Mountain Lion Research

scottV

My dad is a wildlife vet working for a UC Davis program that monitors mountain lions in the southern california area. Springtime is their trapping season, they have caught & collared 4 new lions in the past week. Although he's been doing it for a few years Tuesday night was the first chance I have had to actually join them, it's usually an entire night during the week waiting around for the cat to show up in some far off remote location. Fortunately this one was roughly a 10 minute drive from my house and he was in the cage by 8:30 so I headed out.

Once caught, they get a full examination, blood drawn, measured, weighed, etc. and then let back out in the wild with a radio collar. The collar reads gps coordinates at a set interval so their territory & patterns can be tracked.

1. Getting everything ready, it was a pretty dark night and occasionally you would hear the metal cage rattling around in the darkness, spooky.


2. We hiked up a dry creek bed and got to the cage where this guy was just lounging around enjoying a nice buffet dinner.


3. With all the new people around he started to show some interest.


4. Approaching the cage to dart him he started hissing and growling, pretty frightening sound, wish I had a video camera at the time.


5. Sleepy time now, getting him out of the cage and retrieving dart.


6. Carrying him back to the road for examination.


7. Through the brush


8. Starting the checkup


9. Working by headlight.


10. Tagged


11.


12. Lots of activity


13.


14. Check out those chompers


15. Weighed in at a respectable 114 pounds.


16. Cute feet


17. Had to get my picture with him before he woke up


18. Coming around


19. Time to go!


It was definitely an exciting experience to get to see an amazing wild animal up close like that, and sad that they have such a fragile existence in this area.
Photographically it was challenging because although I had strobes I only used them a couple of times to keep from annoying him as much as possible. The rest of the shots were available light from flashlights with the iso cranked to 1600 or 3200.

Mike J

Awesome set. Thanks for sharing these. What an opportunity to see such a beautiful large cat in a wild setting. Kind of spooky that it was just 10 minutes from your home though.

Are there any public links to the GPS data that is being collected? Would love to see their ranges.

jthomas

Nice job under very difficult lighting conditions.

geospatial_junkie

Nice job staying alive! Seriously though, nice photos.

Phyxius

Very cool! Really great shots, some are awesome for the conditions and then the ones that have the motion blur, light trails are just great too. They have a really neat feel and I think the mix is much more interesting than if all were strobe shots. They kind of project a haste, movement, intensity...something. Whatever you call, I like them!!

Thanks for sharing them with us!

Ann McRae

Thanks for sharing this - great journalism, very interesting photos! Bravo.

ann

pathfinder

Cool pictures and great story.

I'll bet it is kind of spooky to work with big cats like that in the dark in the wilderness.

Big cats are absolutely silent when they are running down prey.

How do I know this for certain?

I was shooting a photograph of a lion in an enclosure, and paying close attention to composition. I did not hear a another lion run all the way across the compound until the moment it slammed into the 2 inch chain link separating it from me with all four feet, and splashed me with rain, mud, and cat saliva from head to toe. I still have some mud on the focusing ring of one of my lenses from that experience. This will definitely raise your heart rate!! I did not know that cat was even about until the moment it hit the fence. My spotter, whose job was to watch out for other cats, was asleep at the switch er, oggling one of the female attendants

Here is one of mine from The Exotic Feline Rescue Center

Exotic Feline Rescue Center

scottV

Thanks all! It was lots of fun, hopefully I get another chance to go out, have other shots in mind that I would like to get now.

I've seen their paths plotted on printed maps, IIRC they have a pretty large area that they roam around in, I will try to get one and post it up here.