reveals the likely result.

Mark Girardeau, who featured the footage on Orange County Outdoors, stated:

“Just before entering the frame, the mountain lion noticed the coyote and went into action to secure his next meal. Notice how the mountain lion pounces quietly rather than sprinting.”

A scouting mission the next day turned up coyote fur but no carcass. Girardeau, who theorized that the cougar had hauled its kill off-trail, commented:

“Our guess is that the mountain lion was successful based on other nearby cameras which showed him hanging out in the area for the entire night afterwards.”

Coyote no match for stealthy cougar, as trail-cam footage shows

A trail camera in Southern California has captured surreal footage showing a mountain lion following a coyote into the darkness and returning minutes later with dinner.

A trail camera in Southern California has captured surreal footage showing a mountain lion pursuing a coyote into the darkness and returning minutes later with the coyote in its jaws.

Jason Andes, who owns the camera, states in the accompanying footage that the coyote walked past the camera at 10:15 p.m. on a recent night in eastern Orange County.

The mountain lion, or cougar, passed in the same direction 12 minutes later. It then passed the camera in the opposite direction 20 minutes later with a freshly killed coyote.

If there were cries by the coyote, they are not heard in the footage.

Andes wrote on YouTube:

“This Coyote met his fate after a Mountain lion was close behind. Mountain lions kill and eat Coyotes on a pretty regular basis.

“Mule Deer are their main prey, but Coyotes are not far behind. This is nature and a great look at how prey and predator have interactions.”

The footage was captured in Black Star Canyon in the Santa Ana Mountains.

The canyon is popular among hikers and mountain bikers, but at night its trails are utilized by nocturnal predators and prey.

Man calmly videos cougar walking past him; ‘I had bear spray ready’

While checking on his trail cameras, Mark Girardeau came face to face with a mountain lion as it strolled past him just feet away.

While checking on his trail cameras, wildlife photographer Mark Girardeau came face to face with a mountain lion as it strolled past him just feet away on a dirt road in the wilds of Orange County, California.

Calmly, Girardeau captured the close encounter in Trabuco Canyon on video.

“It was kind of a stalemate because I didn’t want to turn away and was hoping she would first, but she didn’t,” Girardeau told FOX 11.

“I filmed it as she ended up walking right by me. After that, I ended up having a second encounter with her, when I saw her from my car.”

Girardeau wasn’t totally defenseless, however. “I had bear spray ready,” he said at the end of the video while holding up the can.

Also on FTW Outdoors: Boy fishing from pool noodle lands big bass, but it ends in heartbreak (video)

Girardeau believed the collared cougar was one he knew as Uno, but wildlife officials have not confirmed its identity, according to FOX 11.

Yellowstone guide captures intriguing moment shared by cougar, elk

A tour guide in Yellowstone National Park on Monday captured a rare scene showing a mountain lion and bull elk coexisting peacefully within a small space.

A tour guide in Yellowstone National Park on Monday captured rare footage showing a mountain lion and bull elk coexisting within a small space.

Andrea Baratte, a guide for Yellowstone Adventure Tours, stated via Instagram that he was “still speechless” after the encounter.

Baratte explained that the mountain lion, or cougar, was sleepy after feasting on a bighorn sheep carcass since at least the day before.

The guide added: “The mountain lion had a full belly and was napping as this bull elk approached. Both were aware of each other. The cat never showed any interest.”

RELATED: Yellowstone wolf flees rival pack in ‘epic’ downhill chase

Mountain lion sightings are extremely rare in Yellowstone National Park, which boasts a population of about 40 animals spread across the northern range.

According to the park, mountain lions prey largely on mule deer and elk, along with smaller mammals such as marmots. Bears and wolves, the park added, often displace mountain lions from their kills.