The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Blame it on a feisty porcupine
by Mark Reaman
A mountain lion that decided to come to the Kebler Pass trailhead on Monday has been euthanized. Local snowmobile guides from Irwin Guides and Action Adventures Snowmobiling had gone to the trailhead Monday morning to start their machines when they saw the mountain lion lying next to the line of snowmobiles.
The juvenile cat didn’t move and the guides did not try to start the machines in the immediate vicinity. The Mt. Crested Butte police department and the Gunnison office of Colorado Parks and Wildlife were called and two staff members from CPW went to the scene to deal with the wild cat.
“They found the cougar was in rough condition,” explained CPW spokesperson Joe Lewandowski. “It barely moved and only raised its head slightly as it was approached. They could see porcupine quills in its lower jaw and throat area. They used a ‘catch pole,’ which has a loop that can go around an animal’s head, and moved it into a large crate. Back at the office CPW saw that the animal was emaciated, part of its tail was frozen, and paws appeared to be frostbitten. Because it was in such poor condition, the animal was euthanized. They checked it afterward and found no food in its stomach—which is quite unusual. Life’s tough in the wild.”
J Wenum of the Gunnison CPW office said it is unusual for a mountain lion to end up in a place frequented by humans. “We are speculating that he came down after some of the snowmobiles were parked for the night. The engines were probably warm and giving off some heat and he likely curled up next to one to stay warm. It was pretty cold up there that night,” he said.
James Utt, owner of Action Adventures Snowmobiling, said he got a call from his guides about 8:30 a.m. as they were preparing for a 9:30 tour. “They said there was ‘a situation’ and that’s never a good call,” he said. “Then they explained there was a mountain lion by the snowmobiles. I got up there about ten minutes later, figuring it would have run off but it was just lying there. I think Ian Houseman of Irwin almost stumbled on him when he was going to start one of the snowmobiles. We all retreated to our vehicles when he didn’t take off in the commotion of all the people showing up. Our adrenaline was going pretty good.”
Utt said a Mt. Crested Butte police officer showed up with a rifle and that made everyone at the scene a bit braver, so they got closer to the mountain lion and took some pictures. “When he still didn’t get up we realized something wasn’t right,” he said. “The whole time we watched him he’d move his head up and close his eyes but he was really lethargic.”
About 10 a.m., officers from Colorado Parks and Wildlife arrived at the scene. Utt said they approached the cougar and were also surprised it didn’t run off. They used a catch rope to guide it into a cage that they then transported to their truck and took the cat to Gunnison.
“When they got him you could see he was pretty skinny,” said Utt. “He put up a little fight going into the cage but not much really. And he had porcupine quills down his whole underside.”
It is unusual for a lion to be that high in the mountains at this time of year, according to Lewandowski.
“Usually, they move down with the deer,” he said. “Speculation is that the lion got into the porcupine, was unable to eat and didn’t have the strength to get to lower elevation. Lions eat porcupines all the time. This one must have given the cougar a tussle.”
As for the guests who were scheduled to take a morning ride, Utt said the ride was postponed and most of the people ended up on the 3 p.m. snowmobile tour.
“The mountain lion was obviously sick,” concluded Utt. “It was still wild to be up there. I’d never seen one before and maybe I won’t see another one again. It was an adventurous day.”
