36 Mountain Lions of the Black Hills
animal is from the viewer, the larger it seems to be; thus tabby cats (fig. 3.4) that are
observed in rather wild surroundings can be confused with mountain lions.
Mountain lions, especially adult males, are generally considered solitary animals.
When lions are traveling together, it is usually an adult female and her kittens. In the
Black Hills, kittens travel with their mother until 12 to 14 months of age (Thompson
and Jenks 2010; Jansen and Jenks 2011); so the tracks of kittens can be similar in size
to those of the adult female. Characteristics of mountain lion tracks include four toes,
a three- lobed hind pad (similar to domestic cat tracks), and no claw prints because
the claws are retractable (fig. 3.5). Despite the differences between canids (dogs and
coyotes) and felids (bobcats and mountain lions), there have been numerous instances
when canid tracks were misidentified as lion tracks. I suspect that this happens because
observers generally look at the size of the track and assume that huge tracks are lion
tracks (actually, most dispersing lions will weigh in the neighborhood of 80 pounds
and have fairly small tracks). In addition, if you look at a set of tracks long enough,
either in snow or in mud, there will be one track that resembles a lion track (the hind
pad will seem to have three lobes and no claws will be distinguishable). However,
if you look at the entire set of tracks, most will show claws and the classic hind pad of
a canid. It therefore becomes impor tant to look at as many tracks as pos si ble when
assessing the possibility that you are observing the tracks of a lion.
figure 3.4. Domestic “tabby” cat observed in a shelterbelt in North Dakota. The cat
was reported as a mountain lion by the observer. Photo from J. Ermer.