Mountain Lions in Marin County

Would you believe that prior to some recent efforts, the last published, scientifically verified, mountain lion in Marin County was in 1931!  This charismatic animal had accumulated many fleeting sightings in local lore in the following decades, but there was sparse verifiable evidence (e.g. a clear photograph or museum specimen) that could bump the sightings up a notch to merit a place in the scientific record. 

With the relatively recent increased availability of motion-activated wildlife cameras (camera traps), wary species like the mountain lion are more readily documented.  I highly recommend checking out Nature of a Man and Sebastian Kennerknecht to see masterful camera trap imagery of this species. 

Local biologist, Ginny Fifield, combined good, old-fashioned tracking prowess with the technology of camera traps, and did a lovely job of documenting our local mountain lions.  She has been consistently documenting one local male since 2010.  Her work was recently published, and is available here, including photos of this fellow and a description about what makes him unique.  He is still quietly living his life here, and photos and videos of him are continually being added to  http://wildfelids.smugmug.com in the "Mountain Lions in Marin County" gallery.

There are now a number of other project which have also been documenting this species locally, and I look forward to learning more about this species in the coming years. 

And if news of this species occurring here is new to you, I encourage you to be excited and not concerned.  Mountain lion attacks on humans are VERY rare, in the past 125 years, (since 1890) there have been only 16 verified mountain lion attacks on humans in California, and few of those were fatal.  Taking a bath or owning a puppy is much more hazardous statistically.  Mountain lions really prefer to avoid people and enjoy their deer dinner in peace. 

For additional information on Mountain Lions in California:
https://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/lion/lion_faq.html
http://www.dfg.ca.gov/wildlife/lion/
http://bapp.org/
http://www.mountainlion.org/FAQfrequentlyaskedquestions.asp
http://www.felidaefund.org/?q=species-mountain-lion
http://www.mountainlion.org/CAL_ch1.asp

Hawk Spa

One of the great things about camera traps, is the glimpse into the behavior of wildlife when they are quite sure no one is watching.

I know that birds take baths, many of us have just fantastic bird baths to encourage this!  However, it seems that passerines are a bit less shy than raptors about bathing in public.  I never had the honor of seeing a hawk take a bath before I checked the cams last week.



This bird took it's sweet time in the creek.  From the time it first triggered the camera, until it flew off, it was in the water about 20 minutes, just before 10am.  That water is really chilly, it is in a nice shady riparian area.  It seems like it was moving in nice and slowly, getting it's toes and tail feathers used the the water, before going in for the full plunge.

The rest of the videos from this set are from wood ducks, floating upstream and downstream in front of the camera, and repeating, and repeating.  At least they are very pretty birds!  Hopefully we'll see them with babies in a couple months.

Bobcat Whiskers

I've gotten a number of bobcat images at this location, but they are all facing away from the camera, and most are at night.  I was thrilled this time, when this lovely critter came down the trail February 9 at 8:30 in the morning, came in for a close up, and even paused for effect.



This set covered much of January and half of February.  The previous few months there were a lot of deer images.  However, this set of images just had one deer trigger, and the deer was moving slowly, as though it may have an injury.  This set is in a suburban area, with lots of irrigated vegetation.  We have had a very dry fall and winter so far, and finally had a few days of rain in the past couple of weeks.  I wonder if the deer I've been seeing were hanging around the houses for the irrigated vegetation, then moved back to the open space areas when the rain brought up the natural vegetation.

More cute kitten videos (the bobcat kind)

This last month, the bobcat and her kitten returned up the trail together, this time during the day.  I love how rambunctious this kitten seems.

Although Bobcats can be born throughout the year in this area, most are born in the late spring to early summer.  The young begin accompanying their mother on hunting excursions at about 3 months, and remain with her until the next litter is born.  I imagine this young one has just a couple more months with Mom.

The adult came up the trail first, and from the looks of the "Bobcat Boogie" footshake, possibly stepped in something wet and/or unpleasant on the way.


References:
The American Society of Mammologists Species Account.  http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/VHAYSSEN/msi/pdf/i0076-3519-563-01-0001.pdf

Where the deer and the deer play

I have a new found love of the video on camera traps.  It is so fun to see behaviors when the critters are kind enough to demonstrate them in front of the camera.

These two young bucks play sparred in front of the camera for about 2 minutes, although they were in the area grazing from about 2:30 a.m.-3 a.m..  As they are leaving, 20 minutes after the first tussle seems to have ended, they start rough housing again near the outside range of the camera.



For me, the best part of getting these two on film, is that I have other photos of them together from earlier this year, but not from this set.  These are the same two deer as in the Odd Odocoileus post from June.  In the video, you can see that one of them is missing the right antler, and the other has distinctive ear injuries, visible in the thumbnail of the image below (although they seem to be healing).  The photos from May and June were taken about a mile away from Location B, through quite a bit of residential development and steep topography.  It is exciting to be able to document part of the range of these individual deer through their physical abnormalities.

The tarsal gland of the deer with both antlers is clearly visible in a few of the videos (one of which is below).  There is no similarly visible patch on the one antlered deer.  Apparently more dominant deer have larger and more active tarsal glands that subordinate deer, and I wonder if that is something we are seeing here.




References:
Lee Rue III, Leonard . The Deer of North America. 1997. 
http://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/2009/11/how-whitetail-glands-work

Bobkitten

I just checked the camera up at Location B. It had just been 4 weeks since the last check.  Overall, there has been a fairly consistent run of deer, raccoons, coyote, and occasionally a bobcat, so I was flipping through the images expecting more of the same.  We did get more of the same, but with a nice twist on all counts.  It is things like this that make watching the preceding 100 videos of trees-in-wind still so exciting from the anticipation!

