Mountain Lions

I saw my first mountain lion in the wild in 1975. Since then I have encountered eight more. As the largest predators in the forest, they order our experience of wild. I fear that they may soon be gone. Humans hunt them for sport, running them down with dogs, leaving the skinless carcasses where they lie. Almost every photo you have seen of a mountain lion was taken seconds before the paid guides bring the wealthy hunter in for the pleasure of shooting a treed lion. Often the dogs keep the lion treed for hours or days while the hunter is summoned by cell phone, flies to the site, and is ferried in via air conditioned range rover for the kill.