Erin Hauge
Blog by Erin Hauge
This past weekend I was privileged to go tracking with experienced trackers at the Bohemia Ecological Preserve. This 1,000-acre Preserve is owned by LandPaths and is located near Occidental, CA. Access is possible through guided tours and volunteer opportunities.
The Bohemia Ecological Preserve is much different than the Cosumnes River Preserve. The landscape varies greatly in elevation and includes coastal prairie meadows, stands of old-growth fir and redwood, hardwood riparian forest, chaparral and oak woodlands. While the lower Cosumnes River Preserve where our lion camera project is taking place is mainly in the flat and disrupted landscapes of the Central Valley, the topography of the Bohemia Ecological Preserve is at higher elevations and includes mountain ridgetops of the Coast ranges. Mountain lions would interact with each landscape very differently. It was easy to see why mountain lions would do well on the Bohemia Ecological Preserve as the large, uninterrupted and varied terrain offers rich resources and remote locations for hunting, shelter, mating and raising young.
Our guides have been attempting to trail at least one mountain lion on the property for several months and our plan on this day was to drive back in to a remote access location and then hike farther in to observe recent tracks, scrapes and any other sign we might find of mountain lion activity. And our guides had informed us that if we picked up fresh sign of a lion in the vicinity we’d be working as a team to trail the cat!
Our group walked quietly as we started out along the oak-shaded trail, stopping at an old bridge where bobcats had a latrine. A wildlife latrine is a spot that an animal or animals use repeatedly to defecate. Many species create latrines, including rodents and raccoons. This bobcat latrine had a lot of feces and was clearly a well-used defecation location! We marked the difference between coyote scat and bobcat scat. Since this is the time of year when fawns are still smaller than adult-size, they’re a main food of coyotes. So this time of year, we’d expect to see coyote scat full of deer hair, squishy and twisty looking. Bobcat scat can take on different forms but is generally well segmented and more solid. When broken apart there’s a felty look and consistency. This difference in coyote and bobcat scat in part is because coyotes cannot digest hair and bobcats do a better job of breaking down hair in their gut.
Bobcat scat tends to be more solid and may look like felt on the inside. Coyote scat can be more squishy and may contain more undigested hair. Erin Hauge
We gradually ascended to where the trees gave way to stands of redwoods, firs and maple. Along the path we saw several sites where a lion had made a scrape. Scrapes are very subtle marks on the ground that can be easy to miss. They're made when a lion kicks the duff back with both hind legs to make a small pile of material that is marked by the scent glands located in the lion’s paws. Both male and female lions will scrape. Males scrape frequently to mark territory and make their presence known. Females will scrape when they’re ovulating and receptive to mating so males in the area are alerted to the opportunity. In one scrape area there were 3 to 4 separate scrape events within about an 8-foot diameter. As you looked left and right from where we stood on the trail, it was easy to discern a corridor up a small woody ravine to the left and a more steep inclined travel way trailing to the right. A crossroads! And the guide confirmed that he’d trailed a cat up the ravine on the left for about a mile and found a fresh lion kill, an old buck. So it could be that this lion would want to firmly alert other lions with a scrape every time he passes that intersection so other lions don’t get ideas about that food cache!
Lion scrape. Erin Hauge
Multiple mountain lion scrapes. These subtle duff piles are marked with lion scent from back paws and are used to signal information to other mountain lions. Erin Hauge
Our guides led us to a cool and shady flat riparian area surrounded by tall trees and high hillsides. The ground in the flat areas was still damp and muddy and our guide told us that during winter rainy seasons, the water would be about up to our necks where we stood. But this day we found lion tracks! Not fresh ones, but made less than a week prior. It was clear there was more than one lion and our guides said there was likely a male using the area as well as a female and youngsters – not baby kittens but maybe teenagers.
A damp and muddy riparian area on the Bohemia Ecological Preserve that mountain lions frequent. Erin Hauge
We saw front paw tracks, back paw tracks and double register tracks where the animal’s front and back paw step in the same space as they move, leaving literally a double track. Front paws are more round than long with a large back pad. Back paws are longer than they are wide. Our guides pointed out that not only are the individual tracks important but it’s also necessary to gauge the stride of the animal as you track. Animals generally have four gaits – walking, trotting, loping and galloping. Gait holds much information about energy and motivation and discovering the intention of the animal can give you important clues to what the animal was doing when they passed by and even where they might be going.
A mountain lion's front paw track is wider or rounder than it is long and the back paw track is longer than it is wide. Erin Hauge
Mountain lion double register track, where the back paw steps right in the front paw's track. Erin Hauge
At one particularly clear and beautiful track, our guide asked us to put our fingers into the toe pad tracks of the lion to feel the span and breadth of that paw. It was a powerful moment to engage those toe points there in the dirt with my own fingers, knowing that you touched down where this magnificent animal had touched down and imagining the power and energy and thoughts of that cat as it stepped along.
Walking where the lions walk! Erin Hauge
In addition to the lion tracks, there were many opossum tracks in the muddiest part of the pond bed – clearly a family as the tracks varied in size from adult to smaller than adult. They probably pass through looking for frogs and insects to eat. There were also some old deer tracks on the flat, always a good sign because that means there’s food for big predators like mountain lions, coyotes and bobcats in the area.
Opossum track in the mud bottom of the dry pond. Erin Hauge
Our guides pointed out a spot on the high side of one of the dry stream beds that fed into the pond area where a lion had made a trail in the tall vegetation there and actually sat down to ponder how to cross the 20-foot span before choosing a point and leaping to the other side, landing in the soft mud of the bank and leaving deep impressions with front paws and stabilizing tracks as back legs landed second before scrambling up the bank to flat ground.
Where a lion sat to look before a leap! Erin Hauge
This would have been a big leap for a lion and something to see! The fact that the lion sat to evaluate the situation is a testament to his or her intelligence and problem-solving abilities. All lions are individuals with different levels of experience and different ways of handling things.
This lion leapt a 20-foot stream channel and landed in the muddy bank. Look closely at the upper left impression and you'll see a paw track! Erin Hauge
It was also interesting to see that dragonflies are still busy mating in September. It was warm and sunny where we were and it still felt like summer. We watched a male dragonfly threaten a mating pair and he eventually knocked the engaged male off the female so he could mate with her. We also saw more peaceful encounters that looked like they’d be successful. Dragonflies need water to lay their eggs and we wondered how these individuals were dealing with that as there was no surface water that we could see where we were on this day.
Dragonflies mating. Erin Hauge
We didn't find fresh mountain lion sign on this day but everyone learned so much and we walked where lions walk! Every bit of dirt time gives you more exposure and experience towards understanding the wild lives we share space with. Tune in next week for another update on looking for lions at the Cosumnes River Preserve!
