Well we now think we might have a second mt. lion around here...or at least one that gets around. Last Friday, Cody saw what she thought was a mt. lion in the RMBL research meadow. About 2 hours later, and 2 miles up valley, and on the other side of the road, Adriana and Jorge were trapping our Cliff colony and while there, heard a marmot alarm calling, saw a deer running (which they thought was strange) and then saw the mt. lion 50 m from them. Then on Monday, my neighbor, Ward Watt, was walking down to RMBL through the research meadow (where Cody thought she saw one on Friday) and FLUSHED a mt. lion...he was closer than 50 m to it!
What's disconcerting is that we're seeing this lion or lions during the day. They might be crossing roads in broad daylight. There have been some dead deer (and deer parts) seen around. Most years we never even see a lion kill and most years we never see a lion track. But this year is special!
Are they hunting marmots? Don't know. But something we've always listed as a possible hunter is certainly around this year and could be eating them.
Stay tuned!
Blumstein Lab at UCLA (Team Marmot) reports on adventures and research findings from our long-term study of yellow-bellied marmots at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado, U.S.A.
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