Gduncan Report post Posted July 11, 2014 Wife and I were up on the rim the last weekend of June enjoying the cooler temps and the dry green scenery (compared to the even dryer triple digit heat in Tucson..) and found this tree. We started to debate if it was from bear or mountain lion until we got close and could smell the cat piss all around it. I'm 6' tall and while the majority of the claw marks are 5.5' and below, there is a couple scratches at and above my eye level. Is this a male lion territory marking? We did find some very fresh lion tracks in the softer dirt on the FS roads in the area. Just crawling along in the jeep with the windows down now and then we could smell what we thought was cat box but never could find them. The wind was blowing pretty good so we may have just not hiked down into the canyon far enough to locate the cat box. The next day in an area about a mile away we found some smaller lion tracks with some even smaller, we figured these were a female with kittens? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mr.smith Report post Posted July 11, 2014 Both lions and bears scratch up trees to hone the hardware. It also serves as a scent post. The bear scratched trees I've seen have been super dirty and covered in hair because bears like to rub their backs on the trees also. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tucson John Report post Posted July 11, 2014 That's what it looks like to me........I'm no expert, but your assessment seems real. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Will K Report post Posted July 11, 2014 I would turn on the caller a wait to click the safety off. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Edge Report post Posted July 11, 2014 Nice find. PM me the gps coordinates and I'll keep an eye on it for ya. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ctafoya Report post Posted July 11, 2014 I guess I need to have a talk with my mother inlaw about roamin around in the woods again.... 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gduncan Report post Posted July 12, 2014 Even though my wife had a lion tag in her pocket we hadn't planned to actually hunt this trip as it was an anniversary weekend outing. We only had 9mm hand guns with us, no rifles and forgot to pack the e-caller... We do plan to go back as soon as we can plan/afford to go up there again with the appropriate gear to see what we can find hiking farther into the canyon the cat box smell was coming from. Thanks for the comments! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
