I saw a mountain lion today!

[Kceres]

I'm still in awe. I've wanted to see a cougar in the wild ever since I moved to Colorado over 20 years ago. Unfortunately, this one was close to subdivision and within a rock's throw to a playground. I live in a suburban community in Boulder county. I reported it to the police who called animal control who called the Division of Wildlife who just called me for more information. The DOW agent told me that there had been a sighting in the same place about a year ago. I pray this poor cat finds his/her way back up to the foothills immediately. What a sight, though!

[bumbum]

1. Was it hunting you or just waiting for some other jogger? NT

[John Q. Citizen]

2. It wasn't Saddam. Relax.

[Kceres]

4. I was in the car.

It was looking at some horses but didn't appear to be hunting. The horses had their backs to it and didn't seem at all spooked, so I don't think they knew it was there. It was close to a busy street during rush hour. Very unusual.

[mike_c]

3. NICE!

It's a major cool event, isn't it? Too bad that one was near human habitation, though-- it doesn't bode well for its future. Someone might want to stake out some children in the foothills tonight, see if they can lure it back out.... :evilgrin:

[Sebastian Doyle]

5. Unfortunately, when you're in Boulder, you're already up in the mountains

The big kitteh apparently thinks so. (though they occasionally turn up around this area too, and I'm no where near the mountains.)

[Kceres]

7. I'm in Boulder County, not Boulder.

It was a long way from home, although according to the DOW guy, not terribly uncommon.

[ColbertWatcher]

6. What a mountain lion might look like ...

A mountain lion seen just outside the Jet Propulsion Labratory, La Cañada Flintridge, California, 16 January, 2008, Matthew Dickie, Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times.

[peacetalksforall]

8. How gorgeous. Animal beauty. Looks well fed, too.

[Sebastian Doyle]

11. I don't know

I was thinking he looked kinda hungry actually. I hope that photographer had a zoom lens and didn't become kitty lunch.

[ColbertWatcher]

20. *** Story about the lion pic ...

... the photographer was(is?) an employee of JPL and was on a walking bridge when he saw something move in the brush below.

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/26/local/me-cougar26">Full story

[BlooInBloo]

25. Meh. I like my story better.

:P

[ColbertWatcher]

26. I do too, but had to include the link for the factiness of it all. n/t

[BlooInBloo]

28. Stoopid factiness. Hrmph.

[Kceres]

9. Exactly.

It was much bigger than I remember from the zoo. I couldn't believe how round and thick it's tail was.

[BlooInBloo]

14. hahaha! He treed the photographer.

[hlthe2b]

17. A treed photog is only a couple of leeps away from

becoming dinner... Trees afford no real safety from mountain lions...

[hlthe2b]

10. They've taken down a jogger in Boulder not that long ago

Hopefully, it is a young male that can be scared off from coming back down that close to houses again... They are the most spectacular animals, but I no longer do the bike trails in the foothills with my dog if I am not certain I can be out before dusk after having a much too close encounter a few years ago near Golden. I never saw it but had passed the area where State Wildlife had tracked it only a few minutes before they got there. My doggie girl (and I) might have been mountain catnip...

[alittlelark]

12. I'm in Jemez Springs NM right now (all summer).

I see one or 2 a year, generally at dusk or later.

I saw one a few years ago that was the size of a zoo 'big cat'. I was driving - It was crossing the road - the look it gave me was 'fuck you' and it lasted a long time. I stopped and watched it SLOWLY move into the brush.


It was one of the most intense experiences of my life.

[Kceres]

13. I understand.

Incredible experience.

[DURHAM D]

19. Jimez Springs - I believe that is where I enjoyed

a soak in hot mineral waters many years ago. It totally cured my backache even before the massage.

[boppers]

15. "Unfortunately, this one subdivision was close to the lion's property"

I grew up in the Tucson Mountains foothills, I saw different big cats every few months, coyotes and javelina almost daily, but I never presumed it would have been "proper" to remove most animals simply because humans chose to live near them, or tell animals where they were "supposed" to live.... rattlesnakes were the only exception I can think of.

I suppose a lot depends on how one grows up, and how much a person is used to being around powerful animals.

[ourbluenation]

16. my worst nightmare. they're all around us up here in the rural Nor Cal.

went for a walk in our local county park and came across a recently vacated den. picked-clean deer bones in a pile. i would say I have a phobia now, but is it really irrational to fear mountain lions?

[DavidDvorkin]

21. Entirely rational

It's also entirely rational to fear bears. They come into suburban neighborhoods here in Colorado in the spring, when they're hungry after their winter sleep, and in the fall, when they're trying to fatten themselves in preparation for that sleep. Drought periods are especially bad because of a lack of food in their normal habitats.

[Grinchie]

18. Grats. I've only seen on in my lifetime, and it was near the Golden Trout Wilderness

at a place called "The Needles"

[cascadiance]

22. I saw one in my parent's backyard in Rancho Bernardo with her cub...

They've since moved away from there, but it was at the end of a cul-de-sac and the mountain of small wooded area behind their house was right next to a tunnel that connected to the other side of the mountain, where it was a little less in the residential area, so you'd periodically get a lot of critters (coyotes, wildcats, etc.) that would wander through that tunnel and come out right behind their yard.

I still recall that after the critter left, a neighbor from up on the hill above that wooded area came down and asked if anyone saw his dog wandering around. I still wonder if that poor dog had an unfortunate accident then...

[Speck Tater]

23. Shortly after moving to rural southern Oregon 25 years ago,

I was clearing brush one late afternoon on my newly acquired "homestead" property when a mountain lion sauntered across the back half of my 5-acre lot, at the top of a hill no more than 300 or 400 feet away from me. It snarled in my general direction, and being only 50 feet from the back door of the house I ran for it.

Scared the bejeebers out of this fresh-from-the-city kid!

In the 25 years since them I've seen several more plus bears, elk, deer, etc., etc.. But that first mountain lion sighting really shook me up at the time. I'm still waiting, however, to see my first bigfoot. ( ;) )

[Cleita]

24. Sorry to say but Fish and Wildlife will probably kill it if it's that close

to human habitation. That's what they do here where I live any way. If you can find some Wildlife sanctuary people next time, get hold of them first. If they can they will try to tranquilize and then relocate the cat.

[ColbertWatcher]

27. Which sucks because human habitation is too close to them. n/t

[Kceres]

Agreed. n/t

[Kceres]

30. Agreed. n/t

[Kceres]

29. The agent who called me promised they would not do anything at this point.

He talked a long time about how much he wanted to protect the cats and that he didn't intend to do anything at all unless it started killing livestock in which case they would tranquilize it, tag it, then move it far far away into the mountains. I just hope to god the poor thing doesn't attack a person, as I know they would hunt it down and kill it. If you ask me, it should be illegal to hunt a mountain lion under any conditions. They were here first. RE-location, re-location, re-location. At worst, sanctuary.

[lumberjack_jeff]

31. Cougars are dangerous.

This is a story from a friend of mine.

http://www.graysharbortalk.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/16866/Cougar_Encounter_Leavenworth_W.html#Post16866

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

32. In 1970 there was a mountain lion in the canyons behind Laguna Beach, California

It was wild and pretty country, part of the vast undeveloped Irvine Ranch. People would see it from time to time and to my knowledge, no one ever had a bad run-in with it. Now the entire area has become a suburban wasteland of housing developments of the great human anthill of Orange County.