MTN LION GPS Collar data. Central Ut to Denver

JakeH

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A recent study out of BYU of a GPS collard Mtn Lion has been fascinating to observe as they posted about it over the last year or so, the lion has been killed. It's amazing to see how far this female lion has traveled and really opens your eyes about their movements.

The journey started in Utah County, over the Wasatch mtns, into Wyoming, swims Flaming Gorge Reservoir, swims the Green River, over the Uintah Mtns, through the Uintah Basin, into the bookcliffs, then a pretty much strait shot east (I'm not familiar with all the Colorado areas, but looks to be a hell of a journey) into the plains of Colorado and then back to the foothills and north up to Denver where it was killed by another Lion.

It's fascinating research and would have been cool to see where she would have ended up had she not been killed.

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Maybe Mnt lions keep themselves in check somewhat.I found a freshly killed young lion in NV that had been bit in the back of the head by I'm guessing a bigger male.
 
Back in the 90's my buddy was a grad student at Utah State, they put a gps collar on a lion they captured on Kennecott property. In a 9 month period it made it's way to Meeker, Co where it was killed by a hunter. I thought that was cool but this female has that beat by a long shot.
 
We'll send our cats to Colo if they'll send us a few mule deer!:p

Thanks JakeH for sharing that with us. Pretty revealing how far they'll travel and the obstacles they'll cross just to get to who knows where and for what.

Zeke
 
Lots of lion. She didn't have a home territory and was looking for one.

A lion goes looking for its own territory. If she runs into other territories or cats she knows to keep moving and looking. At some point she either didn't keep moving fast enough or decided to try and take another cats territory and she got killed.

This isn't normal resident cat behavior but it is normal behavior for a cat looking for a home.
 
I've always herd the males will have a large range of about 250 miles, and that females have a much smaller one.
That’s true- I used to chase a lot of Cats, the females and yearlings or kittens would stick to home ranges so would the young males while the big males traveled looking for females in heat. The Wolves have now push a lot of the females into the big River bottoms, when the big males pass through now they end up pushing the females into towns or subdivisions.
 
Read some studies about young males looking and traveling to find a new territory. Hadn’t heard that about females.
 
I helped collar lions in a recent USU study. One of our females was collared near Bear Lake, it wintered in Blacksmith Fork, then headed south to the north slope of the uintahs and all the way to Rawlins Wyoming. She hung around there for a couple years where she raised a litter of kittens. Once her kittens were weaned she headed back west all the way to just south of Burley Idaho where her next batch of kittens were born. The battery on her collar is dead now so they lost track of her.

Another female cat we collared in Logan canyon hung around for almost a year but must have gotten an itch for travel because in a 2 week period of time she made it into the Tetons before coming part way back and settling just east of Pocatello ID. Her collar is also dead now.
 
I helped collar lions in a recent USU study. One of our females was collared near Bear Lake, it wintered in Blacksmith Fork, then headed south to the north slope of the uintahs and all the way to Rawlins Wyoming. She hung around there for a couple years where she raised a litter of kittens. Once her kittens were weaned she headed back west all the way to just south of Burley Idaho where her next batch of kittens were born. The battery on her collar is dead now so they lost track of her.

Another female cat we collared in Logan canyon hung around for almost a year but must have gotten an itch for travel because in a 2 week period of time she made it into the Tetons before coming part way back and settling just east of Pocatello ID. Her collar is also dead now.
Man that is cool stuff. How many lions were you tracking? Was it typical for a female to hang around an area only while raising kittens?
 
That is Really cool,I have been a hound hunter for the last 25 years and I new they traveled some great distances,But this info is really eye opening.
So that might be why the BIG toms are disappearing, I thought they were all getting killed by hunters,A lot of you will condemn me for what im about to say but,I have played with these big cats for years,They are amazing animals,they do kill and eat deer but they have been doing this for ever,Thay have been hunted by man for as long as history has been tracking wildlife activities.
I agree that they do need to be kept in tact as Farr as there numbers,
But with that being said I would hate to see them disappear from the eco system.Thanks for sharing here travels with us.
 

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