The exhibit has a very realistic scene of a lion over a deer. A healthy lion will kill and eat a deer every week. Mountain lions have the largest range of any land mammal in the Americas. They can be found from northern Canada to the tip of South America. They can adapt to a variety of habitats, needing cover to hide where they can wait for and ambush prey. Their hind legs are longer than their front legs and they have great power for running and jumping. At a full sprint they can jump 45 feet. Their long tail helps them balance when they leap, climb, or run on narrow ledges.
They have very good hearing and can rotate their ears forward and back. Like humans, they have binocular vision and good depth perception. Their field of vision is 287 degrees, better than our 200 degrees. Their sense of smell is about 14 times better than ours. In Colorado they are most abundant in foothills, canyons or mesa country.
They are more at home in brushy areas and woodlands than in forests or open prairies, or generally any area that has a lot of deer. In Colorado, population estimates range from 3,000 to 7,000 mountain lions. A lion's natural life span is probably about 12 years in the wild and up to 25 years in captivity.
Mountain lions stalk their prey and sit and wait for the right moment to attack. They usually hunt from dusk to dawn and may travel during the day. When successful they will hide their catch and return to it over a period of time. By keeping the deer population in check, the plant community benefits by avoiding the excessive deer browsing. Some of the signs that hikers can look for are the tracks which are round with three lobes at the rear of the heel pad and no claw marks. The scat is similar to dogs, but will be more segmented with signs of hair and bone. Males will mark their territory with scrapes and scratches on trees and small piles of brush. They tend to avoid occupied territories rather than fight for them. They are finicky eaters and will remove much of the hair of a deer rather than eat it.
Up to now I don’t think I have ever noticed any of these signs, but am now more aware than before. A program to promote awareness is the artistic “Pumas on Parade” effort. One of the “Pumas on Parade” art series is on display outside the exhibit at Ft. Lewis. The picture here is the “Sky Prowler” that appears at the Colorado Welcome Center in Cortez. The one at Ft. Lewis is blank white with some felt tip graffiti and a broken tail. The “Chuska Puma” is on display at the Anasazi Heritage Center in Dolores.
Hikers on the ruins trails can keep an eye out for petroglyphs depicting the mountain lion. The large one shown here is described as being from Blue Mesa, Arizona. There is a Blue Mesa Trail in Petrified Forest National Park and two petroglyph panels nearby. When I searched for this image, I found it, but in a surprising location. You might stumble on it or you might want to ask the rangers at the historic Painted Dessert Inn.
The smaller one in the lower left is from Chaco Canyon. The Chaco Canyon lion is at stop 5 on the Petroglyph Trail that runs along the canyon wall between Pueblo Bonito and Chetro Ketl. Most of those images are faint and hard to see, but the trail guide has a similar image. The popular and well known panel on the Petroglyph Trail at Mesa Verde has a lion that may represent a clan or an all powerful animal spirit.
The Colorado Department of Wildlife advises to stay calm if you come upon a lion. Talk calmly yet firmly to it. Move slowly. Stop or back away slowly. Do not run. Raise you arms to appear larger. If the lion behaves aggressively, throw stones, branches, or whatever you can get your hands on. Without crouching down or turning your back, fight back if a lion attacks you.
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