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So I'm hunting this ridge I like to hunt and I come across some bear scat I found a couple weeks back. Nothing fresh. So I continue walking and the dogs find something that from a distance I thought was a lion scrape. I go over and look and it is a bunch of pine needles raked up in a circle. I looked to see if anything dead was under it and nothing. I then notice some greenish looking stuff beside it that has hair in it. Looked to me like something coughed up a hairball or something. So maybe one of you guys can tell me what this is I found?

How big was the circle? Was it raked up into a pile? Did it have any urine smell to it when you stirred it around? Was there any cat turds in it?

wasn't a lion. Didn't know if bears raked pine needles up or wolves?? Was about 2 ft in diameter and wasn't there a couple weeks ago. There are no scratches on that ridge that I have found since I have been hunting it for the last month and a half. The scratches I have found on other ridges in that area have been used once and never returned to this pile was way bigger than any lion scratch I have seen in that whole area. And what was that greenish thing with the hair in it. Looked like rock chuck hair. Maybe Bella ate one and puked it up. Seriously was weird.

Have you ever heard of a lion mound?

Guess not Is it where they puke up weird green stuff with rock chuck hair? Not one dog got excited over it. Not even the Superstar Puma and they had just ran a trainer so they had cat on the brain....... well all but Bella she had Rock Chuck on the brain.

I have seen where females have made big scratch mounds like that. My bet it was a lion. Not real sure why females make these but I have found several. I would keep hunting that area there might be a female stashed out in there somewhere.

The puked up green stuff looks like it could be from an owl?

looks like an owl pellet to me, probably mouse hair

Tessa, I, too have found these piles that look very similar to what you have found. According to my friend who runs the lion study up here, it's a lions version of a puke pail. Lions sometimes consume food that doesn't agree with them and they get sick and have to expel what they have eaten.

Big Horn Posse wrote:wasn't a lion. Didn't know if bears raked pine needles up or wolves?? Was about 2 ft in diameter and wasn't there a couple weeks ago. There are no scratches on that ridge that I have found since I have been hunting it for the last month and a half. The scratches I have found on other ridges in that area have been used once and never returned to this pile was way bigger than any lion scratch I have seen in that whole area. And what was that greenish thing with the hair in it. Looked like rock chuck hair. Maybe Bella ate one and puked it up. Seriously was weird.

You should have tried a little bit of it and seen what it tasted like. Probably would have narrowed your search down quite a bit.

That's what my trash eating pups are for. There is not a piece of scat or dead on the mountain they haven't found and eaten. They did have a taste of the green fur ball. Nasty nasty nasty.

Jason, My first thought was a lion hair ball puked up, but green??

Well, I don't beleive it's a hairball, rather, possibly some end result of a lions digestive system not agreeing with what it has been trying to digest. I got an idea, if it's "green" maybe it's the remnants of an eco friendly california hiker from a lion that left the confines of the city to breathe the cleaner air! (Those bunny huggers don't shave their pits, might explain all the fuzz)

Wishful thinking Jason Reason I mentioned the bear sign in the original post was thought maybe it could have been bear puke? don't know if they puke, but they eat a lot of green stuff

Well, there is no doubt that bears do eat a lot of green stuff. That's for sure. I don't know a lot about bears, and I don't know if they cover puke or poo. The only thing I do know that they cover is carrion, but like I said, I just don't know

My dog ran one off of a pile exactly like that last year. Mike L. told me it was a scent post made by a female to keep her kittens in the area while she went off hunting.