For months Sarah Perry and her husband Mark had been checking their game camera hoping for a good shot.
The camera turned up nothing of interest for the longest time — until they recently checked again and found that a cougar had been chasing down six deer, right in their yard.
The couple, who live in Grand Forks, installed the camera on their property about a year and a half ago. They knew they’d had cougar on the property in the past, so thought getting a game camera might be a fun way to catch a bit of the action. Sarah Perry said no cougars had appeared on the camera in the time they’d had it — just deer, cats, bears, and on occasion, mountain sheep — until this photo.
“I always saw pictures of deer and hoped the next frame would be a cougar, and it never was,” she said. Finally, they checked the camera’s memory card again and found this spectacular shot of a cougar in hot pursuit of dinner in late February.
The camera is triggered by motion and stays outside year-round, making it handy for capturing shots of wildlife. Perry said she’s trying (unsuccessfully) to convince herself the deer got away, but knows it’s “all a part of the circle of life.”