Thanks for sharing that, Chris. The southernmost habitat for lynx used to be the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado but they were hunted to extinction there. About 20 years ago the National Wildlife Service acquired some trapped lynx from Canada and transplanted them to the San Juan Mountains. Last I heard they were doing okey-dokey.

Similarly, pumas were hunted almost to extinction in southern New Mexico so the Wildlife Service transplanted some pumas from northern New Mexico into the southern mountains. To their chagrin the transplanted pumas traveled all the back to northern New Mexico (which was a long journey through very hot treacherous desert). Pumas are known to travel great distances. A few years back a radio-collared puma from the Black Hills of South Dakota wandered all the way to Connecticut where it was killed when it attempted to cross a busy freeway.

I actually came close to a puma encounter when I was living high in the mountains of Taos County. A puma walked through the backyard of my home but it was in the middle of the night and I was sound asleep. I didn’t realize it until I went outside the next morning and saw the puma tracks in the fresh snow. Those kitty cats have some huge feet.