I had a large cat slide down a scree slope into the road in front of my truck one night at dusk leaving a trail head. It wasn't a mountain lion. Super furry, disheveled, spotty colored....only thing I could come up with was a lynx. Not really 100% what is around here though.

 

It seamed a little small for a fully grown adult mountain lion so I am guessing that I came across a juvenile.

Bobcat.

 

Ah. I think that was it. It was very pretty! In hindsight I'm kind of glad that it's not a mountain lion. With the amount I bike MM at night by myself, knowing that there might be lions out there would freak me out more....

I'll change my thread title.

 

For a while there I was running during the winter to stay in shape. I would run regardless of the weather. One time I was running during a pretty bad snow storm after dark and a coyote ran along side me. He wasn't too close but was definitely curious about my head lamp for a little while.

Another time I saw a bear and her cub on Vail Mountain. The cub was sorta curious and kept looking back at us but momma wanted to keep heading in the other direction.

I wonder if you saw a fox rather then a bobcat. Fox are pretty common.

 

I wonder if you saw a fox rather then a bobcat. Fox are pretty common.

Unless foxes here are shaped very differently from their British cousins it weren't a fox. I'm used to seeing foxes in the English countryside.

Still I've yet to see a fox in this area, though my wife had seen a fox and raccoon fight outside our house before.

 

cool

 

 

:thumbsup:

 

:thumbsup:

 

Well it's possible but highly unlikely you saw a Linx. They were thought to be exstinct from Colorado but some small populations were recently discovered in the high country. But a Bobcat is very common throughout the state. CSU put up some hidden cameras with motion scensors on trees in the Bobcat Ridge trail system outside of Loveland. There are numerous photos of Bobcats along with many other critters. Check it out via this link.Wildlife camera: City of Fort Collins

 

What is the difference between the two? The lynx is taller? More slender? I had kinda thought that they were one in the same...

 

Bobcats are badass. I've seen them several times and they look like a hot rod house cat. I saw one jump up on a stone wall that was, let's say 4 feet tall like it was jumping up a curb. Bad ass I tells ya.

 

Bobcat is not a juvenile mountain lion. You would notice a bobcat's tail or lack thereof if you saw it silhouetted against the sky.

We have tarantulas, down south. If you saw one on the Dirty Bismark though it was probably a Rocky Flats special. I call dibs on the movie rights.

 

Bobcat is not a juvenile mountain lion. You would notice a bobcat's tail or lack thereof if you saw it silhouetted against the sky..

At first I thought i saw a young mountain lion but later the bobcat was pointed out as a more probably sighting and I now concur so i changed my thread title but did not update the initial post.

While researching this a bit more I did read on Colorado Division of Wildlife site that mountain lion kittens and bobcats are often confused. to quote:

"Hasty observers sometimes confuse mountain lion kittens - which are spotted - with bobcats or lynx, but that is a careless error because young cougars have distinctly long tails."

Now I don't specifically recall the tail, even though the back of the animal was towards be as I "chased" it down the trail. There was some tail definitely but I don't recall it being especially long. So bobcat it probably was and not a mountain lion kitten.

 

We have spiders around our area that have real large wingspans that aren't tarantulas. Wolf spider? I coaxed one off the trail on Green Mountain once.

 

We have spiders around our area that have real large wingspans that aren't tarantulas.

Great. Rattlesnakes, bears, mountain lions, bobcats, AND NOW GIANT FLYING SPIDERS!

 

Get in the night use while you can.

Boulder City Council weighs closing some open-space areas at night

You did not see a tarantula. It was more likely muffys tennis ball after her owner let her run am-muck on the trails.

 

Get in the night use while you can.

Boulder City Council weighs closing some open-space areas at night

Actually to me this is of far more concern than being eaten by a mountain lion, because it is far more probable.

For someone like me who works during the day and has "family time" during most waking hours getting out at night is one of the few times I can get out to exercise. But that is really the subject of another thread.

 

Tarantulas in CO, yes.

...So do we get wild tarantulas in Colorado. I'm guessing yes. More importantly might I expect to find one in the middle of a trail on a windy night at 10:30pm?

... You did not see a tarantula. It was more likely muffys tennis ball after her owner let her run am-muck on the trails.

