Lion Country

We have now owned a home in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, not far from Park City, for seven years.  We have enjoyed the skiing (cross country, downhill, and backcountry), the hiking, the snowshoeing and even a little mountain biking and snowmobiling.   However, although it was not a serious consideration when we decided to buy our house, it is the wildlife (and the photography thereof) which has most captured my interest.  Within a half day drive of our house, I have been able to see (and photograph) moose, mule deer, pronghorn, elk, mountain goat, bighorn sheep and bison, all of them large photogenic animals.  It was less than two years ago, after a trip to Africa, that I realized there was something missing.  In Africa, I saw Cape buffalo, zebra, giraffe, elephant, hippopotamus, wildebeest, gazelles etc.   But I also saw lions, leopards, crocodiles, hyenas, jackals, and cheetahs.   So where were the predators of the Utah Mountains?  Were there counterparts to those I had seen in Africa?  If so, what were they and why was I not seeing them?

To answer this question, I undertook to pay very close attention to the various tracks I encountered in the snow during the winter.

The network of trails on the mountain above our house is extensive and is commonly used, even in the winter, by a number of people, many of them dog walkers.  I frequently see tracks of hikers, with and without snowshoes, and their canine friends.   Dog tracks are four toed with a small pad behind them, similar to the ball of a human foot behind his five toes.  There is, usually, a claw mark visible at the front of each toe.   It was not long before I realized that I was occasionally seeing canine type tracks with no accompanying human.  The potential predators which could leave such tracks were foxes, coyotes and wolves.  It is well established that there are no wolves in the Wasatch.

Even more interestingly, I was occasionally seeing very large canine-like tracks but with no claw prints at the front of the toes, a pad containing three lobes at its back edge and a surrounding fur smudge; photos 1 and 2.  This, my animal track book said, was almost certainly the track of a mountain lion.  Gradually, over the course of the winter, I was able to establish certain areas and directions of travel which seem to be favored, including a game trail leading up over a ridgeline and connecting two relatively large uninhabited canyons; photo 3.

 

Photo 1

 

Photo 2

 

Photo 3

In the fall of the following year, returning home in the late morning from a hike above our house, we encountered a dead mule deer lying across a log; photo 4.  It showed no significant sign of trauma with the possible exception of ruffled fur around the back of the neck; photo 5.  Mountain lions usually kill by breaking the neck or strangling their prey.  Since this location was one of the places where I had seen lion tracks, I chose to regard this as a lion kill where the lion had been interrupted before it could feed on or cache its prize.  This might not be too surprising since the location was on our property, less than 100 yards from our house.  I staked out this kill with my camera the following two evenings and mornings, and contrary to usual practice, equipping myself with bear repellent spray, but all to no avail.

Photo 4

 

Photo 5

With the coming of winter, I purchased a trail camera capable of triggering on infrared movement and taking photos in color during the day with ambient light or in black and white-like infrared using an infrared flash at night.  I left it unattended on the mountain in the hope of photographing animals whose habits and caution make their observation difficult.  Below are a few of the pictures obtained after approximately 300 days of operation;

Photos 6 and 7 show a red fox.  They are in color since they were taken in daylight.  While foxes are omnivores, they definitely prefer meat, in particular small animals such as rabbits, squirrels and such birds as they can catch.  Foxes are the size of a small dog, maybe 20 lbs, and are solitary hunters.  Surprisingly, only this one instance of a fox passing the camera was recorded during the entire year.

Photo 6

Photo 7

Photos 8 and 9 show a coyote.  These were taken in infrared at night and so appear black and white.  The coyote is nominally an omnivore, but as with the common dog, greatly prefers meat.   Coyotes are the size of a medium size dog, maybe 30-40 lbs, and while they most commonly hunt alone, they do occasionally form packs and hunt cooperatively.   A large coyote is capable of taking down a deer, but their prey is more commonly smaller animals and birds.

Photo 8

Photo 9

Photos 10 and 11 each show mountain lions moving past the camera.   Both photos are in infrared.  While photo 10 depended on the cameras IR flash, photo 11 was taken near sunrise so ambient illumination dominates over the flash.  While the picture quality isn’t great, the identification, especially including the long tail, is certain.  Mountain lions are the apex predators of the area.  They are about half the weight of an African lion. Adults weigh anywhere from 100 to 180 lbs.   In body shape and hunting style they are more like a leopard but are somewhat larger.  They are pure carnivores and solitary hunters.  They are capable of taking any animal in the area including fox, coyote, deer, elk and even young moose.

 

Photo 10

 

 

Photo 11

An interesting narrative is indicated in photos 12-14.  Photo 12 shows a mule deer doe moving up toward the ridgeline at 1:00 a.m. on January 27th.    In photos 13 and 14, fifty-five minutes later on that same night, we see a lioness with two trailing cubs cross the camera’s field of view on exactly the same track.  Given that mule deer were passing the camera position only about once every three days during this part of the year and that there were only three mountain lion sightings in 300 days of operation, it is pretty unlikely, maybe one chance in fifty, that the lion was moving on the same track less than an hour behind that deer, simply by chance.

Photo 12

Photo 13

Photo 14

While separated from the above sighting by several weeks, I observed, though did not photograph, indications of another lion kill about a quarter mile down slope from the camera position along this same game trail.   There was a significant scuffed area in the snow which included lion tracks, a lot of deer hair and some blood.  In retrospect, I realized there was some indication that the deer carcass was being dragged, but at the time, I did not think to try to locate a caching location for the carcass remains.

The bottom line from approximately 300 days of observation on this game trail is as follows.  No large predators were observed from late spring through fall.  During this period mule deer and moose were observed with about equal frequency, once every two weeks.  During the winter and early spring the frequency of deer and moose observed increased to about once every three days.  On three occasions during the winter/early spring, an elk was also observed.  My conclusion is that many of the prey animals, including elk, move down out of the high, less populated mountains during the winter.  I expect this is also true for smaller prey animals including rabbits, opossum, raccoons, grouse, etc.   The predators follow them down.   The mountainside I monitor extends only up to 8,000 ft with significant human concentrations within a mile walk.  Deeper in, the Wasatch mountains extend to over  11,000 ft with walking distance to human concentrations becoming  five or more miles.

The three possible lion kills indicated by this year of observation have somewhat adjusted our perspective on where we live.  The locations were all within a mile of our house, one less than 100 yards away on our own property.  The animals killed were comparable in size to my wife or me.   Mountain lions, to support themselves and any cubs they might have, must kill a large animal, deer, elk, or young moose, once a week.   So these predators are not simply capable of killing a human size animal but actually do so fifty times a year.  Fortunately, they almost never attack humans, but that is by their choice, or taste.

I remember, as our bus drove on a road along the rim of the Ngorongoro caldera in Tanzania, seeing a Maasai carry a five or six foot spear with a long flat blade as he walked across an adjacent field.  When I asked our guide, also Tanzanian but not Maasai, why the man carried it, he said “This is lion country and while lions almost never attack humans, he is Maasai and would feel unprepared to properly protect himself without it.”

We, too, live in lion country.