SALT LAKE CITY — Through the years, Utahns have been treated to amazing videos showing mountain lions in their natural habitat. Those videos were gathered by the Utah Mountain Lion Conservation, but after several cameras were recently stolen, the organization needs thousands of dollars to replace them.
While the cameras provide spectacular views, they work they do is essential to monitor some of the most elusive animals prowling in the mountains.
"Mountain lions are just these absolutely incredible animals. I've been tracking them on two different continents since 2015 and I never get tired of seeing them or catching them on our cameras," said Denise Peterson, founder and director of the group.
That explains why Peterson is so passionate about showing Utahns the beauty and personality of mountain lions.
"Our goal is to help people really understand mountain lions as a species, what they're really like," she explained. "There's a lot of misunderstandings around mountain lions, there's a lot of concerns that maybe they're this vicious predator out on the hillside, but that's not the case."
The mission is now hampered by the conservation's most important and expensive equipment having been stolen.
"When we stopped seeing activity coming across that camera, we're just like something's not right here; so we ran up to check the site and all of the cameras, except for the one spy point, they were all gone," said Peterson. "They were double-locked, we had two sets of locks on all the different cameras, so they intentionally went up, cut the locks and pulled these expensive cameras that were personally financed, honestly because we're such a young organization that we basically invested everything that we could to make this happen."
Peterson said the cameras are vital to the work they do with the Utah Mountain Lion Conservation.
"They help tell the story of what Utah's mountain lions are actually like; their different behaviors, how they actually interact with one another, how different animals use the spaces mountain lions are in, and they help communicate and inform what these animals are actually like, so maybe they understand them better," she said.
Even with the current bump in the trail, Peterson ensures the group will continue their work on the importance of co-existence between mountain lions and humans.
"You look around us and much of this country is beautiful lion habitat, especially here in northern Utah; and then you think about how many people are recreating out in lion country everyday, you almost never hear of somebody running into a mountain lion. I guarantee you they're there and they see you, but they do everything they can to avoid us.
"They've been in Utah, in North America, for thousands and thousands of years and they have a natural role, an important role in preserving the biodiversity in our local ecosystems."
Those looking to donate to help replace the stolen cameras can CLICK HERE.
