Family of Pumas and a Black Bear
Local tracker Kim Cabrera captured this video of our local wildlife. Cabrera Writes:
A family of mountain lions walks past one of my cameras. Later, a large black bear is seen as he follows their scent trail through the forest. Black bears have an amazing sense of smell! Also, this is the largest family of cougars I have seen here!
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Cougar- mt lion – puma are used interchangeably in the video and description. Are they the same ?? Dunno. (Edit, wiki says they are all the same)
Where (roughly) is this?
Writer Claude T. Barnes listed 18 native South American, 25 native North American, and 40 English names for the same animal. Depending on the region and native language, common names for the American lion include: mountain lion, cougar, panther, puma, painter, el leon, and catamount.
Mountain lion, puma, cougar, panther—this cat is known by more names than just about any other mammal! But no matter what you call it, it’s still the same cat, Puma concolor, the largest of the small cat species.
One of the biggest misconceptions about North Carolina wildlife is the existence of cougars, or black panthers, in our state. The cougar is a big cat known by many names including panther, mountain lion, puma and up to 80 more, but these are all the same species, Puma concolor.
Although cougars are sometimes called panthers, “black panther” is not a name that can be attributed to this species. This is a blanket term for any large cat with a black coat due to a gene that produces a dark pigment. Mammals with this mutation are known as melanistic. In big cats, black panthers are actually jaguars or leopards. If you look closely enough, or have enough bright light, you can see spots amongst the dark fur. There has never been a confirmed or documented case of a melanistic mountain lion in the United States. Mistaken identities may also occur with the cougar’s smaller relative, the bobcat. Bobcats can be melanistic too, but this is extremely rare with only 12 reported sightings across all of North America.
North Carolina? You’re in North Carolina?
they did find a black bobcat in Canada
no i was just looking up lists of names for pumas
A pumapard is a hybrid animal resulting from a union between a puma and a leopard. Whether born to a female puma mated to a male leopard or to a male puma mated to a female leopard, pumapards inherit a form of dwarfism. Those reported grew to only half the size of the parents. They have a puma-like long body (proportional to the limbs, but nevertheless shorter than either parent), but short legs. The coat is variously described as sandy, tawny or greyish with brown, chestnut or “faded” rosettes
That’s a puma kitten.
The most common cat to be mistaken for a cougar is the bobcat. Bobcats are much smaller, but roughly twice the size of a housecat, weighing up to 40 pounds once full grown. Its fur is short, thick, and soft, ranging in color from light brown to reddish brown, and is usually spotted. There are patches of white on the back of the ears. The most distinguishing feature of the bobcat, and its name sake, is its short tail.
Bobcats are mistaken for Pumas, but I have no idea How! Unless someone thought it was a baby. I heard my cat outside fighting something one night when I was a young teen. I ran outside and saw my cats eyes glowing from under a bush. I went to one knee, about a foot away from his face, and asked sweetly “what’s wrong kitty”. He responded with a chilling growl. Mom and Dad had run out after me and they said, “Step back. King (my cat) is over there”. I glanced up, saw him in the yard, and realized how widespread the eyes were under the bush. So I very slowly got up and backed away. As I did, an adult bobcat sprinted out of the bush into the woods. Even at that age with my blood frozen from what I realized, I Still knew it was a bobcat.
I worked with Pumas in a Wildlife Park in AZ as an adult. There are Pumas in Montgomery County VA, though the Eastern Cougar is supposedly extinct. I’ve heard them. Too many intelligent, respected people have seen them here to deny it. We just need to set some wildlife cams in the right places.
I saw one in Trinity in broad daylight. Other people see them also. They have been seen by Guides and wildlife Biologists. They exist, and yet they don’t.
They are all the same. Yup
The Emerald Counties are south of the Oregon border and east of the Pacific Ocean.
Cat makes the kill, bear waits a wee bit , then takes the kill. Berries are one thing , aged venison,
o yea!
Lol… Sounds legit
Wow cool. It seems there are more than usual puma sightings this year for some reason. They say that Cats general are not ‘pack’ animals.. but I have more then a few cats.., and the seem to operate together often.. maybe Cougars are more pack like than people have previously thought.. or maybe they are learning to be…🤔
Absolutely not, this is a mom with her juveniles. Females may have a territory range that overlaps a little but that is often just a mom and daughter after they go their separate ways. Then the male’s territory overlaps a few females, I’m sure you can figure out why. If your seeing mountain lions operate to get her then that is a mom teaching her children, then she is going to tell them to bounce out so she can mate again.
Holy cow, I’m normally not scared of mountain lions but a mom and triplets, that’s not something you want following you on a hike! On one property I worked at the resident mountain lion got so use to my presence that it walked across the road in front of me about 150 ft away from were I was trying to get service. It didn’t even flench, just walked across looked at me and continued to hunt in the forest in view of me for 5 minutes. I was dumbfounded! Another one followed me a lot on hikes and left scat in the road way that I saw on my hike back with a full turkey claw sticking out. I buried my cat in her territory, my mistake, and hiked 3 loads of rock to put on the grave but she still dug it up and ate my miniature mountain lion, pooped by the grave, walked down to my house and left a perfect foot print on my doorstep. I’m pretty sure she was the big creature I had to run off during the burial process! I was her guest and did my best to respect her territory. There the most magestic creatures.
For the cats’ sakes, don’t encourage it (them) to follow you or get used to your presence. Scare them for the security of all concerned, lest they get so used to you that’s you’re invited for dinner.
The Ranch Fire down here displaced a lot of cats, cougar and bob; I wish them well, for the deer population has also consolidated. This will all take several years to sort out and stabilize.
Thanks for the photos.
very cool
Thanks for that. This pulls back the curtain on some of the mysteries that go on all around us ‘hill folk’ while we live our human existence.
I have a photo from Brannan mountain of 6 lions together in one frame. Its pretty cool. The lady saw her cat on her deck was looking at the hillside and was freaked out, so she poked her head out and took the picture.
I love this part of your site. All the wild animal sightings in their natural habitats. Beautiful and awesome
Yes, beautiful and rare, thanks for sharing your sleuthing and kudos to Kim Cabrera
That’s pretty freaking awesome Kim.
IDK, maybe 15 years or so ago a woman who lived on on Seely Creek road told of being followed several times by a “pack” of 6 mountain lions. I thought that was really unusual.
I never tire of seeing stuff like this. It gives me hope.