This morning I spent some time in the Dixie National Forest west of Bryce Canyon scouting for birds. In one of the locations I stopped to look around I came upon some paw prints that caught my attention. It was a fairly large print and I knew right away it wasn't from a Black Bear because they have something of a human-like shape. Of course I didn't have a tape measure or ruler handy but decided that, if nothing else, I could use a business card for reference and, as it turned out, the print was almost identical in width to the card - 3-1/2 inches. I've considered just about every possibility in my mammal field guide and can only come up with one answer: Mountain Lion. I am not absolutely certain and plan to show the picture to some other folks in hopes of finding out for sure . . .

(It was not a fresh track; my guess is that it was probably made yesterday when the ground was mushy after Monday's snow had melted.)