Mountain Lion Caterwauling for Mate

Mountain lions can mate anytime during the year. It is common to see newborn kittens throughout Colorado in early June or late August there are always exceptions. The gestation period for a mountain lion is 92 days. A female mountain lion can mate right up until death. This female mountain lion was calling for a mate even though she was fifteen years old, quite old for a mountain lion.

[@strawbebbes4388]

as scary as this sound is, it's also kind of cute to me... you can hear a "meow" of sorts if you use your imagination. like a crunchy meow from an older kitty.

[@WildNatureMedia]

A crunchy meow from an older cat is a good description!

[@Ginfeldi]

Mmm C R U N C H Y

[@jenniferhorton3925]

Egads, you’re right. I’ll listen to my old kitty’s meow w/a different ear.

[@FrankHatcher]

We just had this happen this evening. SUPER LOUD! At first I thought it was a deer being killed by a mountain lion... shined a flashlight up the hill from my house and you could see the glowing eyes. He/she was calling out like a woman screaming. It was nuts! I'm going to go out in the morning to see if it did kill a deer... I'm thinking it was just calling out for a mate. Thank you for posting this video, we've never heard anything like this or live for that matter... it is truly haunting the sounds they make. Thanks again. Frank

[@truenatureofficial]

Sounds like its saying "ouch!" but elongated. Great footage.

[@WildNatureMedia]

This female mountain lion, caterwauling for a mate, was calling for so long it sounded to me like her voice was getting hoarse. I actually heard her, live, calling below me a few hundred yards while I was checking my cameras. Note that I dropped my trekking pole and forgot to pick it up. She comes through twenty minutes after I left and steps on it. You can see this in the first 30 seconds of the video.

[@parakeetbudgie]

she’s saying “ooww!!!!”

[@patrickgrippo]

That is precisely it sounds like a women being tortured in the woods

[@TheLegend-oy2sg]

Bro animorphed into a mountain lion

[@WildNatureMedia]

You make me laugh. Just the thought of that is an honor.

[@eliletts8149]

Cool footage! On another note, those ear tags are probably way better to use to track the animals than those huge collars that are often times put on them...

[@jrborchelt7666]

A collar carry’s a tracker. An ear tag does not

[@libbybarefoot8132]

Gives new meaning to the term "cougar"...

[@WildNatureMedia]

I was fortunate to listen to her caterwaul about 150 yards down the mountain from me. I never saw her. Wild mountain lions don't scare me. It's the cougars with thick red lipstick you need to be cautious around.

[@rebeccawest3162]

this is the sound my cat makes when i have to take him to vet

[@edgarsnake2857]

Phenomenal footage. I watch Messi the puma, who has lived from kittenhood with a Russian couple, and the sound of his vocalizations are undeniably similar. I would describe the lion in your video as sounding a bit more shrill and higher pitched than Messi. And much more insistent. Thanks for putting this up.

[@WildNatureMedia]

As I was checking my cameras that day she was caterwauling down the hill simultaneously. I forgot my trekking pole as I wanted to check the five cameras I had in the area and leave before she came in to get water. She came in twenty minutes after I left and then stepped on my trekking pole.

[@BURSTDOG]

That was great! Thank you for sharing. Nice footage you got there.

[@WildNatureMedia]

And to think this lion was sixteen years old and still interested in mating. Mountain lions don't experience menopause and can breed right up until death.

[@kayenta463]

One of my favorites! Great seeing you walking with the lions again.

[@WildNatureMedia]

I have been using vimeo to post my footage for years. Thanks for your feedback. Please share the link to this channel with friends and family and encourage them to subscribe if they'd like to be notified of new content. Everything I share is the real deal, never impacted by my human scent or presence. I also avoid using any scent, audio or visual lures to attract animals to my cameras. I based the camera locations on four natural factors and teach others how to leverage what I've learned for the wild places where they live. wildnaturemedia.com/workshops

[@dizzywehby3442]

Poor lion is tagged just leave the dam cats alone

[@OchoVerde]

Wow ---great video, David. Just a quick comment about your youtube process. This video needs a better description....something that mirrors the title. It will help the YT algorithm guide viewers to your video and channel, which will increase your subscribers. Good luck...I subscribed btw.

[@WildNatureMedia]

Thank you so much. I appreciate the feedback and your interest in completely WILD wildlife footage. My goal is to provide wildlife education that leads to wildlife conservation.

[@WildNatureMedia]

Ocho, I've modified the description to focus on what the calling is all about. I welcome your review and feedback. Thank you!

[@OchoVerde]

@@WildNatureMedia This looks great! Will be following all your videos.

[@lindseyharmon1661]

Thanks for the video. This is exactly what I am hearing from my window the last week… so incredibly loud!! Can’t wait for fall/winter when they calm down a bit

[@WildNatureMedia]

Hello Lindsey, I've seen newborn mountain lion kittens throughout the year although the two peak times in Colorado for kittens to be born is early June and mid August. The gestation period is 92 days.

[@mortalclown3812]

Glad to find your channel. Parliament of Owls has some great catches, too. Grateful for the nature footage. Peace & light. :-)

[@alureu6851]

Heard this sound at a camping spot in Northern California twice now several years apart, a few hours after dusk each time. Second time it was so prolonged and nearby that we shone a light. Two pair of glowing eyes about 20 feet from the fire and campsite greeted us in reply, but with the nervous bark of our dog and the light on it, they moved away and up the hill immediately and we tucked in to the tent just as fast. 6 hours later we heard the same sound, but only one quick vocalization, as if it had gone on its nightly hunt and while going back home did its mating call out of habit but knowing there was a presence. Wondering if we're just lucky of this particular mountain lion needs its vocalization spot more than a human meal.

