The mountain lion (Puma concolor), occurs over much of the Americas. They are fascinating and gorgeous apex feline predators, however are incredibly elusive and shy. Sightings (even for those that live in urban environments) are rare. It is a huge thrill to capture an image of one of these magnificent animals on my camera, and I am perfectly fine with the fact that I have never seen one in the wild. Never. But they have definitely seen me....
I did a lot of work on mountain lions in Southern California from about 2017 to 2022. I had equipment placed in the Santa Monica Mountains, the Verdugo Mountains (just north of LA), the San Gabriel Mountains (Portal Ridge, curated by the wonderful Transition Habitat Conservancy), Santa Susanna Field Laboratories in Simi Valley, and Griffith Park in Hollywood where I managed to capture images and footage of the most famous Mountain Lion of all - P-22. I even had a lion visit my house in Westlake Village.
Now I live on the Central Coast, in a sleepy little town called Cambria, and I am lucky to have a good population of lions in the wilderness that surrounds us here. Along with bears, bobcats, grey and red foxes, coyotes and even badgers!
You can peruse a large gallery of my mountain lion images - all captured using remote camera traps here: