Cougar Triple Play in Tucson

[LosDosSloFolks]

This photo was taken yesterday morning in our friends back yard at the base of Sabino Canyon. The three are drinking from the overflow of his artesian spring. Looks like the classic shot you would see in Tanzania of lions drinking at a waterhole. Upon showing this shot to Josh Taiz, the wildlife biologist at Sabino Visitor Center/Coronado National Forest, he concurred that the cat on the left was the mother and the other two were her two twins likely about a year and a half old. If you look carefully you can see small dimple spots on their twins’ coats attesting to their youth; as compared to the darker and more consistent chestnut coat of the mature mother.
Josh said that a mature cougar need one deer a week to survive, and that these three cats likely were killing three to four deer each week. Maybe less, depending on random hors-d’oeuvres in the form of poodles and fluffy cats fatally using their pet doors in the middle of the night.

[chumley]

Thankfully azgfd keeps bringing sheep from other parts of the state and dropping them in the area. They won’t go hungry anytime soon.

[LosDosSloFolks]

@chumley
I didn't know that. Even with hunting permits it's amazing we have enough of a Bighorn surplus to helicopter them around wherever they are needed.

[LosDosSloFolks]

This story which broke first on HAZ has made the local media markets...



https://www.kold.com/2019/07/26/caught- ... er-feature


https://kvoa.com/news/local-news/2019/0 ... no-canyon/









[ youtube video ]