HikeArizona.COM

Associated Press
Aug. 28, 2006 07:05 AM
PRESCOTT - Day use areas around Granite Mountain in the Prescott National Forest were closed Sunday after a series of mountain lion sightings.

Seven men visiting the area first spotted the big cat more than a month ago, and Arizona Game and Fish officers searched for it without success, forest officials said.

This weekend, the cougar was sighted twice near Granite Basin Lake, about 10 miles northwest of Prescott, prompting the closures.

Areas closed include Granite Basin Lake, Cayuse Equestrian Area, Williamson Valley Trailhead and the Little Granite Mountain Trailhead 37. The Yavapai campground is expected to remain open.

Officials did not say how long the closures will remain in effect or if more searches are planned.

In response to Dschur's reply:

Thanks for the heads up. It is good to be reminded that they are out there. Sometimes some people do forget that we are trespassing out there. But.... Poor Kitty. Mountain lions aren't even welcome in the mountains anymore. Personally, I like my wilderness with wild things in it. Careful out there, though, everyone.

I saw some tracks in the Payson area this weekend that I strongly suspect were cougar. About the size of a small dog, but no toenail marks. There's a snap of one in my See Canyon photos.

While camping (near Clints Well) this past weekend (thursday thru sunday) I observed elk, whitetail deer, coyotes and turkeys. I also found tracks of lion and bear. Sleep on the ground in a meadow and woke up to turkeys milling about like school children with an absent teacher in the class room. See Canyon trip is upcoming, along with Horton Springs.

Saw my first wild cougar near Crazy Jug last month. Good to know they're still out there.

great to see people use the word Cougar, after all, they are not lions in any way, related to Jaguar. When I lived in Flag there were organized cat hunts, and I found it personally revolting that the forest service will hunt and shoot to death an innocent cat. Its THEIR forest, too.
(a hiker spotted a cougar in a tree NOT trailside near Mt. Elden and notified "officials" who sent a tracker in armed with .308 rifle.)

Nan wrote:I saw some tracks in the Payson area this weekend that I strongly suspect were cougar. About the size of a small dog, but no toenail marks. There's a snap of one in my See Canyon photos.

I was going to ask if that was a cougar print. It sure looks like one to me, but not a very big one.

big_load wrote:

Nan wrote:I saw some tracks in the Payson area this weekend that I strongly suspect were cougar. About the size of a small dog, but no toenail marks. There's a snap of one in my See Canyon photos.

I was going to ask if that was a cougar print. It sure looks like one to me, but not a very big one.

Bobcat maybe?

PageRob wrote: Bobcat maybe?

Maybe. There's not much difference but size.

Interesting factoid
http://www.bigcatrescue.org/cougar.htm

Jake and I ran across a Cougar / Mountain Lion feeding about 3 weeks ago on the north side of Graint Mountian. We where just cresting a small ridge when Jake the lab started acting nervous. I pulled out the binoculiars and was really lucky to have found the big cat about 150 yards off across a canyon with a javalena pulled up into a tree feeding. We watched quitly for about 10 minutes and left in the oppoiste direction. I was really lucky to have had the oppertunity to witness this event. What a adrenalin rush that was.

It makes you realize that when you enter the wilderness areas (especially off trail) that as a human you are not the top of the food chain. And even pack iron is no guaranty of your survival.

Fear not the mountain lion.The odds of getting randomly killed on any given day by a serial killer in phoenix are much greater than being killed by a mountain lion. Mountain lions wany NOTHING to do with you, me or any other human. Occasionaly one will pose a problem to livestock and I know that once in a great while, a weak, sick or old onw will attack a human, but it is really very rare. The typical knee jerk reaction the people take to mountain lions sightings astonishes me. Mountain lions are not rare OR endangered in AZ. For a few dollars and a hunting licence, anyone can buy a permit to hunt them, although why anyone would want to kill one is beyond me.

wetbeaverlover wrote:Mountain lions are not rare OR endangered in AZ.

Nooo, but...
They are fairly rare to see, at least for most people in Arizona. I had a friend that worked with them in the wild and never saw one. Its all dependant on habits. I'd bet that the average person in Az. has a better chance of seeing a condor than a cougar. Cougars don't tend to hang around when people are nearby. If you visit the South Rim of the Canyon, though, you're almost assured of seeing one.

Rob, that was my whole point..the Mountain lions are plentiful, but so rarely seen that they pose NO threat to hikers. Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh my A mountain lion sighting always inspire a knee jerk reaction. There are much more dangerous predators in AZ, Humans.

big_load wrote:

Nan wrote:I saw some tracks in the Payson area this weekend that I strongly suspect were cougar. About the size of a small dog, but no toenail marks. There's a snap of one in my See Canyon photos.

I was going to ask if that was a cougar print. It sure looks like one to me, but not a very big one.

