Tiny big cat

This is what a mountain lion about three weeks old looks like in the wild — in this case, a burned tree trunk near a Glen Ellen creekbed. The kitten was found by tracking the mama lion, P-16, a female under study by Audubon Canyon Ranch’s Living with Lions Project. She was first captured and collared for the population study in March 2019, and is now about three years old.

By tracing the movements of the cats via GPS, Dr. Quinton Martins (who took the picture), identified the father as P-5, lately engaged in a territorial battle with a rival male. See their travels at Egret.org.