November 2019 • Nebraskaland 25
It's hard to believe an animal that
looks like this may grow into something
capable of bringing down a bull elk, isn't
it? Mountain lion kittens, also correctly
referred to as cubs, are born at just
over one pound with a spotted coat and
blue eyes. They get bigger. Adult female
mountain lions typically weigh in at 85-110
pounds, while toms are 120-180. They
measure 7-8 feet from nose to tail and 2-3
feet in height at the shoulder.
Researchers tag the kittens when they
are four to five weeks old – any earlier
and they put the kittens at risk, any older
and they are hard to catch. The kittens
are surprisingly docile during the process.
Dens are sometimes found tucked under
picturesque rock overhangs such as
this one, but more frequently under the
entangled branches of downed trees. The
spotted fur, which fades out over their first
year, makes for effective camouflage.
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For this 2016 photo, Game and Parks
biologist and cougar researcher Linsey
Blake helped me push, pull and drag
about 100 pounds of photo equipment
over a long stretch of downed, burned
timber in the Pine Ridge. It was one of
our first success stories in capturing
camera trap imagery with this system,
and not the last time the researchers
would go out of their way to assist my
goal of documenting their project.
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Nebraska has three documented populations of mountain lions
with reproduction, and cats often wander to other parts of the
state. Most of the state's telemetry research on the species has been
conducted in the Pine Ridge of the state's northwestern corner.