Oops! I meant to say, large dog. Big difference.

In response to Nan's reply:

Judging by the leaf next to it, I'd say that print is definitely big enough for a cougar. I confused your picture with another possible cougar print posted somewhere (maybe here) that was next to a deer print. It wasn't as big as yours.

mikeinFHAZ wrote:great to see people use the word Cougar...

Don't forget puma, catamount, deer tiger, brown tiger, silver lion, Mexican lion, mountain screamer, mountain demon, Indian devil, purple feather, sneak cat, king cat, and panther. I usually just call them cats or lions, and in one case m***** f***er! seemed to work just as well. They don't care what you call them.

I like that one... Puma, means "swift" in Incan. I call them "far less dangerous than a mosquito, yet feared to death" literally.
So for all the L.A. to Scottsdale New Balance and North Face visor wearing kooks, yes, we still have room for wildlife here in AZ, so give them space. peace.

wetbeaverlover wrote:Rob, that was my whole point..the Mountain lions are plentiful, but so rarely seen that they pose NO threat to hikers. Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh my A mountain lion sighting always inspire a knee jerk reaction. There are much more dangerous predators in AZ, Humans.

Doh! Sometimes I hate the web...or maybe I just can't read.

On a sad note, I heard on NPR this morning that they've gone ahead and killed a cougar in that area. I guess its supposed to be the same one, but who can say for sure unless it had some distinguishing markings ("Scar on left side of face, peg leg, talked about whales")...

I have a friend of mine, who works for a professional guide service, scouting for elk last weekend by himself in unit 9 near the south rim and was stalked by a pair of lions/cougars/pumas or whatever you want to call them.
It was late at night and he was beside his truck at a water hole checking for sign with a spotlight (no he wasn't poaching) when he heard some rustling sounds in the brush to his left. He shined his light in the direction of the noise and saw a pair of glowing eyes in the distance looking at him as it moved to his rear. He thought that it might be a coyote but the eyes didn't bounce as you think they would as it trotted along. Instead the the eyes were perfectly level. As the animal moved parralell and further to the rear of him it got closer (he says within 100ft or so to the rear of his truck) until he was able to see that it was in fact a lion. At this point the lion stopped, crouched and the two of them commenced to a stare down.
As the stare down continued he heard yet another noise off to his right rear this time and suddenly another smaller lion moved out onto the side of the road at about the same distance as the other and crouched.
Now at this point Jason has seen enough and gets onto the hood of his truck and starts yelling, waving and banging on the side in order to try and convince them that he was going to be no easy pray. Both cats then stood and start moving on opposite sides of the road towards him at a slow yet steady pace.
So now faced with the fact that his shouts and other noises are doing nothing to deter this pair of lions from approaching him, he pulls out a .45 that he was carrying and fires two rapid shots into the air which immediately convinces the cats that he is not a wise choice of prey.
Shaken and filled with adrenaline he climbs off of his hood and decides that its time to end his trip to this particular water hole and head back to camp.

So what happened here? I know that these cats lead a solitary life from one another. Was this a mother teaching her almost grown cub the ways of the hunt? What amazes me was that they were stalking a human!

Now it seems to me and probably others, especially Jason, that some of these magnificent animals have lost their fear of humans. Just look at what happened in California a couple of years back when one cat attacked two separate mountain bikers a couple of hours apart killing one and mauling the other. Hours later it was tracked down by Game and Fish and the local police with a helicopter and shot. All caught on tape and shown on t.v.. But this was in an area where civilization was encroaching into the lions territory. Yet he was in the middle of nowhere.

The sad part about it is that this kind of behavior is going to get a lot of them killed. I'm sure if he had reported this to the Game and Fish, they might have had an armed posse out looking for these two lions the next morning. But he figured that it wasn't worth it because it was he who was in their backyard. I would have probably done the opposite.

On a side note, there is always the debate as to why some hikers carry firearms while out on the trail. Maybe this story will answer that burning question.

I read a post on another website that a guy was out in the Superstitions later at night and he also heard rustling like something (mountain lion) was stalking him. Night is the time of all cats in the wild. It's not surprising that they would stalk a human at night, but might not have any intention of killing, because they are not their normal prey. They probably don't do that much in the day, because they know they can be seen. Cat watch and stalk movement. I guess a good rule is to not hike alone at night.

http://www.gf.state.az.us/w_c/mtn_lion_attacks.shtml
We have had 2 attacks (non-fatal) resulting in injuries in Arizona.

The last mountain lion attack occurred in Arizona in April 2000 when a 4-year-old girl was seriously injured while camping with her family at Bartlett Lake near Phoenix. The lion crushed the back of the girl’s skull, nicked her carotid artery and inflicted several deep puncture wounds before her father was able to chase the animal away. A short time later, the lion returned to the scene and was killed by a Game and Fish Department officer.
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