Cougars on my trail cameras

[smithkl42]

I went out to check my trail cameras today, and got this video of three cougars passing by (presumably a mother and two kits?):

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LV-1ixyXxAhh8uibOPZsGwPgeplGlNG5

(I apologize for the poor quality - it's a cheap trail camera, and was coming off of a pretty wet winter...)

[Dan-o]

Cool video.

Thanks for sharing.

[Lucky1]

  nice job!

[huntingfool7]

Not sure what I did differently.  First time opening it your entire collection (and email) came up including the cell phone # of a guy wanting your pictures.
Second time around after Dan-O posted, the cougar video loaded.  Nice video...weird glitch.

[bowhunterforever]

Cool video.

Thanks for sharing.

[emac]

Cool video but those look alot bigger than kittens. I am no expert in the matter but i would say it might be 2 males sniffing out a female

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[Magnum_Willys]

Time to find a new hunt spot.......... 

[Okanagan]

Emac, could be two males maybe following a female, though cougar males have some ferocious fights, and pretty frequently.  Cougar young stay with the mother up to two years, and IME judging by tracks may be as big as their mother by the time they move out on their own.  I'd lean with the original poster that it is two youngsters with a mama.  Great video capture.

I.e. I came across the fresh tracks of three adult cougars where they crossed a logging road together in two inches of fresh snow.  Season was not open but I tracked them for curiosity.  By the time I had followed them 300 yards I noticed a pattern.  One track followed the most efficient route up the gentle ridge, while the other two weaved back and forth, going to the right to sniff a stump, going left of the route to scratch a log, walking more steps, checking out more things, showing more curiosity and energy.  Also, by then I could not measure for sure but something about the more straight line track looked a trace bigger or looked somehow more mature.  I concluded that it was a mama lion and two youngsters who were as big as their mom.  I could be wrong.

Also tracked three lions off and on for five miles up a valley last year:  a big track, an average adult track and a smallish adult track.  The mid sized track stayed within 30 yards of the big track while the smaller one seemed to follow the others at least 50-75 yards to one side.  I am not sure but suspect a big male was courting a female who had just kicked out her young adult kitten, and the kitten was following them, maybe hoping his mother would return to him. 

Re the video:  I wish we could see the inside of the legs better but in slow mo it looks to me like the second lion has faint spots or a band inside his front leg, a mark of a young adult

[smithkl42]

FWIW, they stayed there for a bit. Here are the two other videos that have something of them in it. Not sure they add much to the first, but maybe one of you could see something in it I missed:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yYJKsE9Sy-j0uksQfaeQtfKuobPmTxRe

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TIhRcHARhEk0ojV5ij1TrVrgo-cLLzHa/view?usp=sharing

And this still from another trail camera in the area, from Friday (so at least one is still in the area):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QoqxuBfC1ST7iXq46Q51RX0DfuGg-Yut/view?usp=sharing

[Lucky1]

Time to find a new hunt spot.......... 

Unless you are hunting lions.

[smithkl42]

This is 407. Still open for 5 more days :-).

Probably won't get out again during that time, regrettably. Called for a bit while I was up there yesterday, nothing interesting responded, but I'm a complete newbie and it's highly likely I'm doing something wrong...

[jasnt]

I have seen cubs stick together for a while after getting pushed off mom.  Few winters ago I had five cougar frequenting my trap line area and that spring(feb) mom came in heat. Big Tom paired up with her and the 4 cubs stuck together at least till snow was gone. Never did get t-cam pics of the cubs