There are tarantulas in Colorado. I have seen them, multiple times. It's certainly conceivable that kerryn saw one.

Tarantulas on the crawl | koaa.com | Colorado Springs | Pueblo |

Here's a small one I saw while riding the Horse Gulch Trails near Durango

What wild animals have you come across and dear, cows, horses and coyotes don't count as they're too common

I see so much wildlife up here, it's rare that I don't see something on rides up and out.

On May 30 I was riding out of Bassam Park, climbing to Aspen Ridge from the north side. I was in granny gear rolling through a huge stand of aspen. I noticed movement off to my right. A medium sized bear was ambling along toward me. We were on intersection paths. I stopped and put a foot down and that movement made him look up. He turned on a dime and skedaddled down the slope. He was less than 50 feet away. Gone before I could even reach for the camera.

I saw bighorn north of there on two previous rides this past April. Two rams with huge curls, two or three ewes, and a couple lambs.

Elk, same ride:

I have seen bobcat on several occasions, but once on a road ride northwest of town one trotted across the road in front of me then turned to look back. It was carrying something in its mouth. At first I thought it was probably a rat or something then realized it could have been a kitten (the mothers move them around sometimes).

I saw an old, large coyote once on the Silver Creek Trail who ran across in front of me then I stopped. He looked back, realized I wasn't a threat and just wandered slowly up into the forest.

Saw a pine marten a few years ago near the Fooses Creek section of the Colorado Trail.

I've seen several lions, but never close. They have always been on the run. At a distance they can be mistaken for dogs or coyotes except that it's easy to tell the way a kitty runs.

EDIT: We have several fox right in town in Salida. See them too often to even mention. The deer in town here are a total nuisance. Strategies for thinning them are discussed quite often. They eat everything.

 

Holy crap. I didn't know we had tarantulas in Colorado. Is that only down south? A lot of anti-hunting people don't appreciate how destructive an over population of deer can be. They do, indeed, eat most anything.

 

...A lot of anti-hunting people don't appreciate how destructive an over population of deer can be. They do, indeed, eat most anything.

Deer overpopulation is primarily due to overhunting of mountain lions.

 

I have seen tarantulas on Marshal Mesa and Matthew Winters. I have a video on Youtube that shows a wasp dragging a paralyzed tarantula to its dead. The wasp or "tarantula hawk" stings the tarantula and lays its eggs in it!

 

The wind was so strong yesterday/last night, that the bobcat and tarantula could have been blown in from another area.

According to my Garmin, I was maintaining a whopping 5mph on Cherryvale where it crosses over Hwy 36. I do not "heart" headwinds.

 

The wind was so strong yesterday/last night, that the bobcat and tarantula could have been blown in from another area.

In each case as well I was downwind of the animal/insect to the wind carried my smell and sound away so I probably surprised both. Otherwise I am sure both would have moved long before I saw them.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by mtn.skratch
What is the difference between the two? The lynx is taller? More slender? I had kinda thought that they were one in the same...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wrong,
A Bobcat and a Lynx are two different species.
The most biggest distinction is the ear tufts.
Bobcat--short ear tufts
Lynx-- long ear tufts

Bobcat short beard
Lynx Long scruffy beard around the whole face

Bobcat--longer tail
Lynx--shorter tail

Bobcat-- banded tail
Lynx-- black-tipped tail

Bobcat--distinct spotting on coat
Lynx--distinct spotting in some species, but not all species

Bobcat-- shorter legs
Lynx-- longer legs

Bobcat-- small paws
Lynx-- large padded paws

Bobcat-- Much smaller and lighter
Lynx-- Much larger and heavier

Bobcat-- one species
Lynx-- three species

The most common Lynx is the Canadian Lynx which is also found in small numbers in some of the northern states. They were thought to be extinct in Colorado for many years. But recently in the last ten years small populations have been found in some of the high country. The Bobcat is found throughout Colorado in high numbers and most of the U.S.A.
In an effort to establish a viable population of Canada lynx in Colorado, the
Colorado Division of Wildlife initiated a reintroduction effort in 1997 with the first lynx
released in February 1999. From 1999-2006, 218 wild-caught lynx from Canada and Alaska were
released in Colorado.
This is a Lynx below.
https://www.bcfreshwaterfishing.com/adventure/wilderness/animals/lynx.jpg

 

Since we are discussing so much different wildlife in this thread:
Has anyone besides me seen a deer with a herd of elk before?
I have seen it twice, and my neighbor gets a good laugh out of the story - doesn't believe me.
Once on Apex - right off Apex trail. One deer, and a herd of elk.
Another time on Hiway 40 - just south and west of the Apex open space. About 6 or 7 Bull Elk and a deer with them.
If anyone has seen this and has a picture, that would be great.

