I was listening for owls not too long after dusk. The temperature was in the 50s and the half moon shone brightly. Owls had been vocal. Standing in the dark, I heard a very loud, unfamiliar call that I thought must be either Great Horned or Spotted Owl. It called again, nearby and more intensely. I found myself getting in my car quickly without quite knowing why - it was an involuntary response faster than my brain consciously moved on to IDs like this one. But my brain did get there as I found myself rolling up the window in addition to closing the door, leaving just enough room to record. It was too loud and intense. The sounds moved very quickly from roughly behind my car to in front of my car. When I turned on the car and drove slowly forward, I quickly spotted these two individuals (presumably immature), which I somehow half expected I would see up the road. They were occasionally responding to other calls from the woods (presumably their mother). Photo taken by headlights at 12800 ISO.

This was an hour-long trailing experience. A family of three mountain lions killed a deer at one end of the riverbar. They then dragged it all the way to the other end and into the brush, where they fed on it for several days. This observation shows the first part of the trail with the kill site and evidence that the prey was a deer is shown. Will show other sections of the trail later. The deer was in brush and the mountain lions (2 of them from the track evidence) jumped it from the embankment above. It was quickly dispatched and one lion carried it out into the open. One of the cubs helped drag the carcass, as evidenced by the tracks. Video will be posted soon.

Family group trails followed for over 1/2mile. Apparently one adult (surely a female) and one half-grown young. Some images show larger and smaller tracks side by side as well as divergent trails. These cats often walked in one another's footsteps making it unclear how many individuals were present. Images 3 and 4 show one cat pausing during a direct-register walk and turning its head to scan the open beach.

En la década de 1990, durante uno de los diplomados de RESERVA en la RB Ría Celestún, era común observar huellas de ocelote en los terrenos salitrosos cercanos a la ría. Estas son huellas derechas con la mano (huella de abajo) y la pata, en patrón de caminata. Las pisadas eran frescas y la navaja mide 9 cm de largo.

Durante el trabajo de campo en la RB Calakmul observé muchas huellas de jaguar. Estas son especiales porque el individuo que las hizo fue el único jaguar que observé. Las huellas son derechas; si se observa con cuidado la pisada de la mano (la que está a la derecha) se puede ver que el dedo anular está fuera de lugar; es decir, que esta individuo tenía un dedo "chueco" y sus huellas se podían diferenciar de las de otros jaguares. La navaja mide 9 cm de largo.

Huellas claras de mano y pata izquierdas. Siguen el patrón característico de la caminata del tlacuache: la huella de la pata justo debajo de la huella de la mano. Como las pisadas son superficiales, en la pata solo de marca la punta de los dedos; pero se aprecia claramente el pulgar oponible.