r/Pumaconcolor

Credits: jhulianmachucam

Credits: Bearded Brothers Outdoors

Area: Torred del Paine NP, Chiliean Patagonia

Credits: Diego Lavin

Credits: The BC Wildlife Cam Project

Credits: La Opinión Austral

Area: Patagonia National Park, Chilean Patagonia.

Credits: Our Planet

Yesterday afternoon I was driving past Sara Lake on my way to Port Alice, in the north of the island, when I saw a small pullout close to the lake. I stopped the car and walked the 10–15m path through the forest that led to the lake. I saw a beaver in the distance and whistled/made some noise to catch its attention, after which I heard the sound of branches cracking behind me in the forest. Instantly thinking it was a bear, I sprinted back to my car, grabbed my bear spray and camera, and slowly walked back to try to take a picture of it from a safe distance.

I took 5–6 steps into the forest (at this point I was only about 6m from my car) when three enormous pumas jumped out in front of me, just a couple of meters away. They were so camouflaged that they appeared to come out of nowhere. Two jumped onto a big fallen tree (the one in the pic) while the third went to the right of me. I instantly took a few steps back toward the car because I wasn’t expecting to see a cougar, I wasn’t expecting it to be that close, and I definitely wasn’t expecting three of them.

I was scared shitless. I managed to take a couple of pics of one of them, but at that point I had lost sight of the other two, with one of them likely behind a bush very close to me, so I was scared they’d ambush me. In hindsight I wish I had taken more time and more pics, but it’s terrifying not knowing where they might be, especially after how they materialized in front of me.

They were very large, but I think they were likely 3 siblings or, less likely because I didn’t notice size differences, a mother with two grown cubs. I think the 3 siblings theory is more likely, as they were probably curious about the noise I made and came to check me out, and then maybe I startled them when I came back into the forest. If they had wanted to hunt me down they probably could have done it easily, and if the mum had been there she probably would have been more aggressive to protect the cubs.

All in all, I feel incredibly lucky to have experienced this with no one getting hurt. Definitely a once in a lifetime experience. Beautiful animals.

A compilation of some of the videos my cameras picked up of Coyotes (Canis latrans), an American Badger (Taxidea taxus), and a Mountain Lion/Cougar/Puma (Puma concolor) at a prairie dog town at the Nature Conservancy's Niobrara Valley Preserve in Keya Paha County, Nebraska.

I suspect that the Mountain Lion has been hunting the many deer that forage at this town. The badger and Coyotes appear to be inspecting the burrows, though only the badger could dig them up at night. The Coyotes may be hunting kangaroo rats.

You may have noticed that this camera's surroundings look a little different from before. I have moved it from its original location as it was the burrow it was near has since been filled in and it was not picking up as much activity. Hopefully I'll get some more wildlife at this spot.