Yesterday at approximately 07:45 I received a mortality signal for one of our bighorn ewes, frequencey 150.700. Unlike the mortality farce in October, this was no trick of radio frequency overlap. This ewe was indeed dead, preyed upon by a cougar. By 12:15 I had located the carcass. At this particular location there was very little surface soil and it was difficult to find tracks of any kind. I was able to determine that the ewe had been attacked approximately 100 meters uphill from the cache site and then drug downhill by the cougar and deposited beneath a mesquite. Cougars typically cover their prey with soil, sticks, and organic debris, often beneath a low tree or shrub. In this case, there was no surface material available to cover the carcass. I set a remote camera in the evening and this morning retrieved the photo above. It is most likely that this cougar came onto the mountain from the river area, as I have recorded multiple sets of tracks coming up from the river previously (see previous post for 20 November). As I was investigating the site today, I could hear the crack and boom of bighorn rams competing for ewes on the mountainside above me.