No April Fool's Joke!

There was a bit of excitement Tuesday morning (4/1/08) when suspicious animal tracks were spotted in the neighborhood. We found them behind #309 and suspected they were made by either a very large dog or a mountain lion. We snapped a few photos, looked on-line for a bit of guidance, but finally took the photos to the nearby U.S. Forest Service office.

That’s Karen Miller (below right) looking at the tracks behind the Riley residence at #313. The tracks (below left) measured six inches across and eight inches in length.

The Forest Service biologist indicated that the tracks could have been made by a mountain lion, but the photos were not conclusive. Upon returning to the neighborhood, we spotted a couple of local Spearfish police officers inspecting the tracks – and they had no doubt that these were mountain lion tracks.

We followed the tracks from lots just west of Yellowstone Place, crossing the walking path to the front of Chesnuts, in front of the Garhart and Jones residences, and then heading west along the irrigation canal and out of the neighborhood.

If you'd like to know more about identifying mountain lion tracks, we found Cooper's Rocky Mountain Lion Sactuary site among the best.

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We often have deer wandering into our yards – and into the field just north of Yellowstone Place – and that fact apparently wasn’t lost on the mountain lion. Let's hope this is a rarity!