[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

Both questions are puzzling. Also, I notice the puma was not eaten, so it might have been a territorial dispute. The same way that African lions will kill any cheetas and their cubs they encounter in their territory.

I speculate the lion was sick or injured and the wolves just finished it off. Otherwise, there would certainly be some wolf remains at the scene.

FWIW, pumas kill and maul hikers near suburban communities in So California on a regular basis. I think where ranching is involved that the ranchers should have the right to decide, with their guns, what kind of wildlife to tolerate in the vicinity.

[101voodoo]

Don’t animals in a territorial dispute chase off the intruder rather then attack and kill it? Animals, unlike people don’t suffer from a loss of face but follow their instincts for survival when confronted with a superior enemy. The instinct for survival is the strongest one in an animal(a wild one).

[driftdiver]

Wolves don’t always eat what they kill and sometimes they eat before they kill.

The cougar was competition for the wolves. Anything else is speculation.

[Hot Tabasco]

Also, I notice the puma was not eaten

I did too, as well as a rope in the background.....I know a gal in Nebraska who learned how to trap coyotes the way the native Indians did by using a rope snare....

Just a thought......

[Hot Tabasco]

I notice the puma was not eaten,

Wolves are definitely a problem for those folks out there.

With that being said, I don't believe wolves killed this cat. Very little blood on the ground, no visible fight scars especially at the neck which would have been required to kill it in this case, and no evidence of it being eaten, especially by a number of wolves. And whats up with the rope?

My guess is that the cat may have been gut shot at some point and eventually died where it was photographed.......