Mountain Lion

About a Mountain Lion's stealthy-ness, Teddy Roosevelt was once reputed as saying ..frustrated while hunting .."They're cowardly animals, they won't come out so that I can shoot them!".

I can't actually find specific evidence that he actually said that..but it's a good quote and Roosevelt was a good role model for a President..in fact ..couldn't we use a Teddy Roosevelt today?

In Oct 2006 ..as we walked our project here, we came upon what I recognized as a large male Mountain Lion's (cougar) tracks. I don't have a small fist ..and as much as I can hold out my fist and fan my fingers wide out, it was that large. I took pictures but/and lo and behold, my camera was liberated from me while in the backseat of our rental car.

Only a few months after moving here in 2007 ..we spotted very close-by ..what appeared to be female mountain lions tracks and what appeared to be 2 cubs!

Reputedly and in our lower Rio Chama Valley ..which is approximately 120 square miles of high desert surrounding mountains and creeks and rivers flowing from them ..that is the territory of 1 male lion and a couple to 3 females and cubs of his!

That same year..there were sightings of a male in Ojo Caliente (12.7 miles) where they actually caught a picture of him in a tree, El Rito (12 miles) and right here in Prado Valley ..less than 2 miles away.

Last year 2011, must have been the year of the mountain lion, as I actually saw 2 dead on the highway 84 very near us ...meaning that there were many..many ...that you could not see, overpopulated even! When I circled back to take another look, a guy was loading it in the back of his pick-up for unknown reasons.

My real..and close up and personal Mountain Lion experience has to do with perceptions!

Many times when in the back country, I pack a .38 Special for the fact that it sounds like a cannon and actually spits fire from the muzzle when it's fired. That..plus it's titanium and very light-weight. I have it for deterrence and felt very secure sleeping in a tent with it up by my head ready for 'action'.

If anyone had wanted to bet me that in this situation, and that there was a Mountain Lion 100 yards away ..who was dedicated in attacking me ..I perceived myself secure in betting any amount that the chances were 100% ...that I could deter it's attack!

Three years ago, almost to the day, I was accompanied by a very experienced back-country guy on a backpacking adventure of the Continental Divide Trail between the Villages of Coyote and Cuba, New Mexico ..and thru the San Pedro Parks Wilderness area, which is possibly the largest concentration of Mountain Lions in our state ..depending upon what you're reading.

I had targeted the Forest Service's San Pedro Park Wilderness map that year, as the prettiest picture of a Mountain Lion I had seen:

At dusk at 10,500 feet in elevation, and with my com-padre snoring at a decibel level to completely prevent me from sleeping..I was gazing up thru the vent in my tent, looking at the big dipper when all of a sudden I heard a vigorous rustling off in the woods 100 yards or so away!

As my brain said to itself, "OMG..it's getting closer!" ..and at that exact instant..a beast flew over my tent ..and there was a scream next to me!

The next morning my associate and I determined that a Mountain Lion had chased a small deer thru our campsite, and that the deer took to the air, over my tent and our campfire ..and that in choosing the ground route around my tent and the fire ..the Mountain Lion has lost the chase and screamed out of frustration! The tracks in our immediate surroundings had shown this. In addition, and not 5 yards away, there was a mostly consumed wild turkey carcass ..fresh ..lying there!

Anyone can certainly imagine that the lion sat there, forced to be satisfied with that turkey..cussing at us, who had prevented it from capturing that deer! That night, I had kept the fire going..in such an eventuality not sleeping ..and especially not dreaming that that Lion sat only yards away watching my arm extent out to toss another log on the fire!

The morel of this true story that this non military combat veteran would now guesstimate my chances at deterring that lion, 100 yards away at 0%!!!..YES 0%%%!

My mistake, combat vets tell me, was allowing my brain to say .."OMG..it's getting closer!"!

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