Capturing Great Mountain Lion Photos with Trail Cameras

[Healy Arms]

Since we're really into capturing lions on camera for the purpose of locating and calling them, getting a good photo is important so we don't spend time calling for small / juvenile lions or into areas that have females with kittens and no tom activity. We like to get a full-body camera shot and make a determination if that's an area worth spending our hunting hours calling into.

 

One of the early problems we had with trail cameras, and one that lots of guys I talk to have had, is getting the cat to slow down it's face-paced walk enough to get more than a butt shot. Like this:

 

 

 

We've found that the easiest way to get the cougar to stop cold for a photo, several photos, or a video is to take a lion scat from another area and drop it on the trail your camera is set up on. It works for us like gold--they seem to be unable to just walk by--their DNA says they have to investigate.

 

One of our favorite nighttime photos is of this impressive and very muscular cougar. That's a 4-legged deer eating machine. That lion scat came from another lion travel area about 15-20 miles away.

 

 

 

This next lion is also a full grown lion, but has a smaller head and is most likely a female, although it is very hard to be certain without a "different view". We got a few photos of this lion and never saw her with kittens nor did we see a big tom cruising around checking her out either. This one is a mystery. But it's a muture lion nontheless and a good lion to call for--a caller's trophy any day of the week.

 

The lion turd that stopped this lion was from a deep drainage about 5-6 miles away.

 

 

If you're interested in getting good lion photos, I hope this trick helps.

 

Good calling,

 

Mark Healy

[Red Rabbit]

Have you tried the Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men cologne as a lion attractant? Seems there was an article about this about a month ago.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...IGHTTopCarousel

[Healy Arms]

Have you tried the Calvin Klein's Obsession for Men cologne as a lion attractant? Seems there was an article about this about a month ago.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405...IGHTTopCarousel

 

Love it - and the bottle of juice pulls double duty too.

 

I can get my hunt on up north stinkin' like an ASU college stud buck and once the sun fades I can put on my Scottsdale night vision glasses (aka: beer goggles) and work on baggin' a mature cougar!

 

Who says night hunting in Arizona ain't legal?

[AZP&Y]

I have the same problem- I will head to Dillards right now!

 

 

AzP&Y

[CouesWhitetail]

Wildlife Callers....That nighttime lion is awesome looking!! Holy cow, it's just pure muscle and like you said a 4 legged deer-killing machine! Thanks for sharing the pics and tips on attracting lions with scat. I wonder if they stop for other scat like bobcat scat?

[stanley]

Awesome Wildlife Callers!!!!! Thanks for sharing!

 

S.

 

 

PS: Doug, you're the best!!!!

[bowhuntaz1]

Anyone have some spare lion poo???

[Ernesto C]

Wildlife Callers....That nighttime lion is awesome looking!! Holy cow, it's just pure muscle and like you said a 4 legged deer-killing machine! Thanks for sharing the pics and tips on attracting lions with scat. I wonder if they stop for other scat like bobcat scat?

 

+ 10 thanks a lot for those nice pictures of the great lions. Besides Amandas cuestion.....can you post a close up of lion scat? Thaks a lot.

 

Ernesto C

 

[Beto]

Here is a pictures I´d like to share with you guys... On early july I started getting pictures of bobcats and mule deer together in the same shot, I was amazed to see they could share water together, as the weeks went by I got this picture.

 

 

To me and a couple of people I have shown it to, say it is indeed a small mountain lion, what do you think?... Saludos

 

Beto T.

 

This pictures were taken before the rain, so water was very scarce

[kidso]

I'm going to start bagging and packing out the next lion scats I come across for future use. I'll have to hide them behind something in the back of my freezer, as I don't think my wife would be too happy finding a bag of scats next to our steaks or shrimp!

 

As, for the last picture, the black tips on the ears of the little beast remind me of bobcat. Do lions have the black tipped ears from behind as well?

[Pixman]

I posted this pic a few months back and there was a debate on its rear foot, I said it was missing but some people thought it is just the way it looks when they walk. What is your opinion Wildlife Callers?

[CouesWhitetail]

Here is a pictures I´d like to share with you guys... On early july I started getting pictures of bobcats and mule deer together in the same shot, I was amazed to see they could share water together, as the weeks went by I got this picture.

 

 

To me and a couple of people I have shown it to, say it is indeed a small mountain lion, what do you think?... Saludos

 

Beto T.

 

This pictures were taken before the rain, so water was very scarce

 

 

That is a bizarre photo Beto! It does look like a small lion, but it also looks like it has black tips on the ears which suggests it's actually a bobcat. Either way...what are they doing hanging out with the deer? How many other pictures like that have you gotten?

 

[Healy Arms]

I posted this pic a few months back and there was a debate on its rear foot, I said it was missing but some people thought it is just the way it looks when they walk. What is your opinion Wildlife Callers?

 

I have studied the pic carefully and to me it looks like this cat has lost it's back foot.

 

There are a couple of reason that it might not be gone:

 

1. Yes--they do tend to have that high-step walk when moving thorugh heavy cover and that might explain the gait--but where's the knob end of the leg with the pads & toes?

 

2. I've gotten some trail camera photos that have blurred areas of the animal that are blurry because the animal was moving that part of it's body fairly fast. Normally it's a leg or sometimes the head (if it's moving right or left quickly). That back leg in your photo is on the move and it might be an optical illusion making the foot look missing.

 

However, in looking closer at some of our blurry photos, there is still some sort of fuzzy evidence that the limb is there, it's just that you can't get it into focus. In this photo you can clearly see past where the foot ought to be and view the stick on the ground. My vote: old injury, no back foot.

 

One last note: Just 2 seasons ago there was a tripod coyote at Antelope Flats on San Carlos missing a front leg. He got along so well he dodged some bullets and went on doing his thing. It seems reasonable that a cat missing a single paw could keep on truckin'.

 

Regards,

 

Mark Healy

 

[Healy Arms]

Wildlife Callers....I wonder if they stop for other scat like bobcat scat?

 

Not that we've seen - the bobcats do seem very interested in what the lions are doing though. They will stop to investigate lion poo. Coyotes on the other hand, run right by.

[Healy Arms]

Besides Amandas cuestion.....can you post a close up of lion scat? Thaks a lot.

 

Ernesto C

 

Ernesto: Here you go...

 

 

That's a 3.5 inch Winchester 12ga shell

 

Lion scat is full of hair, some bone particles, and when new is normally jet black from meat-only consumption. They don't eat berries and seeds so if you see stuff in it other than what a pure carnivore would eat, keep looking.

 

People send me pictures of purple bear scat every year and ask if it's lion. Ummmm... not unless the lions are hittin' the pears.

 

No vegetables--just meat.