Mountain Lion And Cubs Camp Out In Colorado Woman's Backyard (VIDEO)

When it comes to mountain lions, even cat lovers have their limits. Cat fanatic Lynn Thomas faced an unexpected challenge when she discovered a mother mountain lion and two cubs living in her backyard in Colorado.

As she playfully explains, "You think, 'Oh, I'm one with the world, I'm one with all the kitties and the kitty spirits' and -- no. No." But Thomas did watch as these curious cubs approached her house to explore. In this KUSA video report by Kevin Torres, you can watch as a furry cub tentatively plods his paws against her doorway.

The Denver Channel reports that the three mountain lions were tranquilized and relocated to a wilderness area. Oddly, a resident claimed, "It was beautiful...some neighborhood kids got to touch the (tranquilized) little cub." Beautiful... or creepy?

Colorado Division of Wildlife reports that humans are encountering more mountain lions because we are increasingly taking over their habitat. This raises room for debate on our relationship with the animal. As Thomas remarks in the video, "It really makes you realize that we're in their place."

WATCH these curious cubs:

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Comments

[1differentdrummer]

07:48 AM on 12/04/2010

Build a nice house in the forest.

[Cuds]

03:12 PM on 12/02/2010

Yikes. Watch your kids when they play in the back yard!

[SiberianRat]

03:35 PM on 12/02/2010

Unfortunately, that's really true around here (I live in the general area) if you live outside of urban areas. Mountain lions do indeed kill kids sometimes. They're so beautiful--I hope they were relocated to a good place. I think it's great if the neighborhood kids got to touch the tranquilized cats. That experience will give them an appreciate for the nature that surrounds them.

[Social Shrink]

02:21 PM on 12/02/2010

Uhhhh... petting a tranquilized cub? CREEPY, not beautiful. WTH

www.thesocialshrink.blogspot.com

[mtnrunner2]

02:19 PM on 12/02/2010

To the "animal rights" crowd: humans are not invading "their" space. Why in heck should humans let their building habits be determined wherever wild animals want to roam? That's ludicrous.

This neighborhood has been suburban for decades, it's not a "wild" area. It's on the plains about 4 lateral miles from the first Rocky Mountains, although it's built on the slopes of city of Lakewood designated open space (parks) and a grassy hill called Green Mountain. There are houses, roads, office parks and highways all around it.

Humans have rights, and animals have whatever we give them. Yes, we are more important than animals.

[Uproar]

01:45 PM on 12/03/2010

Importance shouldn't mean that we kill and trample anything that gets in our way of profits, which is the only reason all the bland new suburbs with cookie cutter houses are being built. Buy a used home, fer chrissake. Doesn't need to be a megamansion that cuts down 5 acres of trees just to build a 5-car garage. Leave some wilderness untouched. No need to kill every animal that exists.

[John Denton]

11:02 AM on 12/02/2010

Petting a tranquilized cub is 'creepy'? Or are you confusing this with date r@pe?

[rougebaisers]

08:21 AM on 12/02/2010

I want one.

[Welease Wodewick]

07:53 AM on 12/02/2010

"It really makes you realize that we're in their place."

That's the problem - in a nutshell.

I'm so glad the mother lion happened upon the back yard of a human who cared.

Well done, Lynn Thomas!

[SarcasticFringehead]

06:47 PM on 12/02/2010

No kidding.

In our gun-crazed nation, I could easily imagine some Yahoo killing these cougars at taking great pleasure in doing so.

[LiberalsAreHot]

11:25 PM on 12/01/2010

Very beautiful animals and they got lucky they ended up in this ladies backyard and not someone else who would have shot them in 'self defence' once they got close to the door...Hope mother and babies are roaming freely far far away from us humans...

[Welease Wodewick]

07:54 AM on 12/02/2010

Agreed 100%.

[PH04]

11:03 PM on 12/01/2010

The more we encroach on wild life habitat and build more buildings and new homes we don't really need the more we will see this. We keep disrupting the ecosystem then wonder why things happen. This woman was smart to leave the animals alone.

[LMPE]

08:54 PM on 12/01/2010

I always knew that you were lion about that

[Badger33]

08:54 PM on 12/01/2010

Why are people building/living in wildife habitat? I visit these areas for recreation. However, I live in a densely-populated urban area because they need to be left alone.

[MamaontheGo]

11:14 PM on 12/01/2010

Areas like Boulder that are directly up against the mountains get a lot of young cats (usually adolescent males) wandering into town (Boulder has been here since the 19th century so no, it's not a new suburb, LOL). There are coyotes, foxes, bald eagles, elk and moose all right here in our neighborhoods. We had bears coming down out of the mountains looking for food when the forest fires happened this fall. Local residents know to leave wild animals alone and the ones that do wander into town get captured and relocated. There's not as distinct a line between wild and urban habitats in the Rockies as there is in say, Iowa or Ohio.

[InYourWorld]

11:31 PM on 12/01/2010

what do you think lived in your densely populated area before it was densely populated? You are just as guilty as anyone else.

[Badger33]

02:40 AM on 12/02/2010

Obviously, people have to live somewhere. Live in a city and stop being part of the problem.

[Uproar]

01:49 PM on 12/03/2010

It would help if people were more open to buying pre-owned homes instead of building new mansions in new suburbs. They cut down acres of trees just to build these boring, personality-free streets so that bland people with no personalities and their boring kids can live there with their 2 Chevy Suburbans. Then they plant two bushes on the front lawn, hooray.

[edgarcaycedoc]

07:55 PM on 12/01/2010

Reminds me of the old joke, "What does an 800 lb. canary say?" "Here, kitty, kitty. Here, kitty, kitty!"

[Tyrione]

07:14 PM on 12/01/2010

The big cats are beautiful. The small cats are damn annoying.

[SukiTheCat]

05:45 PM on 12/01/2010

we need to stop encroaching on these creatures habitats! humans should stay in cities, it's heartbreaking what we are doing to this Earth

[dwilson424]

07:30 PM on 12/01/2010

I love your post you need to be at one with nature, that is why hunting is good.

[edgarcaycedoc]

07:57 PM on 12/01/2010

I am not a hunter. Having said that, I certainly am glad that we have hunters. Here in northwest Oklahoma, the deer would have a far worse fate if we didn't have hunting season. They would die of sickness and starvation (if they were not hit by cars) because without natural predators they would still be too many trying to feed of limited resources. The hunt is closely monitored by state game officials.

[ashabot]

05:36 PM on 12/01/2010

For all kinds of smart reasons, we should build up not out. Not the least among them is to take pressure off the wild populations.