Some pumas are really good at evading capture (like 3M from last week’s post). They either do a great job hiding (from hound-dog noses) in trees, or learn to avoid our cages while feeding on our baits.
One of the males we have been trying to recapture for months now, 26M, just recently bested us again this last Tuesday in Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve. This time, he was treed early in the morning, but jumped out when Paul arrived on the scene to dart him (maybe all the lions are scared of Paul’s face now!). After getting treed one more time, he disappeared without a trace and now is sauntering around happily in a property where we can’t reach him.
We couldn’t catch him, but at least we got a photo (by Tom McElroy)
Our unofficial lion portrait photographer, Tom McElroy, was around again and got a shot of 26M before he disappeared for good. You can see that he’s become a pretty muscular dude! If I were a deer (or young male lion) in his home range, I’d tread extra carefully these days… Maybe next time, we will have better luck.