Her teeth are worn with age, and she sticks to rabbits and other small prey. The institute has collared an older female lion. One of the lions lingers in lower elevations and dines primarily on javelina. Mountain lions can become specialists in hunting. The data sheds light on the lions’ movements and diet. The lions are outfitted with radio collars, which allow them to be tracked on an almost hourly basis. As of early March 2015, three lions had been trapped in the program, Harveson said. Harveson and her team have used trained hounds and traps to catch lions. “But it’s still something that needs to be addressed, and the park recognizes that, which is the reason for this study.
“When you think about all the lions that are there, it’s amazing – it’s such a tiny, small percentage of the time that something like this actually happens,” she says. Patricia Moody Harveson is leading the institute’s research. It could help reduce the potential for dangerous encounters – and open a window into the behavior and demographics of the region’s top predator. And in 2014, the institute began a study in the park. In the wake of the attack, park officials reached out to specialists at the Borderlands Research Institute in Alpine. Drought conditions at the time were extreme, and the lion was emaciated, and depleted by intestinal disease. The parents fought the lion off, but the boy was injured. A lion seized a 6-year-old boy while he was walking with his parents in the Chisos Basin, the most developed part of the park. The most recent attack took place in February 2012. Since the park opened in 1944, there have been only seven instances in which human beings have been attacked and injured by lions. A lion sighting can be a thrilling and memorable experience. In most cases, visitors glimpse the elusive predator from behind the wheel of a car. There are about 150 mountain lion sightings in Big Bend National Park each year.
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