Mountain lions face greater risk of becoming roadkill in wildfire’s aftermath, study says as winter’s death toll climbs
A mountain lion has claw marks on the side of a pickup truck in North Carolina and wildlife authorities will open an investigation, the Raleigh News & Observer reported Friday.
Photos: The 12-month anniversary of the death of mountain lion cubs in North Carolina, including their mother
A mountain lion has claw marks on the side of a pickup truck in North Carolina and wildlife authorities will open an investigation, the Raleigh News & Observer reported Friday.
The photo was taken earlier this week around 7 a.m. Dec. 3 in Eden, N.C., near Mountain City, where the mountain lion had been spotted several times.
The animal was still in the area on Friday. A biologist with the Eden Ranger District said there is evidence the lion clawed the ground, but the truck the animal was seen in was undamaged.
“She was alive, so we don’t see her that often,” the biologist, J.T. Gaskins, told the News & Observer. “In fact, she was at the park last week.”
Last month, a 7-month-old male mountain lion named Rex had been killed in Eden, N.C., and became the first mountain lion calf in the state to be killed by hunters since 1978, N.C. wildlife officials said.
The female mountain lion was rescued and put in quarantine after being attacked by a dog while she was with Rex. The dog was later euthanized.
Rex was one of a pair killed by hunters earlier this month, the second and only other known male mountain lion to be killed by a hunter in North Carolina during the last 12 months.
The male mountain lion killed earlier this week, named Lucky, was discovered near the Virginia state line, about 20 miles southwest of Mount Airy.
When hunting season ends in Virginia, it will be the first time in history that this many deer and antelope hunters will have hunted in a single season, according to Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries records.
The mountain lion is believed to have fled south at the first sign of snow, possibly to Virginia, but officials don’t know how far.
One of the reasons it is difficult for many hunters to tell if a mountain lion was killed in a hunting accident is because it
