Block title

Species: 
Research Projects: 
Mammals
Research Methods: 
DNA extraction
December marked the start of the sixth mountain lion tracking season led by Joshua Lisbon. This year’s team is made up of all returning members, with the addition of one recruit. Winters in Montana provide the opportunity for trackers to amass non-invasive data for continued monitoring of the cougar populations that frequent our area. This video captured on a game camera deployed by Tyler Carlin shows footage of a female cougar and two kittens. DNA collected nearby will be analyzed, but we believe this is her third litter since we started this project in winter 2013-14. Based on DNA collected by trackers during the 2017-18 season, she was likely supporting two adolescents when she bred with the father of the two kittens in the video. Recent tracks indicate that the adolescent offspring are traveling together and were unharmed by the tom responsible for the kittens seen here.