SNOW TRACKER

The mountain lion (or cougar or puma) is probably the most widely spread and adaptable of all the big cats. It's a beautiful cat but much persecuted by farmers and hunters and therefore extremely elusive. In winter, it grows a thick, deep coat. This cat was in northern Idaho and Yellowstone. Against a broken, complex background of snow-laden trees, that strip of sunlight became a spotlit stage. A deer's hoofprints have scarred its pristine surface. Enter left a snow-dusted mountain lion stealthily tracking its prey, pausing center stage with one forepaw poised in mid-air . . . .