The carcass of a buck pronghorn, apparently killed and stashed by a mountain lion,\u00a0became a macabre discovery near the Thermopolis Golf Course on Sunday. Wyoming Game and Fish personnel trapped and relocated a young mountain lion that evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A mountain lion advocate and an experienced mountain lion hunter both told Cowboy State Daily that stashing food so close to humans seemed typical of a young, inexperienced cat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Carcass First Reported To Police<\/p>\n
The Thermopolis Police Department on Sunday received a call from somebody who found the carcass of a buck pronghorn, or antelope, next to the golf course. The report was passed forward to Game and Fish.<\/p>\n
Photos taken at the site show the carcass partly covered with what appears to weeds and grass.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mountain lions are known to stash, or cache, their kills and hang out nearby, occasionally returning to eat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Game and Fish large carnivore specialist Dan Thompson told Cowboy State Daily that the Thermopolis game warden received a call about a dead pronghorn on Airport\u00a0Road.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cUpon responding, it was confirmed to have been killed by a mountain lion,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously don’t fault a mountain lion for doing what mountain lions do, but we do not promote them in residential areas. So they, the Thermopolis game warden and the district biologist, set a trap and captured the mountain lion that evening,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was decided not to immobilize the animal, so we don’t have additional details on its weight, etc., but they safely relocated the subadult cat to a more remote area,\u201d Thompson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mountain-Lion-stash-3-9.16.25.jpg\")
A mountain lion killed an antelope buck and stashed its carcass near the Thermopolis Golf Course, creating a macabre surprise for the person who discovered it. Wyoming Game and Fish later trapped and relocated a \u201csubadult\u201d mountain lion. (Courtesy Binky Fisher, Thermopolis Police Department)Youngster Learning The Ropes<\/p>\n
The incident in Thermopolis seems typical of an inexperienced male cat, Fauna Tomlinson, volunteer board member with the Mountain Lion Foundation, told Cowboy State Daily.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Young males are sometimes pushed out of prime territory by dominant adult male mountain lions, she said.<\/p>\n
That might put them near humans, and they might be careless about where they stash their kills, compared to adult cats, Tomlinson added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be like a teenager, when you send a teenager out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Younger mountain lions might travel great distances while trying to establish themselves, Tomlinson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not easy being a wild lion,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Mountain-Lion-kill-stash-2-11.13.24.jpg\")
The photo shows were a mountain lion killed a mule deer and stashed its carcass by partially burying it. Hunting guide Matt Rivord said it\u2019s an increasingly common sight in one of his favorite hunting areas, near Sybille Canyon in southeast Wyoming. (Courtesy Matt Rivord)Adults Drag Kills Huge Distances<\/p>\n