Mountain Lions and Bears

My first sighting of a cougar/mountain lion! 

On our way home from a very nice Christmas Eve dinner with friends, a lion bounded across the road and climbed a high bank to disappear into the trees. Big as a Great Dane, with a low-slung, sleek tan body, what struck me most was the size of its tail. It was as long as an axe-handle and waved about keeping the lion balanced as it climbed.  

Orianne, my wife, has seen lions many times, but this is my first in 16 years living in the Rocky Mountain foothills above Boulder. We have distant neighbors who seem convinced that the local lions are about to gang up and eat them. They sent out flyers detailing the imminent attacks a few years ago.  So far, the local lions don’t seem to bother humans much.  They do take a cat or small dog now and then.  You see the rather sad notices on the electric poles around the neighborhood asking for news of lost pets.   

Most attacks on people take place in remote areas of Colorado where the lions have had little human contact.  Usually it is on a child or jogger running alone down an empty trail.  From the lion’s point of view, the runner looks like strange, spooked prey. We have two children who have grown up in the mountains.  They have wandered and played in the pine forests around the house all their lives, without fear.