Two young mountain lions spent a miserable hour trapped on a fence by five coyotes last Thursday in Wyoming’s National Elk Refuge. Refuge staffer Lori Iverson snapped photos of the spectacular evening standoff. The juvenile cats sought safety on a buck and rail fence, perched over a creek, while the coyotes lurked in the background, Iverson wrote in notes accompanying her photos.
As the coyotes moved in closer, one mountain lion (also known as a cougar) slowly shifted position along the fence, occasionally dropping to the ground where it was met by lunges and yips by the coyotes, Iverson wrote. The mountain lion responded with hisses and yowls.
Eventually, the mountain lion ran across the creek on the fence and took off with the five coyotes in pursuit. The second mountain lion was still hunkered down in the grass under the fence when Iverson called it a night, she wrote. [See the coyote-mountain lion standoff.] Read more….