What large mammals have become extinct or rare in the Colorado Rockies and Sierra in the past 100 years?
In decades of hiking and backpacking in the Sierra and Colorado Rockies, I have seen only six species of large mammals: black bear, coyote, moose, big horn sheep, elk and deer.
If I had been hiking a century ago in the Sierra and Colorado Rockies, what other large mammals would I have been likely to see? Even then, the grizzly would have been rare in those two areas.
I have never seen a cougar, although I have been in areas where hikers were alerted to cougars.
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I've spent many years hiking and camping in the Rocky Mountains and California, and animals I have seen more than once or regularly include black bears, deer, elk, moose, wild turkey, beaver, mountain goats and longhorn sheep.
I've never seen mountain lions, although they are plentiful, but they keep themselves hidden. My aunt's husband says he wanted to photograph one once, so he hiked up into the mountains of Colorado and camped out at a place where he knew he had the best chance. He camped out there for a few days. On the third day, he was sitting outside reading a book when he saw a movement. He looked up, saw a cougar looking at him, he reached over for his camera and had just enough time to take a photo of its hind legs as it ran away.
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/10163. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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