Cougar vs. Wolf (Full Episode) | SPECIAL | Nat Geo Animals

Narrator: Expert tracker and biologist Boone Smith is investigating a secret war, raging in the wilds of North America. Boone Smith: If wolves were here, this cat would be in trouble. Narrator: A blood feud between cougars and wolves. Boone Smith: Blood spraying here, blood spraying there. Narrator: In a battle for domination over territory. Boone Smith: Classic cat on the back of the neck. Wolf never even saw it coming. Narrator: With each animal fighting for its ultimate survival. Boone Smith: The cat's going up the cottonwoods! Narrator: It's on Boone to unravel the clues to find out who is winning the war. Boone Smith: Out there in the wild, you're either a winner or you're a loser. And if you're a loser, you're dead. Narrator: Deep in the Bitterroot Mountains on the remote border between Montana and Idaho, big cat expert Boone Smith. Boone Smith: There's a kill right here. Narrator: Is working a battle ground. Boone Smith: Punctures from the tooth marks going in. It broke the ribs right here. Nasty, nasty gashes. What's been discovered is since the reintroduction of wolves, these two apex predators have gone head to head. Competing for territories. And the prey that lives there. There's one chasing a deer right here. Narrator: It's cougar versus wolf. And neither predator is backing down. Boone Smith: This is the exact thing we'd see, if a wolf pack was coming after it. One of the most amazing things about this battle between cougars and wolves is that they're competing in different ways. Each bringing different tools to the game. Narrator: Wolves and cougars rely on drastically different techniques to fight this war. Cougars are solitary hunters. They use stealth, speed, strength and superior eyesight to strike and take out prey in an instant. In stark contrast, wolves rarely fight alone. They live and hunt in a pack; using their extremely strong sense of smell and hearing to track prey and when they attack, their jaws bring down the most powerful bite in the canine world. Boone Smith: On one side we have the cougar. On the other, the well coordinated wolf packs. And both are going head to head for control over the landscape. And what I want to know is which predator is coming out on top. Narrator: In Yellowstone, one predator appears to have the advantage. Boone Smith: April 4th 2003, Yellowstone National Park. A female cougar known as F106 is found dead. There are bite wounds on her neck and she has been disemboweled but she's not eaten. In her claws and teeth researchers find a link to F106's killers. Wolf hair. What probably happened with F106 is she was caught in the open and one wolf picks up the trail and comes in. And then two and then three. And when one makes contact, he is going to use those big powerful front claws and shoulders to hook in and bite. But then another wolf comes and then another wolf comes and pretty soon she just becomes overwhelmed. Narrator: Since reintroduction in Yellowstone wolves have spread into more than 10 packs totaling nearly 500 animals and cougar kills like F106 have become common. It appears that they've taken control. Boone Smith: But in the Bitterroot Mountains further west, something very different is going on. In fact, in the last few years alone, researchers have found five dead wolves killed by cougars in the Bitterroots. Narrator: Which puts the Bitterroots on the front lines in this cat versus dog fight for survival. In 1995 and '96, 37 wolves were reintroduced near the Bitterroot Mountains. They quickly spread to thirteen different packs, poised to take over. But the cougars that live here are fighting back. To investigate how those cougars are taking on the wolves, Boone needs to use his lifetime of tracking experience to find them. And to do that, he's introducing a new player: his hound dogs, specially trained to the scent of cougars. All right girl. Come here. So, this is Sue. She's just about four years old. This is Max; he's a little over two, two-and-a-half, so we're doing a little puppy training trying to get him moving. He's super fast. So we've got a dog that moves really fast when the scent's hot. And we got one that moves really slow and grinds out a, an old track. Got the pups out running today and I think we're gonna do a little chasing! Narrator: To catch a cougar and see how it stacks up with a wolf, Boone needs to follow the cats into their territory, which includes elevations up to 10,000 feet and steep terrain covered in heavy snow. Boone Smith: Get it Sophie, girl! Oh we got a smokin' fresh track right here. So when I find a track one of the first things I look at is size. If it is a big track with big fat toes it is going to be a tom or a male. A track with more slender tear dropped type toes is going to be a female and obviously the little tiny ones are going to be the kittens. Narrator: If Boone sees a fresh track, that means his dogs can smell the cougar. Get it, Soph! Narrator: And much like a wolf. You gonna get, him? Narrator: The dogs can use their superior sense of smell to hone in on the cat. Boone Smith: Skin it up, skin it up, skin it up! You know, every time I let my dogs go, I always have a little worry that something bad could happen. Skin it up, skin it up, Go get 'em! Come on! Go get it! But we spend tons of time training and this is what they love to do. Narrator: The chase is on, and the cougar is likely reacting how it would if this