Mountain lion’s ‘unusual’ appearance in Texas national park sparks a mystery

A mountain lion’s “unusual” appearance in a Texas national park has sparked a mystery: Where did it come from?

A mountain lion in and of itself isn’t rare in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. They’ll go just about anywhere mule deer — among the most common animals in the Far West Texas park — can be found.

But this particular mountain lion recently spotted on a trail camera was wearing a collar.

Why is that strange? The park says it hasn’t collared cats since the 1980s.

“This collared mountain lion must have drifted into the park from somewhere else,” the park posted on Facebook. “It’s unusual, but exciting to see this collared individual because it reflects the vast roving and range behaviors of mountain lions.”

A mountain lion, also known as a cougar or puma, requires a huge swath of habitat to survive, according to the National Wildlife Federation. Cubs remain with their mothers up to 26 months but usually separate earlier to find their own territory, the wildlife groups says.

Guadalupe Mountains National Park shared a photo of the mountain lion in hopes of finding out who collared the cat.

“Since this is not our cat, we wanted to share the image to help whoever is doing research, find and monitor their kitty,” the park posted. “We’ve reached out to local researchers to identify ... the cat and its collar, with no luck.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2021 at 1:06 PM with the headline "Mountain lion’s ‘unusual’ appearance in Texas national park sparks a mystery."