 

There is a fox in my neighborhood which screams for a while near dusk. The sound is probably quite disconcerting to anyone not sure what they are hearing. I believe the scream I hear is called Vixen's Scream.

 

Yep I've been around wildlife all my life 50 years worth. I have seen almost every critter that the states has to offer. With countless Fox sightings and I have had only one time witnessed a Fox making this noise. It was in upstate N.Y. and I heard that sound coming from a field across the street. We my cousin and I thought a woman was getting raped. He had an old fire truck with a spotlight on it. So we lite up the field and saw a Fox screaming like that. Some serious chills run through your body hearing that. What's crazy is just 100' on the other side of the field were a couple Deer grazing and It didn't even phase them.

 

Tuesday afternoonI was riding from the house to Bergen, through Buchanan Park on the bike path. Out of the corner of my eye I see big brown dog off leash. I look and it's a little bear running to a tree. Dark brown little bugger, probably mid-thigh on me. People were stopping on the parkway to check him out.

Earlier this spring I was riding up Kerr Gulch, finishing a rather stout long mtn bike ride. A mtn lion ran right across the road in front of me, dropped down into the creek to the left. Thickets 8ft tall down in there, dark, spooky. Scared the piss out of me. I wasn't sure if I keep riding up the Gulch to my house or turn the other way. I rode, wimpered most of the way, talking loudly when I could. The thought of that bastard jumping on my back was fairly goosebump inducing.

This last weekend I saw a fox and a little scruffy kit. The kit was pretty curious, the parent trotted along in their cool way. Make cool hats.

 

Oh and if you met this animal, I can assure you even the most ardent of cat fans would not negative rep me for the above statements.

 

When I lived in Black Forest my then-wife had 4 (four!) cats. One of them in particular I felt that we should send outside at night wearing a collar made of bacon.

 

Black and Silver...

... saw a jet black fox with a white stripe on its tail at the top of White Ranch. It seemed unreal. I gather that the black is a rare form of red fox.

There were all kinds of variations of color among the fox in the Black Forest. Story was that in the 1920s there was a fox farm--foxes being bred and raised for their fur--up in Black Forest. There were black ones and silver ones among others. When the depression came of course the bottom fell out of the market for fur coats. So the guy running the fox farm just let them all go...

That was the story there. I did find a dead black and white fox outside of Salida a few years ago. I think they do occur naturally.

 

A friend of mine once had a fox torment him all night at his camp near St. Mary's Falls above CS, darting in to steal various things. The more this guy tried to make the fox go away, the more the fox seemed to think hmmm.. must be something good in there..

This same guy and myself once saw a jet black fox with a white stripe on its tail at the top of White Ranch. It seemed unreal. I gather that the black is a rare form of red fox.

 

Don't know why I got negative rep for this thread. Like to know the a-hole who gave me this

"1. Night riding is only allowed on Dirty Bismark 2. It was probably a deer 3. Stop smoking crack and your hallucinations will go away."

Firstly, the Greenbelt Plateau is part of the Dirty Bismarck. Secondly, you can't spell Bismarck. Thirdly you can night bike on Flatirons, Springbrook and the Marshall Mesa area, and technically part of the Dirty Bismarck is not on Boulder City property so no you can't actually bike ALL OF THAT at night.

The animal was not a deer. I see lots of deer. As it has been discussed it was most probably a Bobcat.

Gee, thank's for the neg rep, you twat!

 

The new thing to get stressed about: negative rep. Why in heck do you give two sh!ts about anonymous negative rep? Either don't read your "rep sheet" or ignore everything you read there. Simple.

 

1) Pretty butterfly.

2) Did you HDR the Flatirons?

3) Where's that tree?

 

1) Thanks

2) No, just some Photoshopping

3) Opposite the Cowdrey trailhead.