Back in '87 or thereabouts a friend saw one cross the narrow dirt road leading to the property I was living on at the time. This was just south of College Station in Brazos County, in a location now gone under to suburban development.
Here in San Antonio, lions have been present for as long as I can remember on Camp Bullis, a 28,000 acre Military training area in the northern part of Bexar County, now pretty much surrounded by upscale housing developments, presence documented in the form of deer kills found and sightings.
Within the city limits is a park on the far north side of town, there is a three mile loop trail over rough terrain that I often take my dogs walking at night. In the last ten years I have heard what I preseumed were lions there twice.
Once a deep throaty cat growl perhaps twenty yards away up a hillside in thick cedar, repeated a few minute later further off along the slope. Went in the next day to find a sapling Spanish oak torn out of the ground, bark ripped by claws, leaf litter all disturbed and a strong odor of cat.
Same park, just two years back, a deer bleating and sound of a scuffle in the cedar maybe fifty or sixty yards off, the bleating suddenly cut off. The very next day the park was closed for perhaps ten days as a result of a mountain lion sighting.
Both times my two heelers were alert and listening, but did not bark or attempt to chase, I often have 'em out in the woods or brush and they know not to respond to critters we run into unless I tell 'em its OK.
Birdwatcher
