Mountain Lions, Pumas, and other Big Cats

[Artemesia]

Ok it took some amount of digging in old boxes of saved treasures, but I found my prize!



This is a photo of a mountain lion in North Cascades NP in the vicinity of Cascade Pass but on the South side of the pass (near the PCT) just North of Stehekin, the small town/outpost at the head of Lake Chelan that is the last mail stop for a final section of a PCT thru hike resupply.

Anyhow I was stationed here in the Winter of 2003-2004 and also Summer 2004. This photo was taken via trail camera (game camera) that I helped install on a winter study in about February of 2004. It was a funny trip, I was a ‘General Ranger’ out of Stehekin, mostly responding to EMS calls and doing ski trail breaking on weekends as well as getting the fire going at the warming hut/patrol cabin for the cross country ski and snowshoe visitors that came on weekends, as well as all the other odds and ends that Rangering requires, the wearing of many hats. The ecology research crew came to Stehekin to set these cameras up to assess the mountain lion population in the North Cascades ecosystem. Because they are such stealthy ghostlike creatures there was really almost no data back then to determine how widespread they were.

So anyhow I had the amazing opportunity to get paid to cross country ski in about 9 miles up the valley with the crew as their gear sherpa. I had my own pack of personal gear on my back and then also simultaneously pulled their like 80-lb sled uphill to the patrol cabin. When we arrived and the sled was unpacked it contained a bunch of whole frozen and still feathered and gut filled chickens, cans of tuna, chicken wire, staple guns and big cordless screw guns, trail cameras and … a 4” thick dimestore novel hardback book! I was so mad because the book was just personal gear belonging to the 20 something year old research crew dude who made me shlep his stuff for him. Anyways, we staged out of the patrol cabin on the upper Stehekin River drainage and then did a few days of 9-12 mile ski trips out to set these up. We would put a frozen chicken on a tree, strap it on with chicken wire stapled around it into the tree, then use a screw gun to attach the oily tuna can above the chicken and puncture holes in the can so the stinky tuna juice dripped all over the chicken. What cat doesn't love tuna juice?! Irrisistible!

Meanwhile on an opposite tree the motion sensor trail cam was set.

It was kind of interesting because we had to find two trees of the exact right distance apart for the cameras to work right, and while this seems simple enough, back then the game cameras werent that good on focusing tech yet so it was actually harder than it seemed. I always laughed that it was my very three dee lesson in ‘seeing the forest for the trees’ in an absurdly literal sense. Exactly so-many feet apart. Who knew?!

Anyhow while we never saw any cats it was kind of unnerving being the bait sled shlepper. There was always that moment in the last few minutes before we left the set up site when the final step was
To puncture the stinky tuna juice can and ski away as swiftly as possible for an ungainly group of 5 people on skinny skis navigating over Cascade crud chunky ice snow through a forest of tight trees. It was … not swift. And given the wide range of ski ability in our group… not always skillfully negotiated. Hence me being sent for the sled work because I had previously worked as a ski patroller towing humans in similar sleds down steep terrain. Jedi skillz. On skis.

Anyhow probably the coolest part of this mountain lion experience was at one point hearing the strangest machine like whirring sound emitting from a rotten log in the middle of the otherwise utterly silent snow covered forest deep in the Pacific Northwest backcountry. Being the ‘just gotta know!’ Type, I inspected the log and discovered three little pygmy Saw-whet owls, probably juveniles in their burrow/nest awaiting a parent when they heard us swishing by loudly, and so they began vocalizing for their parent’s assistance. I put the log back into position and left them alone but was thrilled to have been able to be within a few inches of baby Sawwhets.

For those of you familiar with Mike Clelland’s book about ET’s and the owl phenomena, I really always felt this was something like a contact experience, especially with the odd sound the owls made.



Anyhow in addition to his observations on owls, I personally would include my awareness (because they are very rarely actually seen, although their felt presence is HiGHLY perceptible and unmistakeable) of mountain lions as being a similar phenomena to the UFO or alien encounter. I have had quite a few other backcountry encounters with lions, always just tracks or later finding an animal kill that was probably a cat’s dinner cache. But mostly its the awareness of them that feels like a dream, like walking with a ghost. And a predator. Its no wonder that it is reminiscent of the alien phenomena.

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Artemesia (here)
Ok it took some amount of digging in old boxes of saved treasures, but I found my prize!



This is a photo of a mountain lion in North Cascades NP in the vicinity of Cascade Pass but on the South side of the pass (near the PCT) just North of Stehekin, the small town/outpost at the head of Lake Chelan that is the last mail stop for a final section of a PCT thru hike resupply.

