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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Cats Among Us

I got a nice surprise on Monday when I was able to join my friend Scott, in town on business, for an impromptu lunchtime run.  We were short on time so I decided a quick run along the shoreline starting from the zoo would be our best option.  After reaching one of the upper trails above This Is The Place park I noticed a streak moving down the hill in front of us.  We both stopped in our tracks, jaws on the ground and watched as a bobcat bound through the grass about 50 meters in front of us.  It was truly amazing.  Turns out it was the first time either one of us had seen one outside the zoo and it was right there on trails we run all the time.

Photo: from jimandsue60
Of course this led to a discussion about the other cat we have yet to see in the wild, the holy grail of animal sightings, the mountain lion.  The bobcat hunts squirrels, rabbits, birds and the occasional small deer while the mountain lion tends to go after bigger prey.  Now, as far as I know humans have yet to be attacked by a mountain lion along the Wasatch Front (at least in recent times) but we all know they are out there silently watching us.  I still hope to eventually see a mountain lion, I just hope it's from a comfortable distance...
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6 comments:

  1. peterOctober 7, 2009 at 5:58 AM

    spectacular!

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  2. kar jarOctober 7, 2009 at 1:23 PM

    Very cool, I'm jealous.

    Here's a presentation on cougar attacks I thought was interesting.
    http://www2.for.nau.edu/research/pb1/curr_proj/Puma%20Attacks_files/v3_document.htm

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  3. Jeff GerkeOctober 7, 2009 at 4:17 PM

    Very cool. I've seen one lion in the Wasatch. Wonder how many have seen me?

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  4. Scott DunlapOctober 7, 2009 at 5:38 PM

    Cool! I love this little guys. They have the best faces.

    SD

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  5. AnonymousOctober 8, 2009 at 12:25 PM

    Hey Christian -

    Back in May of this year, I saw a mountain lion up in Red Butte when I was out walking my dog. It was a Sunday afternoon, so there were tons of people out, and it was just walking up the road, completely oblivious to me and my dog and a couple other people. It didn't look to be full-grown, and my dog is pretty burly, so I wasn't at all afraid of it attacking me. I even ran after it for a bit to get a better look.

    The entire experience was pretty cool, but I'm way more concerned about mountain lions now than I was before.

    --d

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  6. UnknownOctober 9, 2009 at 10:48 AM

    That was awesome! Thanks for the run Christian! And thanks to you and Betsy for din-din.

    Scott

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