See Why the Mysterious Mountain Lion Is the ‘Bigfoot’ of Big Cats | Short Film Showcase

Nobody knows anything about Al's going on with my lights out here. They don't. My own lines are out here, and that's all people know. They are so mysterious. People don't see them; they're like little cat yetis.

Okay, take away that cat Yeti thing. Brilliant cat safety is our most important priority. As the cat walks through here, it's gonna stuff here, here, here, and it's too far for me to reach to go over there. So, he's just gonna go right here and get caught in the snare.

Music plays

Applause

Music continues

Yeah, music fades in we've captured 25 adult and sub-adult mountain lions over the last 10 years. We've put GPS collars on, and then we've also caught four kittens. Yeah, he's plenty big. When a mountain lion is born, it'll stay with its mother and nurse for two months and then stay with its mother for another year or so, learning to hunt. After about a year and a half to two years old, the mother will leave them. Then you have a sub-adult lion that has to find its own territory.

The dispersing sub-adults that we've had, they've gone very long distances. We had one travel from the Davis Mountains almost to Big Bend National Park. The data from our collared adult mountain lions had an average of about 150 square miles for their home range, but we head up to 400 square miles home range.

Going in on a kill with a cat present, I mean, it's a little nerve-racking. You can't help but just feel the eyes on you. So, yeah, when you're going in on this fresh kill, knowing that it's still there, that it stealthily took down this full-grown deer, and it's watching you just the same.

Yeah, my folks, I think you're more freaked out than I am about anything, but as they should be. As parents should be. Using these collars, we can find out what they're eating and what they're doing out here.

Mountain lions are unregulated in terms of their harvest in Texas. They can be trapped; they can be shot. There aren't any limits on the number that you can kill or your methods of take. With a sample size of 21 cats, survival was about a 53 percent annual survival for the cats that we had collared.

The biggest mystery to me is how this population continues to persist in the Davis Mountains. What is it? What's that mechanism that's keeping these animals still here? Is this population still around due to immigration from the south, from Mexico? Is it Big Bend National Park? Is it immigration from the north? Is it isolated populations of high-surviving females?

Mountain lions symbolize mystery. They're mysterious. They are elusive. They're secretive. But they're amazing animals. This population in West Texas has remained here for centuries.

Music follows

Understanding how it's still here and making sure it continues to be here—that's an important thing.

Music fades out