You might include some sort of scale in the background of where the camera is pointed so you can accurately judge size of any cat you might photo. Just to exclude the large housecats you might capture.
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The ‘sightings’ start after WW2, and mosp people say that they originated from American troops releasing their mascots. It has been proven that the troops often had mountain lions as pets on the army bases, and also that at least 7 were released into the forests in the southwest. There was also a circus crash on the highway in the 40s, and two cougars apparently disappeared, although that part of the story isnt documented anywhere that ive seen.
As for mistaking houscats for cougars, thats the biggest suspicion I have. The feral cats get enormous here, one was shot recently weighing at least 16kg
So yes, a portion of the sightings can be explained away with that reasoning. The only thing is that theres been hundreds of people that know what cats look like, including professional shooters, farmers and reliable locals that maintain that what they saw was not a cat, and the thing ive heard many times is the size and length of the tail, the tales of deer and kangaroos being found with broken necks and entrails eaten, tracks and screams(?) at night.
Personally I’ve never seen anything suspicious, except a kangaroo with it’s neck broken and some scratchings on a tree. Both of those could be explained away
There’s been a book written by a man that investigated the issue in the 1970s, its a really good read if you’re interested. Its called Savage Shadow, he takes all the evidence and does research himself, and some quite interesting evidence is presented
A problem is that many people that claim to have seen a cougar won’t say anything till asked, usually being quiet farmers just minding their own business. This doesnt help the amount of information i get.
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Camera traps in the Canadian Tundra was in my feed today. Apparently the trap they chose wasn’t Ursus-arctos-horribilis-proof.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/wildlife-camera-nwt-tundra-1.6702318
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When I did research for my master’s degree, I used camera traps on private ranches in Texas. Mtn lions were widely accepted by professionals as being present, but at VERY low densities. If you found tracks somewhere, you might not see one there again for a year or more.
If they’re present in your area, I’d bet similarly low densities and your trapping effort will have to be pretty intense (and likely combined with scent lures) to document their presence.
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Low densities make sense, alleged sightings are few and far between, particularly in the past few years, which is also said to be linked to the recent intensive baiting programs for deer and foxes. Two areas in the southwest that I’ve had a look at have extremely high densities of deer and pigs which might be the best place to start looking, ive also marked out some areas with caves and stony hills several kilometres to the neares 4wd track which I thought might be a good place to start. I found some tracks on a sandy pig track, but they belonged to a big wild dog, probably an escaped pigdog.
would this still apply for areas where water isn’t scarce? I’m from alberta and i’ve always wanted to set a camera trap up.
just camera trapping in general?
sure, it works. but you need to use knowledge about the terrain and the target species in question so you can place your cameras effectively. as @snakesrcool described above, looking for other features that might be important like den sites, game trails, fencerows, ridges and valleys, food resources, can make a huge difference.
you can improve your probability of detecting a species (if it’s present) by using scent lures to attract them to your camera station. it can be surprising what you can get to show up if you spray some axe body spray on a rock or log. you can get really technical about it, but you don’t necessarily have to.
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I am hoping to capture some good images of California rare wildlife via camera traps. (mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, foxes) Could you please give me some location based tips and good parks to put my camera trap?
In general camera trapping on any property you don’t own requires permission of the landowner. So the first question is, where can you get permission to place your camera traps?
Cameras are best placed in places where many animals will pass through. For example, if there is a creek with only one easy way across for a long way, placing the camera there will likely work well. When considering a camera placement, avoid spots where tall grass or hanging branches will frequently set off the motion trigger. A camera placed without considering this will often return hundreds or thousands of photos of grass or a branch, running out the batteries without any animal photos. Looking for scat and tracks can give you a good sense of where the animals are active. Avoid putting cameras where they will get stolen, or vandalized. Some parks have trouble with hikers or bikers thinking the cameras are there to spy on people, and when that happens the cameras don’t last long, even if they are locked inside strong metal cases. WIldlife will often use human trails at night, so it can be tempting to put a camera right by the trail, but this is risky. When placing a camera near a creek or river, consider how high the water will come after a storm. Once you’ve placed a camera, walk past it a few times, make sure it triggers, and then view the images. Adjust the placement until you are really satisfied.
I should give an update on how the trapping is going- I set up two camera traps as an experiment on placement for a month in some wandoo woodland.
I found that even in an open area, the cameras are very sensitive to wind and plant movement. I did get a variety of animals on camera, including wallabies, lizards, kangaroos and bats. The camera set on a wildlife trail was triggered by mammals much more often, but usually by the same individuals using the track, wgich is annoying but probably unavoidable
The cameras were not set out in an area with previous ‘cougar’ sightings, as those areas are too hard to access for an experimental run.
The plan now is to set out one camera on a granite cave system, for the next 6 months.
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