Rare Video: Mountain Lion Takes Cool Dip In Raging Colorado River
Ever seen a mountain lion in person, either up in the mountains or anywhere closer to home? Quite a few people have, at some point in their Colorado life.
But how many have seen a mountain lion taking a swim down a raging river, winding through the Rocky Mountains? Not many. Until now.
Vail 4x4 Tours is used to seeing wildlife along the trails as they conduct their tours throughout the Vail area. And while "will we see any mountain lions?" is a common question from their guests, the answer is "pretty rarely."
As owner Ben Hilley told Fox31Denver, “Over the past 15 years and thousands of hours on trail, I’ve seen two. I even tell our guests, they are there but we won’t see them. This sighting was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
Better yet, they managed to catch it on video:
As you can see, the river is running strong. While the mountain lion floats with the current down river, he's also quite powerful and manages to swim all the way across it before climbing out onto the river bank and scampering up the hill, no doubt in search of his next food source - or at least a dry towel.
And here we've always thought that cats hate to swim! Turns out these big cats are pretty good at it.