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Screen grab from YouTube.
Robert Martinez, whose amazing and graphic trail cam videos of mountain lions, bears and other fauna in the San Gabriels I showed you last year, snagged a new milestone last week. His camera above Glendora caught four prowling mountain lions moving in daylight through a clearing, followed later that night by a solo male cougar Martinez has seen before. "Wow!!! I did not see this one coming," he posts on YouTube. The lions spotted Friday all look pretty healthy, or at least well fed.
Martinez told KTLA's website that the find was thrilling if also a bit unnerving.
Martinez, who started erecting his set of eight Bushnell trail cameras in the area around Big Dalton Canyon above Glendora in spring 2012, goes to the area every few days to download the footage. Sitting with his MacBook on the forest floor, he got a thrill seeing the family of “completely new” animals crossing right in front of his camera.
“I sat up straight,” Martinez recalled. “They were just there a few days ago? Holy …”Martinez said his videos are intended to bring awareness to local wildlife, especially mountain lions. He said he wants them protected and their “legacy” kept safe.
He also wants to show that it’s safe for humans to be in the same habitat as the seemingly fearsome creatures.
“I can go out there too,” Martine said. “They’re not sitting in the bushes lying in wait. … They want to survive.”
Previously on LA Observed:
Two wary cougars slowly eat a deer in the San Gabriels (video)
Another LA-area lion drags away a deer on camera (video)*
Urban wildlife update: Lions, tarantulas and oarfish
