{"id":8883,"date":"2025-09-11T05:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T05:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/8883\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T05:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T05:54:09","slug":"stunning-animal-poses-for-trail-cam-photo-op-in-the-middle-of-the-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/8883\/","title":{"rendered":"Stunning Animal Poses For Trail Cam Photo Op In The Middle Of The Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Axtell, a retired wildlife biologist, spends his free time setting up trail cameras in the mountains of Nevada. While combing through pictures over the summer, he came across something he\u2019d never seen before: a stunning mountain lion seeming to pose for the camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been doing this for six years and have 28 cameras,\u201d Axtell told The Dodo. \u201cThis is the only one that sat down.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Axtell<\/p>\n

The photos, captured at night, show a tan mountain lion resting her chin on some grass. The cat\u2019s big, brown eyes stare directly into the lens, as though she meant to pose for some glamour shots.<\/p>\n

In Axtell\u2019s experience, animals usually ignore the cameras. Motion sensors trigger the shutters and external flashes make nighttime photography possible, so sometimes a coyote or bear will see the flash and sniff the lens.<\/p>\n

This curious mountain lion, however, decided to lay down and bask in her moment.<\/p>\n

John Axtell<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was kind of surprising,\u201d Axtell said. \u201cThe water source is right there. I don’t know why she was staring at [the camera] so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Water sources are ideal spots for trail cams, especially in the Pine Nut Mountains, where these pictures were taken. The mountain lion, whose territory could be as large as 175 square miles, probably needed a cool drink.<\/p>\n

John Axtell<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible this isn\u2019t the first time Axtell captured images of this particular big cat. \u201cI have three cameras in this area,\u201d he said. \u201c[I] usually get a mountain lion about every four weeks or so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Axtell enjoys seeing the same wild animals over time. A certain bear may show up regularly on his film, then disappear for a few months before popping in again. He\u2019s photographed everything from mama bears with their cubs to bats mid-flight.<\/p>\n

Being able to observe nature in these fleeting moments is a gift \u2014 especially species like mountain lions that are protected by state conservation groups.<\/p>\n

John Axtell<\/p>\n

\u201cOften [animals] just walk by,\u201d Axtell said. \u201cThis is the only one that posed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Trail<\/a>Trail Camera Films Multiple Bears All Mysteriously Obsessed With The Same Tree”Different bears, different dates, same tree.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Axtell, a retired wildlife biologist, spends his free time setting up trail cameras in the mountains of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[9544,85,46,9894,9893,141,2865,9542,9895,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-8883","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-daily-dodo","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-mountain-lion","12":"tag-sarah-ashley","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-standard","15":"tag-the-dodo","16":"tag-trail-camera","17":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}