Lori Jacobs shares the experience photographing this close call between a large bull elk and a mountain lion.

As a small group of of people watched this cougar along the confluence, praying he would move to a clearer location, a large bull elk wandered into view. He wandered back and forth, slowly moving up the hill. For some reason the bull did not know the cougar was above him until just after this image. There are a few possibilities as to how he is still walking this earth.

1. The lion had fed on a dead big horn sheep and eaten a huge amount of the animal before the rangers removed the carcass.
2. Based on the facial markings on the lion he is likely a young male. Likely he did not have the confidence to challenge this large bull. The remark about the facial markings and the cat being a possible juvenile male was made by a man who works with a group that monitors the cats. I cannot find supporting information so I am not sure if that was accurate.



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Per Lori, "When looking closely, I really cannot see a huge difference in the images. This is likely my editing as I really have not used this program at all and need to play with the settings to refine this image."

Editors Note: I asked Lori to share this image because of how rare I believe it is. There are only an estimated 34-42 cougars in northern range of Yellowstone National Park and, as we all know, they are quite secretive. Those numbers cover all ages and both sexes. First, big cat sightings during the day with this kind of access is amazing in its own right. Second, the chances of having an encounter that includes another large mammal, like an elk makes it even more striking.

This image was heavily cropped and taken with a 500mm lens - so Lori was clearly following common sense safety when dealing with the predatory mammals.