Cougar, Wildlife Prairie Park, December 9, 1995.

It was 30 years ago today and I was face to face with a cougar. The windchill was -40° Fahrenheit at Wildlife Prairie Park. It was bone chillingly cold, even with Sorel Pac boots, thermal underwear, layers of clothes, and a winter parka. I had to take a break every hour or two to warm up. But it was worth it.

I was there because of an article I had just read in Outdoor Photographer by Leonard Lee Rue. He said Wildlife Prairie Park (west of Peoria Illinois) was a great place to photograph wild animals in very large, natural, fenced enclosures. The park closed at the end of that weekend for the winter, a blizzard was on the way, so I packed up and drove to Illinois to beat the blizzard. The blizzard won that race. In the end it was a good thing. The snow made for better images.

When I came to the cougar enclosure there was a vertical fence about 25-30 feet high, and then a level section of fence that went from the top of the vertical fence and jutted inside the enclosure by another 5 or more feet to prevent a cougar from climbing up and over the fence. Every large tree near the fence had metal sheeting around the trunk up to about 20 feet in height so a cougar couldn’t climb a tree and jump out.

A cougar was walking around inside the enclosure. I learned later her name was Polly.

I climbed up the steps to an observation deck where I could see over the top of the fence. To my surprise, Polly climbed up a thin sapling near the fence that had no metal sheeting around it, and as she did that, the sapling leaned toward the fence so she was even with and close to the level part of the fence.

The artist of this illustration prefers to remain anonymous.

You can see the thin sapling across the bottom right corner of the photo. We were face to face and about 15 feet apart. A cougar can jump 30 feet and she was much closer to the level part of the fence than that. There were times Polly tested her footing on the sapling like she was ready to jump, but the sapling felt too springy underfoot. So she would settle down, rip some of the bark off the sapling with her teeth, and then get up to test her footing on the sapling again. You can see where she ripped some bark of the bark off the sapling on the far right side of the photo. This went on for quite a while.

I was nervous, but also determined to get some good photos. I was quite taken with the intensity of Polly’s look.  I eventually figured out why she looked so intent.

As I took pictures I was standing in snow. At some point toward the end of our time together, I took off my backpack and walked to a non-snowy area at the end of the observation deck and set my backpack down. Polly went down the sapling, walked over to the vertical fence and sat right under my backpack and looked up at it. Then I got it. The intensity of her gaze was focused on the backpack, not me.  I decided as a best guess that my backpack looked to her like the bag they use to bring her food.  She really did want to jump toward me when we were eyeball to eyeball but it was my backpack she was after. It would still have been very exciting had she gotten up the courage to make the jump.

There is a prequel to this story.

It was my first day (Friday, December 8) at Wildlife Prairie Park when I first met Polly. It was a cloudy day in the afternoon. At closing time a ranger came down the trail. From her angle she could not see Polly. She told me it was closing time. I didn’t want to move so I said to the ranger, “This cougar can get out.” The look on her face told me she didn’t believe me. But as she got closer she spotted Polly. She said to me, “Oh my God, don’t move!”  I didn’t move.  She got on her radio and said “Polly is about to get out.”  (That is when I learned Polly’s name.) Several rangers came with a tarp. They came up where I was, held the tarp between me and Polly and then told me I could leave.

When I came back the next morning (Saturday, December 9) it was a sunny day with much better light. Polly came right back up the sapling and we resumed our routine from the day before. I was less nervous. She would test the sapling, and then rip off pieces of bark. It was Saturday that I captured this image, one of my all time favorites.

I bet they cut down the small sapling that was close to the observation deck or put metal sheeting around it!

Bobcat in a tree, Wildlife Prairie Park, December 9, 1995.

There are a lot of other animals well worth seeing.

Red Fox, Wildlife Prairie Park, December 9, 1995.

Wildlife Prairie Park is a great place to take pictures. It is now open year around.