Today, everyday all cats big and small. If you haven’t posted your picture yet please take to Instagram, Facebook, twitter or Snap chat to show your support of our wonderful and wild feline friends. I specifically picked a photo taken a few years ago with P-22 mountain lion in L.A. (not the real one his famous cardboard cut out). While I love (aka am obsessed with all wildcats) it seems that we here in North America forget that mountain lions like all wildcats elsewhere are victims of habitat loss, human population growth, human/wildlife conflict and conflict with livestock. Additionally, they fall prey to outdated myths resulting in heavy persecution from hunting and trapping (even here in Canada). We now know so much more about these mysterious and once very misunderstood cats, but we have a long way to go. Even with ground breaking research like that of Panthera’s Puma Program they continue to be treated/viewed like they were centuries ago. We know better we should be doing better, our ‘big cat’ deserves our respect and protection.

Mountain lions do not receive the protection or even consideration like African lions or most of the other big cats, they are unfortunately considered of “least concern” despite the fact that there numbers overall are declining. What are we waiting for? We cannot protect or save what is not there. While we continue to fight for all wildcats elsewhere we cannot ignore what goes on in our own backyard, we must continue to push for more humane ways to co-exist with them.

‘Lead by example. What better way to show other countries how to live alongside predators?’

From one of my favorite accounts/photographers, Robert Martinez/Parliament Of Owls comes amazing footage of a mountain lion mom known as Limpy and her three kittens in California – a place that is trying its best to learn how to coexist with North America’s largest cat.