Photo courtesy of Teton Cougar Project
Mountain Lions Captured on Camera Reveal Truths
Long thought to be solitary apex predators only interacting with each other driven by competition, Mark Elbroch, a wildlife biologist with the Panthera Puma Program sheds some light on the secret lives of mountain lions. Elbroch, who has been studying the big cats for fifteen years, has collected 100,000 videos of mountain lions in their natural habitat. With the use of GPS collars and remote camera technology, Panthera’s Teton Cougar Project in Wyoming is revealing fascinating truths about the cats.
In 2008, a female mountain lion was shot and killed leaving her two young kittens to fend for themselves. Another adult female took in the orphans to raise with her own three kittens. A video from 2012 records the second capture of a mountain lion adoption on camera revealing the 2008 adoption was not an isolated incident.
The video shows the adult female with the kittens.
Two Mythbusting Facts We Now Know About Mountain Lions
1) Mountain lions are social animals and rarely hurt each other.
Mountain lions are far more social than previously thought. The adult females adopting kittens from another female is just one example of the big cats dependence and reliance on each other. Cameras have allowed researchers to witness social behavior not seen before.
According to Elbroch, ” You’ve got these huge male sons of mothers that have already outgrown their mothers and the mothers are just rolling with them and licking them. They sleep in these huge cuddle puddles, as interns like to call them.”
2) The infamous mountain lion scream is not an angry attack sound.
The scream of the mountain lion is not, as many wildlife biologists previously thought it to be, the sound of an angry male ready to attack, but the sound of a female in heat.
The more we know about mountain lions, the better able we are to make science-based protections that will ensure their future.
Donation Made To Panthera’s Teton Cougar Project in Wyoming
Thanks to your support of Triple T Studios, we were able to donate the money to purchase cameras for the Teton Cougar Project in Wyoming. We are proud to be conservation advocates supporting Panthera’s scientists, helping to ensure a future for wild cats and their habitats.
The donation was made in memory of Gracey, The Tiniest Tiger. We can’t thank you enough.