Montrose area of Colorado?

Not impressed. I saw the same thing this weekend. Instead of a mountain lion dragging a deer in to the wilderness, it was my 3 year old dragging my 11 month old off to play at the grandparents. Color me unimpressed.

Crawford CO, across the ditch from Montrose.

She came back last night, but of course one of the cameras wasn't working. I got a few from the other one.

Her tracks in the snow. Pretty sure it is a her. Stride length is about 36 inches. A tom will be 40 or more.


The stash this morning.


Here she is again.

LOVE these shots

Amazing thread!

Big healthy cat, too. Thick.

this post is "ABOVE AVERAGE"!

Congrats on an awesome storyline and pics!!

Brings back memories of my buried playboy stash in the woods. JK, amazing thread.

I know very little about range and habits of mountain lions, but did you see any indications that this area had been used as a cache site before?

Thanks for taking the time to post. Awesome.

This is awesome--thanks for sharing!

Steve French

No, but it is a similar location to another kill I found several years ago. Under willows next to water. I think the willows deter the larger birds of prey. Eagles are the only thing I've seen that lions don't chase off. Not sure why.

Awesome pics and story. Thanks for sharing

Question how often does a lion have to kill a deer? Or how much food of any type do they need

A mountain lion post that is actually a mountain lion

SteveBott said:

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Question how often does a lion have to kill a deer? Or how much food of any type do they need

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I have heard, but no real backup, they will kill 50 deer a year. They eat a lot of other stuff too. Rabbits, turkeys, elk, even coyotes. They are secretive enough to make it hard to tell. For the kills I've found, the better hidden they are, the longer they last. If the coyotes or a bear get to it, there won't be much left.

That's a pretty decent estimate.

Mountain lion caches are interesting, and kinda varied. They like the thickest crap they can find, but there will usually be a noticeable trail or tunnel, with two or more points of entry. The dirt is what varies a lot. Some will scrape a LOT of dirt on to the carcass. Others might give it one kick and be done.

On looking big (and that is a healthy cat), they might eat upwards of 20+ lbs in a feeding......so real fresh, they haven't waddled off very far :-). Once the meat starts to rot, or scavengers start settling in, they lose interest very quickly.

Awesome thread. Now we just need a game camera photo with the lion hiding in the background....glowing eyes of course.

So 20 pounds one meal. Say the scavengers eat the rest. Sounds like that happens regularly. How long before they need a big kill. Again assuming some snacks in the mean time. Rabbits don't go very far.

The drag marks and the ensuing distance...was Log there?

Awesome thread

Depending on the size of the kill, and the tempature, I've seen the cats work it for as long as a week, and for as little as 2 days.

This kill, killed it on night one, ate some of the neck and head. Night 2, got into the guts. Night 3, last night, I couldn't tell, she covered it too well, we will see what I get tonight, night 4. I'll post an update tomorrow, one way or another.

Thanks for chiming in. I knew you would know. The fact that I don't have a single coyote picture yet means she is always close by. I'd look, but her trail this morning led into even thicker brush than where the cache is. No thanks.

They like to be petted.

This thread delivers

They will feed multiple times on a kill. But figure a major kill roughly each week, but that varies. As the temperature goes up, the meat rots and that might speed thinks up. A female with kittens requires more energy. A big male may take his good sweet time.

Makes sense. Seems winter is their friend. Sort of.

Another q, is it true Texas lions do not like harvesting hogs? And I say not in they do not prefer them by a lot.

I got some pictures a couple of years ago of a kill that the mom and 2 big kittens were feeding on. I think it was 2 night till it started to smell and the bear showed up. The cats left.

This is awesome!

If deer are hard to come by, they'll give it a try. The risk/reward on feral hogs is higher. There are places like California and West Texas that have plenty of lions, and expanding hog populations. Virtually all their their predation on hog is non-breeding juvenilal pigs.

I'm guessing a hundred pound pig and up is a health risk to a lion. And it doesn't take long for a pig to get a 100. Amazing how durable pigs are.

BrdMtn is one of the best posters on the board, period. His threads always deliver. Running cattle in the mountains, hunting in Africa w his daughter, mountain lions.... seriously dude thanks for joining up and sharing your experiences w us.

Any way that female is pregnant? Her belly looks huge in a few of those photos but could just be 20 lbs of consumed deer. Do they have a regular whelping season?

ursusguy said:

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They like to be petted.

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If you are patient, you can get them to balance a treat on their nose too...

Has anyone ran a reverse image search on his photos yet?


I've been burned before...