Large Family Groups and Resource Sharing - Winter Mountain Lion Project Report | MPG Ranch

Large Family Groups and Resource Sharing - Winter Mountain Lion Project Report

June 2, 2020

The report focuses on a large family of cougars and on documented resource sharing with another family of cougars.

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Winter Mountain Lion Project Report

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We first identified the female mountain lion F2 in January 2013 when she was a kitten with her mother and sibling.

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F2 had a litter in the fall of 2018

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In February 2019, F2 took down a spike bull elk near a known den site we call the “culvert den.”

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The kittens are the same age, and we believe, from the same litter.

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The large family group appeared again on camera in April of 2019

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They are moving in a group with the 5 kittens tailing closely. Again, where is the 6th kitten?

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An image from July shows the mother and one of her kittens passing a remote camera on a popular travel corridor.

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The final kitten strolls through the frame just behind the others.

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at this point we began to wonder if she still had all her kittens or if something happened and she lost a couple.

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This chart represents the extent of interconnected mountain lion family lineages on MPG.

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The image above shows F9 standing on the spike elk

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The photo shows a lone male in control of the carcass

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The image shows the lone male following the family group

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We will continue to monitor the cougar population on MPG, mapping their travel routes, their families, relatedness, territories, and telling their stories

Previous Research Report

2019 Winter Mountain Lion Project Report