This is rather offbeat, but it does fit in with the “nature” and “puzzling things” portion of WUWT as indicated in the masthead.
These photos were emailed to me by the former Butte County Sheriff, Mick Grey, whom I have coffee with regularly. He’s had to deal with more than a few mountain lions in his career, and he’s never seen anything like this. Neither have I.
A woman who lives about 2-3 miles from Lake Oroville (about 25 miles southeast of my location) sent these pictures which were taken just 1 mile from Forbestown. A cow was found killed and the infrared trail cam (seen at left) was put in place to see what was preying on it.
[Correction: It seems both the Sheriff and I have been snookered by the person who emailed him. These photos are from Moses Coulee in central Washington. Thanks to WUWT reader Mark A. Story here:
http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2011/feb/18/cougar-pride-wenatchee-hunter-catches-eight-big/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014261221_cougars18m.html
My apologies to readers, however, the photos below are legit and still worth a look.]
You can count up to eight cats in one of the pictures. Who’d ever heard of eight cougars at a kill site? They’re starting to act more like a pride of lions than the solitary cougars they normally are.
Pictures follow. Here kitty kitty.
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Well that sure puts an end to moonlight strolls thereabouts.
Can I be the first to say ….duh??
Amazing. With current regulations I assume the cougar population is at historic highs there, as in many other areas. But to have that many scavenging a carcass suggests that the supply of deer is declining or other wise unavailable there.
In any case, this many cougars is plenty for livestock raisers to worry about, particularly if their natural prey is scarce. One got a horse, two llamas, a calf and a dog near our place last year.
Oh, wait. Silly me. That unusual concentration of cougars must have been caused by AGW. Probably climate refugees or something. They must be going extinct. And they are probably the rare Lake Oroville Cougar, thus requiring a new task force to be established to save them. Like the Sacramento Valley Fox.
I think? it’s obvious she is feeding them, they didn’t drag the cow down in front of the camera.
Lots of cats though, wow.
REPLY: As I understand it the cow was killed, they noted it and put out the cam, this is the second night when the cats came back for the spoils. Even eight cats couldn’t drag away a cow, even if they cooperated. – A
This is why we used to have a bounty on them. They breed almost as fast as coyotes. pg
A neighbor of mine in Golden, Colorado caught a photo of 5 mountain lions all laying down on a rocky slope at different heights in his back yard. It was scene that might have been filmed in Africa.
it is amazing to realize, that a 150 pound animal can take down a 1000 pound horse! just happened recently in Maple Ridge, just north of Vancouver. I understand they do it by waiting in a tree, and pouncing on the prey’s neck.
Same pictures were in the news up in Washington about 5 days ago. Seems these cougar photos are likely from near Moses Coulee in central Washington on 23 Dec 2010:
http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2011/feb/18/cougar-pride-wenatchee-hunter-catches-eight-big/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014261221_cougars18m.html
REPLY: Well great, I guess the Sheriff and I have been had. It happens. That’s the value of having so many eyes on this blog. Anything that is in error gets pointed out right away. I’ll make a correction. My apologies to readers. – Anthony
We’ve had several cougar sightings within the city limits of Palo Alto over the last 10-15 years. In 2004, one of them was shot from a tree in a neighborhood of central PA, a 100 meters or so from a school. There was the predictable outcry about killing a magnificent animal. I don’t recall any public outcry about endangered children, though.
Apparently, in 2008, another cougar attacked a man walking in Foothills Park, in the well-forested hills above Palo Alto. The man had a lucky escape.
It looks to me like the population has reached a ‘tipping point.’ That is, the cougar population has gotten high enough that there’s no longer enough open space left for individual territories. So, they’re forming prides to be more economical with space and kills.
I’d guess this is a survival strategy from times past when prey populations got too low. We’ve moderns have just never seen it.
On the other hand, maybe it’s time to lift the state ban on hunting mountain lions.
“Here kitty kitty”
O.T. comment, apologise:
I think Steven H. say that to NASA, blasting “messages” to aliens.
We are in a jungle (Galaxy) and scream: “Here kitty kitty …”
Interesting pictures. However, being from Northern California, it’s a well known fact that the increased sightings of cougars, as well as a plethora of cow deaths recently, is due to man made climate change. Sarc?
[snip – off color, Anthony]
This is most interesting. I suspect the pride like activity has something to do with habitat restrictions and concentrations of food sources, i.e. farms; combined with lack of or limited hunting pressures on them.
Glad I live in Ohio! 😉
This may be the original article in the Spokane WA newspaper on 17 Feb 2011 which explains that the pictures had been circulating on the internet for quite some time before this article appeared:
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/feb/17/wenatchee-man-captures-eight-cougars-in-one-photo/
Turns out the Foothills Park attack wasn’t forensically supported, although the hiker insisted it happened.
REPLY: As I understand it the cow was killed, they noted it and put out the cam, this is the second night when the cats came back for the spoils. Even eight cats couldn’t drag away a cow, even if they cooperated. – A
=====
OK, now I get it, thanks for the reply.
Nothing like predatory cats in the grass to awaken the senses!
O.T. With revolution in the air why not also in Australia. Socialists and Greens foreshadow economic suicide for the Australian economy (and standard of living).
Wow, that is amazing! Mountain lions are very solitary animals (normally). If they start acting together, that would be bad news.
Is this pride behavior “unprecedented”? Is there proof that in the past cougars never formed prides?
A few yrears back when the Lorenz paradigm was rejected in biology, and biologists went back and rechecked their field notes they were surprised to discover a whole bunch of self censorship of OBVIOUS behavioral facts they had overlooked inorder to match the current meme of non aggression.
Anthony.
This is fantastic group of pictures.
It’s well known that Cougars are solitary creatures, So this gathering is obliviously caused by to much CO2 in the mountain air, sort of like popping the GLOBAL WARMING cork!
Just one more to add to the AGW list.
Obviously, this would never happen without the pernicious inflewence of AAAGGGWW.
(They used to eat granola.)
Well, this is good practice for April Fools day, just over a month away.
Your’e not going to fool me this year Anthony. 🙂
(Your April Fools 2010 article seemed so plausible up till about 95 percent into it).
National Geographic had a special on recently about the first confirmed coyote kill of an adult human….in Atlantic Canada recently
The mother of the daughter killed was like “I just want to protect wildlife.”
Yet the proliferation of coyotes and their lack of fear of homo sapiens may have contributed to her daughter’s death (and her daughter was an artist….a nationally recognized folksinger who was just taking a hike in a national park.
Insanity…on behalf of her mom.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
We’ve got cats all over the place in Wallowa County. My older sister insists that I “carry” when I go fishing. She’s probably right. I’m no bigger than a mid-morning snack, just to tied them over till something bigger comes along. But look, there is only so much a belt can carry. And it’s not like they make fishing stuff in mini-me sizes. I take my fishing seriously. If it comes down to the worms or the .357, the worms will win. Are cougars attracted to anise/peanutbutter/krill scent?