4 lions seen together

[Rufous]

I went for a hike this afternoon/evening up in the Blue Mtns and saw 4 mountain lions together. In the past I have only seen singles and one time I saw 2 together. I was quite surprised to see so many together. They seemed similar in size, although I was about 600 yards from them. Does anyone know how likely it is for a female to have 3 cubs and when (how old would the cubs be) she normally kicks them out to fend for themselves? I do not know if it was momma with 3 big cubs or 4 siblings hunting together or what. That brings my total lion sightings to 13. Saw my first one back in August of 1999.

[Skyvalhunter]

Way cool would have been nice to get some pics of that. A friend of mine saw 3 together a mom and 2 young ones. They young ones were rolling in the road. What he would have paid for a camera about then

[Gutpile]

I saw that back in 91 when I worked for the forest service in Avery ID. They had been seen before apparently earlier that spring, at that time two were full grown and 2 were spotted. When we saw them they were full grown. It was quite a sight. We came around a corner and they were sunning themselves in the road. They all slinked off and melted away. Made the hair stand up on my neck. Spooky. This is way back in the boonies, about 2 hours south of avery by steamboat and noseeum lakes.

[mulehunter]

Wow... My frined saw two and other frined of mine saw three and I have seen two this year already. Oh boy Look like Biologlist agents been spend a lot of time at Starbuck!    No wonder why Cougar hunting Season is so MIXED!

Mulehunter  

[Huntboy]

I could be wrong but I believe I was told once a female can have up to 6 kittens.

[carpsniperg2]

you probably right 4 litter mates would be my guess

[Kain]

How they develop: Cougars begin breeding at about 3 years of age. Typical litters have 1 to 6 kittens born after a 3-month pregnancy (people have a 9-month pregnancy). Their eyes open in 8 or 9 days and the young are weaned from the mother in 2 to 3 months. The kittens may remain with the mother into their second year.

http://depts.washington.edu/natmap/facts/cougar_k6.html

Could be a young mother with 3 older cubs or 4 litter mates.

Here is some rough math I did using a study for predicting cougar populations out of Oregon.

Ok I read the study but it is for you smarter types to really understand. I did pull out the basic numbers though.
https://research.wsulibs.wsu.edu:8443/dspace/bitstream/2376/1033/1/v76%20p15%20Keister%20Jr.%20and%20Van%20Dyke.PDF
 
Estimated population 1900-2100 (kittens excluded)
Female/Male ratio 50/50. Could be higher males in Washington do to more females being harvested. But with only ~200 cats being harvested and an estimate of 60% of those being female the difference would only be ~20 less females than males from the year before.  
http://wdfw.wa.gov/wlm/game/management/2009-2015/final_game_management_plan_2009-2015.pdf Page 85

So out of 950-1050 females 75% would breeding age.  
712.5-787.5 females with an annual pregnancy rate of 63%.  448.9-496.1 females will have an average of 2.4 kittens.
That is 1077-1191 new kittens.
Adjusted for mortality of 31% (this includes the kittens dieing due to the mother dieing) would be 743-822 new kittens in a year.

[bearmanric]

in 86 a friend was bugleing elk in eastern oregon sledsprings, he was calling and saw several cougar's a 100 yards away. at first it was cool but the tree younger one's started stalking him. the mother satayed back and watched. he then got nervous. he backed out of there was along mile or so back to his truck. was alot of cougar's there and that was in 86. they will be alot more here now that we cant hardly hunt them. Rick

[MtnMuley]

Must have a been a neat sight!  I would guess a mom and her litter, which could be all about the same size.

[BLUEBULLS]

I know 2 other guys that have seen 4 together in the blues. once about 3 or 4 years ago turkey hunting and once last year in November.

[LongTatLaw]

no tag?

[eastsidebugle]

I have only seen 3 together mom and two kits

[Axle]

A friend of mine did see one with 5 little ones with her. That was several years ago in a unit just north of the Nile unit.

My thoughts on that?

[batch]

Were you up around bluewood? I was talking to a friend the other day and said he ran into a guy that had also seen four that crossd ther trail in front of him