Mountain lions are fascinating critters. They are smart and adaptable, somewhat reclusive, and they are spreading, quite likely faster and farther than most folks might think. Back about 1970, my mother and her sister swore they saw one cross the road in front of them near our Allamakee County, Iowa home, and Mom was well versed in plants and wildlife; she’d know a mountain lion when she saw one. About twenty years later, there was a confirmed sighting I remember reading about in the western part of Iowa.
During my years in Colorado, which state has a population of about 7,000 cats, I saw them on several occasions, although always from a distance. One elk season, while out in the early morning after a fall of tracking snow, my hunting partner and loyal sidekick Rat (yes, that’s really what people call him) tracked a big tom through the snow for a couple of miles just to see if we…
