Working on the Teton Cougar Project

I’ve been volunteering with the Teton Cougar Project for a week now and have already seen 12 kill sites, many beds, and hiked over 40 miles.  Its been intense!  But I’ve learned a lot and seen a ton of cool stuff.  Here are some pictures…

Big mule deer cached by F109, one of my favorite cats.

Road-killed grouse foot.

Dr. Elbroch has an amazing track cast collection.

Cliff swallow egg.

Badger hole.

Pronghorn foot.

Pronghorn killed by M68.

Track of M68. We just returned from a 4 day road trip finding all of the recent kills from dispersing young male, M68.

Here is where M68 sat and looked out for miles into the desert sagebrush, from the top of a ridge.

Michelle, standing near one of M68’s bedding areas.

Little rock overhand where M68 bedded. From here he had an endless view into the sagebrush desert.

Full moon in the desert.

I’ve always wanted to find where a cougar scratched a log… here it is! They do this to stretch, sharpen their claws and maybe scent mark too. They are just big house cats.

Close-up of the scratch. You can see some hairs stuck in there too.

View from one of M68’s beds.

A recent burn where M68 hunted for a couple days (unsuccessfully). There was a ton of deer and elk sign in here though.

Uinta ground squirrel tracks.

Badger tracks.

We use the teeth to record what age the deer was that was killed. This is the jaw bone of a yearling mule deer.

Bears foraging, flipping over rocks.

Hiking back from one of M68’s kills.

Magpie cough pellet.

Snowshoe hare killed by a cougar. Amazing how the skull is perfectly skinned.

Here a woodpecker pecked into the bark to reach a grub.

The remains of a fawn killed by a cougar.

Fresh wolf tracks.

Back to the Tetons and back to studying our local cats. This was a nice moment from my drive home from the office the other day. Beautiful landscapes full of wildlife seem to be everywhere here.