Winter Tracking

On a Saturday in January, a group of community volunteers visited MPG and participated in an educational tracking day. The day began with a quick snow storm, which covered all previous tracks. Since the conditions were already icy, we had low expectations for the day. We began with a lesson on foot morphology, stride length, gait, straddle, and some simple track patterns before we headed out in search of fresh sign.

After looking at some well-aged deer and elk tracks in the bottom of a drainage, along with various scrapes and rubs, we were fortunate to find a mountain lion track. Based on the earlier weather conditions, it was easy to age the track to within the last couple hours, after the snow had stopped.

[In photo above, volunteers measure the track with a carpenter’s ruler.]

Following our typical protocol, we then backtracked the lion. We do this to avoid stressing animals, and to reduce the chance of an encounter. Within a couple hundred yards, the trail ended at a fresh bed site. We discovered where the cougar had waited out the earlier snow storm, which buried all the older tracks beyond the bed. The duff was perfectly dried, leaving the residual shape of a bedded lion.

[Note the color difference, in the photo above, between the dried needles and the surrounding material.]

Following this discovery, and after a leisurely break for lunch, we set about forward tracking the mountain lion. Because of the time we had spent measuring tracks, collecting hair samples, investigating the bed site, and eating lunch, I hoped that the lion would be long gone. The noise made by our group also assured me that any animal nearby would be well aware of us. As it turned out, this was not the case.

After following the lion’s trail and collecting hair samples for another couple hours, the trail abruptly ended at a large ponderosa pine. We circled the tree but found no tracks. Then we looked up.

There, nestled in the branches above was the lion we had been tracking. It paid us little mind and appeared to have no real concern over our presence. It just yawned, and lazily blinked at us. We took a few photos and left it in peace