Sun Valley Mountain Lion

Mike P · Post by **Mike P** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 8:39 pm

Tracker, were you on TV today?

cougarmagic · Post by **cougarmagic** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 9:03 pm

Please don't dart my lions, tracker

...it's not the 'locals' that are causing trouble, it's a new lion, and I expect he'll be kicked out soon.

tracker · Post by **tracker** » Wed Jan 15, 2014 11:37 pm

Mike P wrote: ↑Tracker, were you on TV today?

Yeah, that was my mug on KNBC and KCAL tonight. I followed some good tracks from the yard, up the canyon until it got impassable. The ravens were saying the lion or the dog carcasses were on the top of the ridge but I wasn't going up a vertical deer trail just to find out what I already know.
I did find a somewhat unusual thing - A buck deer that died from getting its antlers tangled in Century Plant (joshua) foilage. It looked like he drove his rack deep into the bush and started twisting. It formed a rope woven into his rack.

Please don't dart my lions, tracker Very Happy ...it's not the 'locals' that are causing trouble, it's a new lion, and I expect he'll be kicked out soon.

This guy seems to have developed a taste for dog. If he keeps going into yards, there's a good chance he will get surprised and treed. I won't have a lot of choice at that point. I'm going to call Seth and see if he wants to move his study area a little NE, should the opportunity arise.

cougarmagic · Post by **cougarmagic** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 8:03 am

tracker wrote: ↑If he keeps going into yards, there's a good chance he will get surprised and treed. I won't have a lot of choice at that point

I know.

The reason I say I think it's a 'new' lion is that the lion on the security camera looks much thinner than the 'regular' male.

I'll check cameras this weekend and see if he has an alibi.

tracker · Post by **tracker** » Thu Jan 16, 2014 12:46 pm

Actually I do still have a lot of choices if a lion gets treed; but it depends on a lot of unpredictable conditions that could be present at the scene. Location / proximity to open space is big of course. The biggest unknown is what kind of cooperation I might get from those folks in the black and white cars. The staff turnover in a department as big as LAPD pretty much guarantees that I'll never get to work with officers or supervisors enough to have them trust me; and know what to expect in an urban lion incident. I also have to fight what they think they learned from watching Mutual of Omaha's, "Wild Kingdom".
My personal policy is to do everything possible to avoid using drugs; unless doing so is the safest for people and critter.