A mountain lion tagged in south central Colorado less than a year later was found in a game preserve area along the Platte River near Kearney, Nebraska. Their range is impressive.
Yep. You've shown that.
What I'm about to say is entirely anecdotal and was told to me by a Ranger at Philmont who was a US Air Force Academy cadet.
Outside of an area of Philmont called Indian Writings, there's a mile+ long area where you walk through a canyon walled on each side by something that looks straight out of a John Ford movie. Craggy, bouldery, nooked-and-cranny-ed, tall, multi-story rock walls.
She said "right now, a dozen mountain lion are looking at you."
We said "whuuuuuuuuut?"
She said something along the lines of: "Mountain lion usually have very large territories and were thought to be rather solitary animals. However, current thought is turning to the idea that the large hunting area is necessary because the amount of food - game - has decreased and a mountain lion must cover a large area to feed itself."
"Here, we have abundant game. You know you do; we already have this morning. You see mule deer all of the time and your Scouts can hardly be called quiet hikers."
"Biologists have studied the walls of this canyon and believe that perhaps as many as a hundred mountain lion live in this canyon. They wander out to feed; after all, they have 250,000 acres here, and we're bounded by Ted Turner's land and government park land."
"Every step you take, you're being watched by a dozen pair of eyes. I probably understated that. Two or three dozen, unless they're sleeping. Nothing else is moving down here but us."
“Their Range is impressive”..... Or it was caught and released...
I remember a Brit bloke was catching crocs and releasing them in suburbia canals and rivers in India, upsetting the locals... The bloke thought they should be there, as they used to be. The locals kept losing kids who went to the water for bathing......
If I walk up on a bear near my house and the bear doesn’t fear me and run, the bear is a goner. If I see a big cat near my house.... gone... All these tough people who think the cat should be left alone in an area populated by humans will suddenly vanish from the debate when a child is killed.