Anyhow I was stationed here in the Winter of 2003-2004 and also Summer 2004. This photo was taken via trail camera (game camera) that I helped install on a winter study in about February of 2004. It was a funny trip, I was a ‘General Ranger’ out of Stehekin, mostly responding to EMS calls and doing ski trail breaking on weekends as well as getting the fire going at the warming hut/patrol cabin for the cross country ski and snowshoe visitors that came on weekends, as well as all the other odds and ends that Rangering requires, the wearing of many hats. The ecology research crew came to Stehekin to set these cameras up to assess the mountain lion population in the North Cascades ecosystem. Because they are such stealthy ghostlike creatures there was really almost no data back then to determine how widespread they were.

So anyhow I had the amazing opportunity to get paid to cross country ski in about 9 miles up the valley with the crew as their gear sherpa. I had my own pack of personal gear on my back and then also simultaneously pulled their like 80-lb sled uphill to the patrol cabin. When we arrived and the sled was unpacked it contained a bunch of whole frozen and still feathered and gut filled chickens, cans of tuna, chicken wire, staple guns and big cordless screw guns, trail cameras and … a 4” thick dimestore novel hardback book! I was so mad because the book was just personal gear belonging to the 20 something year old research crew dude who made me shlep his stuff for him. Anyways, we staged out of the patrol cabin on the upper Stehekin River drainage and then did a few days of 9-12 mile ski trips out to set these up. We would put a frozen chicken on a tree, strap it on with chicken wire stapled around it into the tree, then use a screw gun to attach the oily tuna can above the chicken and puncture holes in the can so the stinky tuna juice dripped all over the chicken. What cat doesn't love tuna juice?! Irrisistible!

Meanwhile on an opposite tree the motion sensor trail cam was set.

It was kind of interesting because we had to find two trees of the exact right distance apart for the cameras to work right, and while this seems simple enough, back then the game cameras werent that good on focusing tech yet so it was actually harder than it seemed. I always laughed that it was my very three dee lesson in ‘seeing the forest for the trees’ in an absurdly literal sense. Exactly so-many feet apart. Who knew?!

Anyhow while we never saw any cats it was kind of unnerving being the bait sled shlepper. There was always that moment in the last few minutes before we left the set up site when the final step was
To puncture the stinky tuna juice can and ski away as swiftly as possible for an ungainly group of 5 people on skinny skis navigating over Cascade crud chunky ice snow through a forest of tight trees. It was … not swift. And given the wide range of ski ability in our group… not always skillfully negotiated. Hence me being sent for the sled work because I had previously worked as a ski patroller towing humans in similar sleds down steep terrain. Jedi skillz. On skis.

Anyhow probably the coolest part of this mountain lion experience was at one point hearing the strangest machine like whirring sound emitting from a rotten log in the middle of the otherwise utterly silent snow covered forest deep in the Pacific Northwest backcountry. Being the ‘just gotta know!’ Type, I inspected the log and discovered three little pygmy Saw-whet owls, probably juveniles in their burrow/nest awaiting a parent when they heard us swishing by loudly, and so they began vocalizing for their parent’s assistance. I put the log back into position and left them alone but was thrilled to have been able to be within a few inches of baby Sawwhets.

For those of you familiar with Mike Clelland’s book about ET’s and the owl phenomena, I really always felt this was something like a contact experience, especially with the odd sound the owls made.



Anyhow in addition to his observations on owls, I personally would include my awareness (because they are very rarely actually seen, although their felt presence is HiGHLY perceptible and unmistakeable) of mountain lions as being a similar phenomena to the UFO or alien encounter. I have had quite a few other backcountry encounters with lions, always just tracks or later finding an animal kill that was probably a cat’s dinner cache. But mostly its the awareness of them that feels like a dream, like walking with a ghost. And a predator. Its no wonder that it is reminiscent of the alien phenomena.

Wonderful to read — thanks!

• Do see the new pawprints on the Mara returns to the Mountains thread.

• And here's the thread on Mike Clelland and owls:
  MIKE CLELLAND with Richard Dolan on ETs, abductions, synchronicities, and owls (yes, owls...)

[Bill Ryan]

A terrific two minute video featuring an attempted (and foiled!) nocturnal attack by a puma on a sheep pen. It was captured with a military-grade thermal night-vision camera.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=YigMqKXNCDE

The video text, as per this article:

Watch a Big Cat Invade a Sheep Pen

Few have seen big cats hunt at night because, well, they’re very good at not being seen.

But their nemeses — guard dogs — have never needed to turn on the lights to sound the alarm.

Here’s a late-night encounter in the paddock between a slumbering flock, an intruding puma, and two trusty sheep dogs. And Bertie Gregory captured it all on a night vision setup for National Geographic.

It’s a spy film in part. Darkened vans and shady personnel set the scene.

The show gets underway when the feline starts its prowl. There’s a climactic moment when, exactly like a housecat, it lifts a slack paw while measuring a jump. Then it pounces over the fence with a motion that looks like liquid.

But its infiltration is truncated. Right away, the two sleeping dogs stir, and chase the cat.

The tension breaks easily, but it’s a pregnant moment — and a novel glimpse of a nocturnal apex predator on the hunt.