Favoritos de boeing_opal

On Christmas eve, fresh tracks heading N along Sandy's Canyon trail, approaching Fisher Point the lion headed W on trail, where a fresh set of men's tracks appeared and the lion's tracks followed and walked upon those fresh tracks. Lost trail in old snow and gap between ridges. Took phone on Christmas day to take pictures but area heavily trafficked by people, bikes and dogs. Lion tracks obscured, older, not as crisp.

Recorded this image of a mountain lion wandering through our front yard with our camera trap. I notified Arizona Game & Fish dispatch of the sighting based on recommendations from their “Living with Mountain Lions” website, so they are looped in. A pretty amazing observation!

The skeletal remains were found along a river bed and there appears to be tooth marks on the skull from either a predator that killed it or a scavenger after it died. Habitat here is lush tropical deciduous forest, with semi-evergreen tropical canyons nearby (the only such habitat known in Sonora). Apparently a first record for Sonora, although in 2020 David Mackay of Álamos shared a photo that another local in or near Álamos had sent him of a live jaguarundi in a trap (apparently the rancher had traps up to protect his chickens and other livestock). I imagine the trapped animal was likely killed, but I do not know of further details.

The NCI Reserva Monte Mojino had not yet detected this species on any of their wildlife cameras yet (fide Lydia Lozano), although the reserve has had 5 other native felids.

Growing near a stream in a spruce and pine forest. Fruitbodies were found in the grass next to the stream and on rotting wood nearby.

Spores ~ 12-14 x 6-8um

All microscopy at 1000x in KOH with scale bar showing 1um per tic

I never realized how hard it is to tell Gray Fox and Kit Fox apart, at least for me. I'd be grateful to know of any key field marks that can be used from these photos. Maybe the ears are too small for Kit Fox?

A campground Kit Fox (Vulpes macrotis macrotis), Pinal County, Arizona

The second (cropped) image was taken 15 seconds after the first. This or another canid made grainier appearances around 4 and 5:30am.

Was away mosst of day, went i checked the chrysalis was empty and this butterfly was crawling across the driveway. I relocated it to my brittle bush to gather strength and fully complete. Adult from this larva observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/192677798