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Native Californian, biologist, wildlife conservation consultant, retired Smithsonian scientist, father of two daughters, grandfather of 4 small primates. INTJ. Believes nature is infinitely more interesting than shopping malls. Born 100 years too late.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

At last a tawny cat



"You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd", and it's hard as hell to camera trap in a herd of cows.

But somehow we pulled it off.

Yes, we added mountain lion to our mammal survey of Chimineas.

It had remained on the "elusive and suspected species list" for a full year.

The dry wash we selected for set 245 didn't look particularly promising, but you never know.

We were also under the mistaken impression that there were not cattle on this particular range.


We were wrong.



Cows were coming and going day and night, and almost daily they took the liberty of adjusting the camera's perspective.


Cattle were in three quarters of the 95 photos.


But miraculously they bumped the camera back into its original position 2 and half hours before the cat strolled up the arroyo.

6 comments:

Henry said...

Great stuff and congratulations! I love how the cows bumped the camera back just before the Mountain Lion came, lol. It seems like a lot of hard work for this cat finally payed off.
So, what's next on the list of illusives and eluders?

Owlman said...

Congratulations Codge and thanks for the continued saga. Great reading and good pics.

Chas S. Clifton said...

Great shot. Getting mountain lion pictures is my "holy grail" of camera trapping.

Anonymous said...

Great photo and quite exciting when I clicked on your blog bookmark!!

Marilyn
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Fathernature1959 said...

Nice shots! I wish you could still install the camera traps in the forest surrounding the P.O.A. and the rest of Magalia. I miss seeing the beautiful amimals that call our backyards (and sometimes front yards) home, and scare the dickens out of the big-city transplants.

Bob Vincent
Magaliaweather.com

Camera Trap Codger said...

Mountain lions are always a treat. One walked between my neighbors' houses 2 evenings ago -- more or less in broad daylight. Fred was sleeping on the patio.