Can't get enough of Bay Area and regional wild?

San Francisco Chronicle/SF Gate/Tom Stienstra, 5/8/16. "Wildlife cameras capture a wide array of species."

"The tracks in the dirt told a murky story. They looked liked fresh paw prints from a mountain lion, maybe two of them.

Rare mountain lion is thinking
about that rare barbecue place.

 Just not in your
neighborhood. I'm stuck.

....  In San Francisco, people are stunned to find the high number of raccoons, for instance. There also have been recent high numbers of coyote sightings, and even a rare photo of a mountain lion. You might also see the neighbor’s cat show up.

What’s being seen at parks and at homes near open space, the high wildlife numbers at night, particularly during full moons, can be head-shakingly unbelievable. In more distant areas — in national forests, for example — cameras can capture the otherwise unseen nighttime activities of bears, badgers, Pacific fishers, mink and nearly anything that stalks the night."  Read article, includes 13 second "mother's day" view of Mountain lion with kitten (or cub).

Related, Mountain Lion Foundation. Cougar/The American Lion/Kevin Hansen, Chapter  2, "The cycle of life." By the time kittens are weaned at 2 to 3 months, the mother has moved the litter to one or more additional den sites throughout her home range. This provides greater protection for the young and may be one reason she does not construct elaborate dens. In his book Soul Among Lions, Arizonacougar specialist Harley Shaw explains that there are other advantages to such behavior: "...kittens learn early to move around their range and not imprint upon a single home site. Home is the entire area of use. Within it, lions are free to move, hunt, and rest as their mood and physiology directs. They are not handicapped the human compulsion to return to a single safe base at night."

Note photograph by Mark Andermahr, other similar photographs (scroll down), from TOM CLARK: A Question of Public Safety, 12/6/12. "Wandering into a Half Moon Bay neighborhood, two young mountain lions took shelter beneath a porch. ..." Stuck by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images from a  Buzz Feed article/Gavon Laessig, Reporter, 1/9/16, "This deformed Mountain Lion..."

Posted by Kathy Meeh