Local News | Rare photo shows 8 cougars on game trail | Seattle Times Newspaper

By Craig Welch

Seattle Times environment reporter

COURTESY OF BRAD THOMAS

One cougar snarls as eight cougars congregate on a rock cliff near Moses Coulee in Central Washington in this image captured Dec. 23 by a remote motion-sensor camera.

SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE TIMES

SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE TIMES

They don’t exactly hunt in packs, don’t travel in herds and aren’t typically thought of as communal beings.

The image of the mountain lion as a stealthy, solitary beast is woven into the fabric of the American West.

And yet there they were on a game trail in Eastern Washington — eight creatures famous for being loners, all huddled together as if attending some big-cat block party.

Brad Thomas captured the images a few days before Christmas on a trail camera, triggered by a motion sensor, set up on private land in Douglas County. He submitted a disc of photos to cougar experts with the state. After reviewing and discussing the images among themselves, the biologists declared the pictures extraordinary — a rare glimpse of fellowship among the West’s common but elusive mountain lions.

Local News | Rare photo shows 8 cougars on game trail | Seattle Times Newspaper