[@kynabear5]

Congrats! Great footage.

[@WildNatureMedia]

It's rare footage, especially because I could hear her caterwauling while I was checking my cameras. It was a big surreal to watch the videos on the camera and hear her vocalizations in sync to what I was watching.

[@conniewolf7300]

Haven't heard that word in many years....wasn't even sure it was a word!!

[@joeshmo8202]

Sounds like me after stubbing my toe.

[@TNcatlover33]

My cats are going crazy

[@Dea8769]

That’s kind of cute❤ everybody needs 💗

[@MedicineWolf]

Some will have a less scratchy sound when doing this, it's almost like a huff, but the cadence is the same and no other animal will make a sound like it.

[@WildNatureMedia]

I agree. I've captured quite a vocal range of caterwauling over the last 20 years.

[@donnievance1942]

Once when I was camping out I heard a mountain lion sound that was similar to this, but more prolonged and energetic, and quite close by. I believed then, and still do, that it was a cat that was protesting my presence, although I never saw it. It was sort of like, "Raowwww! Raowwwww! Raowwwww!" It was quite a scary sound, although I did not really think I was in danger. If I had been in danger, I'm sure there would have been nothing to hear. I've seen these creatures three times in the wild, and they never made a sound. In one of these incidents, I caught a cat watching me, close by, from behind a bit of sage brush and had to run it off by shouting and throwing rocks. It was persistent and reluctant to run. I had a small dog with me and suspect that it may have had a hungry eye on my little dog. I realized in retrospect that it may have been stalking us for a couple of days. I had been doing botanical field work, camping alone with only my dog for company. For a couple of days my dog had been sticking close to me, watching the nearby tree line, and occasionally growling. Fortunately we had been sleeping at night in a camper van, and that's what probably kept my dog alive. From that experience I took a lesson that you should always pay attention to what your dog has to say.

[@conniewolf7300]

This is how I feel sometimes!!😝

[@tushkafilms1061]

Somebody’s in trouble when they get home

[@OnlyTheReal13]

I think she wants to know how ?

[@dan3nad]

I heard this same sound while camping alone in serria nevada, it was late November, night around 9pm, it was very close, I would also scream back with a similar sound, we were litterly like communicating back & forth, I thought it was a owl, but later I looked it up realized it was a mountian lion, i also recorded it...😮😮😮😮

[@clllark]

It’s like a camel in heaven

[@zenphotojourney]

Thinking of lion vocalizations, what do they usually use the "chirping" sound for? I recently got my first of the season lion on one of my mesa trialcams and it did that.

[@WildNatureMedia]

Most of the time it is a female mountain lion calling to her juvenile lions. But I've also heard adult lions chirp back and forth but much less frequently than the former. Congratulations! That's exciting.

[@lisaricci4779]

Must love lions!

[@WildNatureMedia]

The understatement of the decade, possibly century.

[@janesooby7699]

I wish biologists would use smaller or RFID tags on these beautiful beasts.

[@WildNatureMedia]

RFID tags work when the tag can be scanned. This wouldn't work for mountain lions or for other wild animals. It works great for a domesticated animal. But hopefully the technology will improve over time as well as satellite transmission costs drop.

[@romygime5822]

How did they put hear tags on the Puma Cat.😢

[@WildNatureMedia]

Like you, I prefer mountain lions without any bling. This lion was part of a Colorado Front Range study. They dart the animal and while it is asleep they attach a tag, sometimes collar it, and take a lot of measurements (weight, teeth information, sex, etc).

[@thinkpanzer6690]

Beautiful

[@TheSingingCello]

Fascinating!

[@WildNatureMedia]

Thanks for your comment. I'm always gobsmacked by nature. But to hear a mountain lion calling just a few hundred yards away, I felt like I won the Wild Nature lottery.

[@sUper_deft0ner]

He/she sounds like is saying "OW"

[@drested1793]

Steps on the trekking pole? Where was the guy?

[@pumpkinwhitfield1007]

It sounds like my cat 🐈 lol 😂

[@lindadees3887]

Wonderful! Thanks so much.

[@WildNatureMedia]

Thanks Linda. This is one of my favorite clips.

[@annkey4091]

Why was the walking stick left at: 0:06 in this clip?

[@WildNatureMedia]

Great question Ann! The female lion was caterwauling down the hill about 150 yards while I was checking my cameras. I wanted to collect the five SD cards and get out of there before she showed up to get water or check several scrapes. Being in a hurry I simply forgot it. I didn't want to bother her with my presence or scent. Just trying to be respectful of her space.

[@annkey4091]

@@WildNatureMedia Thank you for the reply. It was a great video. The lion noticed the stick also.

[@juliam7056]

cool !!!

[@natalyandandi]

how was this animal tagged? darted? what are they being tracked for?

[@polemeros]

Sound starts at 1:50.

[@WhistlingWoodsman]

You mean 1:16

[@ChildofGod71]

Even educated flees do it ….

[@1chumley1]

Is this a male or female?

[@WildNatureMedia]

This is a female lion.

[@123TauruZ321]

1:13

[@WildNatureMedia]

I was fortunate to listen to this female lion caterwaul in person that day. She was down the hill a few hundred yards when I was checking my five cameras. Never saw her. She called for 45 minutes nonstop. It sounded like she was getting hoarse near the end.