{"id":1303992,"date":"2019-02-20T12:17:17","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T19:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/?p=448355"},"modified":"2019-02-20T12:17:17","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T19:17:17","slug":"edwards-man-comes-face-to-face-with-mountain-lion-tuesday-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/edwards-man-comes-face-to-face-with-mountain-lion-tuesday-night\/","title":{"rendered":"Edwards man comes face to face with mountain lion Tuesday night"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDWARDS \u2014 Tuesday night, Sean LaFaver was loading up his car in anticipation of a Wednesday morning trip to Denver when he heard an unusual screeching noise.<\/p>\n

He walked around the corner of his Homestead house to investigate and got a big surprise. About 10 feet away, sitting in a tree, was a mountain lion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a stare off for a moment or so,\u201d said LaFaver. \u201cIt was definitely\u00a0an adrenaline rush.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I didn\u2019t want to hang out outside for too long,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

LaFaver didn\u2019t want to put himself in a dangerous situation, so he went back into his home and turned on his outdoor lights. He then captured photos of the animal, which was accompanied by a pair of cubs and dragging a dead deer.<\/p>\n

A decade ago, LaFaver\u2019s experience would have been very rare. But according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife District Wildlife Manager Craig Wescoatt, local mountain lion sightings have definitely increased.<\/p>\n

\n

Recommended Stories For You<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a really good grasp on the actual number of lions in Eagle County,\u201d Wescoatt said. \u201cBut there are a lot more lions around, and they are closer to the urban interface.\u201d<\/p>\n

Out for a quick bite<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Mountain lion sightings\u00a0are up in Eagle County, but wildlife officials are unsure if the cause is an increase in the population or the result of more human presence in backcountry areas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like other carnivores in the wild, mountain lions are always on the lookout for an easy meal.<\/p>\n

\u201cLions are definitely carrion eaters,\u201d said Wescoatt.<\/p>\n

That means a lion will pounce in for a quick meal when they spot\u00a0roadkill, said Wescoatt. In addition to deer, lions prey on smaller mammals.<\/p>\n

\u201cRacoons are really high in fat content, so a lion gets a big bang for the buck for killing and eating a raccoon, at very low risk,\u201d said Wescoatt. \u201cThey are also learning that cats and dogs are a good, easy meal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such easy eating brings lions closer to humans. \u201cI don\u2019t think this is an issue with human safety, even with the numbers we are seeing,\u201d said Wescoatt. But, he added, it is always important to be aware that we share our environment with these predators.<\/p>\n

Wescoatt\u2019s\u00a0first piece of advice is to always be aware of your surroundings. If you encounter a mountain lion, make yourself look as large as possible, don\u2019t turn your back on the animal and don\u2019t run away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the animal attacks, fight back with everything you have,\u201d said Wescoatt.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how a Front Range man survived a mountain lion attack<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Locally, mountain lion sightings have prompted Eagle County Alert notifications and trail warnings. Last week, the town of Eagle temporarily closed the Haymaker Trail when there was evidence of lion activity close by.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to downplay the presence of lions and we do have a whole lot more lions around and a lot more lions closer to towns, but lion kill doesn\u2019t account for\u00a0every dead animal out there,\u201d said Wescoatt.<\/p>\n

Not so solitary<\/strong><\/p>\n

The three lions LaFaver spotted Tuesday night weren\u2019t the only ones he saw this week. At about\u00a05 a.m. Tuesday, he was looking out a window in his home when he saw a large male mountain lion trekking through his yard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing a big\u00a0increase in the number of lion reports and an especially big increase in the reports of lions in groups. All of this has happened in the last ten years, for sure, and really more in the last five years,\u201d said Wescoatt. \u201cLions are a lot more tolerant of one another than we previously thought.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
A pair of mountain lions, one in the window sill and one on the roof, sun themselves in a Gypsum backyard.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LaFaver said one of his neighbors, who set up a trail camera, can attest to that. He noted other neighbors have seen lion prints in the snow around their property. Knowing that there are lions around, LaFaver said he takes special care going outside or letting out his dog.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in their habitat so we just try to keep that awareness of where they are and stay alert,\u201d said LaFaver.<\/p>\n

After his Tuesday night encounter, LaFaver contacted the Eagle County Sheriff\u2019s Office to report the group of lions hanging out in his Edwards neighborhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted people to be aware of it more than anything,\u201d he said. \u201cSeeing them was cool and scary at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Vail Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDWARDS \u2014 Tuesday night, Sean LaFaver was loading up his car in anticipation of a Wednesday morning trip to Denver when he heard an unusual screeching noise. He walked around the corner of his Homestead house to investigate and got a big surprise. About 10 feet away, sitting in a tree, was a mountain lion. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1303992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 17:38:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1303992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1303992\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1303992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1303992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1303992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}