The Secret Social Lives of Predatory Mountain Lions

Explore how cooperation among predators can influence survival, weighing the potential benefits and risks of collaborative behavior in the wild. In this resource, students will analyze one of the most remarkable moments from the Nature episode “Willow: Diary of a Mountain Lion”—a family of mountain lions sharing a kill with an unrelated individual, a behavior that had never been documented. Through more than ten years of close observation and groundbreaking footage, researchers reveal surprising insights into the secret lives of these elusive predators and potentially upend long-held assumptions about their solitary nature.