Wednesday, September 12, 2007

mountain lions

What beautiful animals. I love this photo! I just returned from my first trip to Big Bend National Park in search of mountain lions. A friend and I explored several shorter trails in the park , and on the day-long 12-mile hike up to Emory Peak, (or technically on the way down) we saw mountain lion tracks and scat but no lions. Big Bend did not disappoint! It's a gorgeous area. Yesterday, on the way home to Houston, we visited Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation in Kendalia, Texas which had several captive mountain lions that were recovered from the pet trade. They are awesome. WRR has many animals they take care of, most received from the (often illegal) pet trade and usually people who got them as babies, but then could not take care of them as adults. Many had been maltreated. Now they have ample room to roam. When we visited, several of them came right up to the fence. I also was just in awe of the one African lion they had. Wow. What a beauty. I'll put the rest of the photos online soon but I'm headed out again tomorrow!

3 comments:

David said...

Big Bend is AWESOME; dare I say the coolest place in Texas.

Gary said...

What a pretty cat. While kayaking on Spring Creek with a friend about 3 years ago we saw a black panther bounding up the bank into the deep brush. It is amazing what is so near us that we never see.

TXsharon said...

I hiked Emory Peak. It was lovely but very strenuous.