Fresh tracks, especially in or after a fresh snowfall, can highlight all kinds of information—species of animal, direction of travel and sometimes even particular details. Check out the photos and story posted on the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Facebook page about a mountain lion that caused a bit of mischief.
Bad Kitty – Good Kitty – Bad Kitty:
If you live in the country, you probably have had any number of critters that have tried to take up residence in or under your shed or barn, probably unnoticed in some cases. But in this case, a cougar living under a shed near Mead, Washington, didn’t go unnoticed.
Officer Beauchene and Sergeant Sprecher paid the homeowner a visit after he had spotted the cat running from the property. If the numerous tracks coming and going from under the building didn’t make it clear the animal was there to stay, the cached dead deer did. Officers were unable to locate the cougar, so they set up a camera. The cougar was captured on camera early the next morning and officers and houndsmen responded to haze the cougar from the area. The cougar was pursued and treed by dogs and the deer kill was removed from the site.
The following day the cougar had not returned, but may have caused some property damage at a residence not far from there. Evidently, a cougar had walked on the rooftop of a house a few miles away, and then it jumped down onto a car, denting the roof in. Cougar tracks in the snow told the story.
(Photo source: Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police)