The first video is a healthy looking coyote cruising the trail in broad daylight.  It is unusual for this location, the vast majority of triggers are after dark.  This was taken at about 8 a.m.. Lovely animal.




The next video is a sweet scene of a Bobcat kitten leading it's mother up the trail. Towards the end of the video, the adult cat turns and looks towards the camera, and there is a moment of eyeshine.  I would have loved to see them coming back down the trail also, for some face shots. However, this cat always seems to be heading this direction on this trail. It might be time to flip the camera.



More on the other visitors to come soon.

The Towhee and the Hare?

Ginny Fifield caught this hilarious video of interspecies interaction with her camera trap set in west Marin.  Take a look and please let me know what you think this Jackrabbit is doing.  I believe that the bird in the video is a California Towhee.

Jackrabbit chasing off the rufus ruffians - Credit: Ginny Fifield

"This is a unique (and funny) video of a jackrabbit chasing birds. Other than the exhibited behavior of chasing birds, I'm not sure what the intention is. Is it just the "fun" of chasing or does it actually intend to catch the bird? And, if it does catch the bird, what will the jackrabbit do with it? This video was taken on 8-13-2011 @ 0826h." - Ginny

At first I thought that this may be a mother defending young nearby, but this species supposedly does not protect young like that.  

References:

http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/image_info.cfm?species_id=137

http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/animals/mammal/leca/all.html

Happy Halloween - Wildlife Cam Style!

In previous years, I've noticed some marks on our Jack-O-Lanterns, and they've been moved around. I had my suspicions who the culprits might be. This year I put a couple of wildlife cams on the carved pumpkins. I also left the seeds inside the pumpkins, added a few other enticing household items, and didn't carve out the top to make it harder to get into. I got this video the second night out.


I don't think the culprits are surprising, but seeing the whole family was a treat.  

As a side note, you can see the white flash occasionally in the video, it is from a separate cam taking still shots.  The raccoons seem completely unperturbed by the light.  Here are some of the still shots (please ignore the time stamp month and time).  

'Tis the season - young wildlife out and about

As summer starts to melt into fall, the young of the year are out and about.

This young family of raccoons is likely demonstrating how the knowledge of weekly raids of garbage cans is passed on from one generation to the next.  I do think it is adorable how the little one is always scampering to catch up with its older/bigger relatives.

Going to the Grocery Store


And Returning Home



There is also this brief video of a coyote, who looks quite a bit smaller than others filmed in the same spot.  I'm guessing this may be an older pup.  Any thoughts on that?

Trail Cam Pic of Puma Stalking Moose with Calf

Ok, so this isn't Marin.  But it is just such a great series I had to share it!  

Steve Bromley got this amazing series of images, showing a Puma stalking a Moose and calf at his set in Montana.  If you check the date/time stamp on the bottom of these photos, you will see that the Puma crosses the cameras path less than a minute after you see the Moose glancing tensely over her shoulder.

Credit: Steve Bromley 

Credit: Steve Bromley

Thank you Steve for letting me share these, and thanks Vic for telling me about them!

Camera Trapping in Marin

I'm finally getting to some camera trapping results!

After some serious inspiration by the Camera Trap Codger's class last year, I got permission to set some cameras up on a few local public and private local properties.  I've got a little over a year's worth of results, and there are some fun shots that I want to share.  

The first set is "Location B".  Location B is on a property in the middle of densely wooded suburban development.  There is a small adjacent open space parcel with a seasonal water source.  Most properties in the region are not fenced, and there is extensive open space within range of many species.  The habitat is dominantly oak woodland, grassland, and riparian.   

This is one of my first nice Bobcat images from that site from last year.

  I just pulled this video from the camera yesterday.  It was taken roughly 3 weeks ago.  Watch until the very end of the clip for a surprise.    

Coyotes Close - My Side of the Mountain

We have a resident pack of coyotes here.  I occasionally hear them yipping up the hill and night, and despite knowing the stats about what a low risk they are, the sound still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It is definitely a very wild sound, and much more welcome than car alarms.  The local coyotes are a regular trigger for the camera traps, but I have never seen one here in person until yesterday morning.  Just out our kitchen window, trotting smoothly across the hill up behind our neighbors house, was a healthy looking red coyote.  The neighbor had mentioned seeing one out there a week or so ago.  This morning, it went trotting by just at the opportune time my camera was taken apart for downloading pictures.  I think I'll name the coyote Murphy...

Luckily I have some images from the set up the hill, it is very nearby, and likely the same individual, or at least from the same pack.  Most of the images from that spot are black and white IR night shots, but I have one from during daylight where you can see the nice coat color.  The coyote looked a little shaggier when the photo was taken a few months ago, it looked almost brushed out now.

This individual was inspecting the camera after a curious human passer by had unsuccessfully tried to remove it from a tree, and left it at ground level.  Bushnell isn't great on the close focus, but very nice on the anti-theft options!

I do have to wonder if the coyote's new bold appearance has anything to do with the new neighbor recently letting their four coyote-naive cats outdoors.  Although cats don't make up a large part of the coyote's diet, they are not one to pass up on that opportunity.   The timing was uncanny.

Hopefully someday I'll be lucky enough to discover where these residents are denning, and attempt to get some shots like these amazing images captured by RandomTruth (Warming: incredibly cute).  Until then, I'll be happy with some nice pics of the adults.  The two sightings were both during daylight hours, so I'm hopeful for some additional color shots.

References and articles:
http://www.projectcoyote.org/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/science/28coyotes.html?_r=2&ref=science&pagewanted=1
http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/image_info.cfm?species_id=29
http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/VHAYSSEN/msi/pdf/i0076-3519-079-01-0001.pdf