Originally published in Points West magazineWinter 2019–2020 Seldom Seen: Elusive Predators of Yellowstone Country By Mark Davis Bill Hackney was driving on Muddy Mountain near Casper, Wyoming, when something odd caught his eye. It had an unusual gate, running next to the road for about 30 feet before dropping off the shoulder and disappearing in thick timber. […]
Late in the spring a couple years back, Leslie Patten went hiking and came upon something pretty spectacular. When she looked more closely, she saw that it was a dead mountain lion. “It had hardly been predated on. It was still cold because it was early April so nothing was decomposed,” Patten recalled. “I could […]
Join the Draper Natural History Museum for a free Lunchtime Expedition lecture on May 2, 12:15 p.m. The speaker, Leslie Patten, has worked with land her entire life as a gardener, professional landscape designer, and a volunteer on a wide variety of wildlife studies. The talks in this series are free, and take place in […]
Originally published in Points West magazine in Summer 2007 The Mountain Lion: Phantom in the Mountains By Philip and Susan McClinton Cougar. Puma. Catamount. Panther. Mountain Lion. Painter. Screamer. These names conjure up colorful, if not sinister, images of one of the American West’s most elusive animals, the American Mountain Lion (Puma concolor). Cougars are […]
Art in the Garden this year has been a lot of fun for me and the families that participate in our free activities. Our first week’s theme was Cowboys and Cowgirls. The museum guests and I had a lot of fun decorating cowboy boots, creating popsicle stick cowboy and cowgirl dolls, and making our own […]
This is a report from conservation intern, Laura Siegfried: Visitors to the Draper Natural History Museum may remember the sculpture, at the bottom of the spiral ramp, of a taxidermy mountain lion and a carved wooden elk head. The artists of this piece are Ray Hatfield, Dwayne Johnson, and Duane Mittlieder of Nature’s Design Taxidermy. […]