was a wolf pack encounter. Let the games begin. Narrator: Something that's almost never been seen. Boone Smith: There is no footage showing a wolf pack making physical contact with a cougar in the wild, but in Yellowstone there is footage of a group of wolves giving it their best shot. When the first wolf approaches, the cat is not looking for trouble and starts to give a little ground slowly. But then the alpha pair shows up and they are the dominant animals in this pack. The cougar recognizes he is not in the best situation, so he has to boogie through the sagebrush and get to some timber. And that's when, surprisingly enough, a coyote joins the chase and the cougar decides it is time to get to safety and climbs a tree. Narrator: Boone's dogs are in the middle of a very similar chase. Boone Smith: He went right back in. Cat! Hey, go get it! We're a few miles in on this first cat chase. Go get it, go get it! But it is giving us a run for our money. We are cruising, man. We better keep moving. This cat responds just like it would to a wolf. And there she is. It's going to a safe haven, the ledges. Narrator: Like the cougar treed by the wolves and coyote in Yellowstone, this cat is using the terrain to its advantage. Boone Smith: I'm pretty close to this cat. Maybe seven, eight feet and I feel pretty comfortable doing that because I know lions really well. I've been raised on them my whole life. I know this cat wants nothing to do with me. This is the exact thing we would see if a wolf pack was coming after it. It's able to pick a rock like that pivot turn, stand its ground and keep those guys at bay. So what that does is it allows it to pick a place where it feels like it's got its best advantage to defend itself. Narrator: One on one there is not much that can stack up in a fight against a cougar. Boone Smith: The cool thing about cats and what makes them really dominant, it's got those big front strong shoulders. So it can reach out hook those sharp claws and pull things in and manipulate twist and turn to put a bite where it wants to put that bite. Narrator: Wolves may have the advantage in pack size, but a lone cougar like this has the speed, size and strength to easily stand up to a wolf in a fight to the death. Everybody let's back off. Let's grab the dogs and let this thing go. Narrator: This cougar has shown the tools these cats bring to the fight against wolves. Boone Smith: And there she goes, headed out. Narrator: But finding just one cat isn't enough. Boone needs to figure out the area's entire population to find the hot-zones where these cougars are competing with wolves. To do that, Boone is coming to a new zone just outside Sula, Montana to an area that's also home to several wolf packs. Boone Smith: What do you think of that? It's cold huh? It's still pretty early, about 8:30 and we've got a smoking fresh lion track. Normally, this scenario means we pull the boys out of the box, we turn them loose and we take off on the trail. We are going to do this a little bit different today. The reason we do it different is because we're in wolf country. can outweigh hound dogs by fifty pounds and when they encounter a rival canine in the wild, they have one instinct. Kill. Boone Smith: Wolves don't like hound dogs. Or other dogs for that matter. If the wolves come in and we are not by our dogs. Come on, buddy. The dogs have got a serious, serious problem. So we are going to do a little different. We are going to take the dogs out and we are going to walk this track out until we jump the cat. Come on lets go. Narrator: That means it's on Boone to track down the cat and release the dogs. My dogs are my boys, so we are going to do the very best we can to make sure on their end that they are safe. Good dogs, good dogs. Narrator: Boone won't be alone in wolf country. We're runnin'. Narrator: Today he's joined by Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks officers Ben Jimenez and Kelly Proffitt who are studying cougar populations. Ben Jimenez: There has been a lot of fluctuation in the cat population. The point of this study at this point is to get a, a, kind of a snapshot of a density estimate of cats in the southern end of the Bitterroot here. Narrator: That density information combined with prior research will help Boone dial in the best locations for cougar and wolf interactions. But first they need to tree a cougar. Boone Smith: The idea is find the track, chase the cat, shoot it with a biopsy dart and that gives us DNA from that. These tracks are only a couple hours old. You're gonna open up on me, aren't you? Narrator: The guys have split up with Kelly to cover more ground and Boone's dogs are on the scent. Guys, work with me. This is where they were. Here is where he jumped them. Somebody goes up. Skin 'em up, skin 'em up, skin 'em up! Narrator: The hounds are on the cougar's trail. So it's up to Boone and Ben to stay close to protect the dogs from the wolves. Boone Smith: They I've got nothing but lions in this. They have come out in here they listen to us they come back and if we have got dogs up here that is what we want. Narrator: The cats appear to be learning new behaviors. They are running in loops, making them almost impossible to track. Boone Smith: We got two lion tracks down the road. A lion right there, dogs are chasing. I think we have got a melee. Narrator: This maze of tracks is probably a direct result of cougars clashing with wolves here in the Bitterroot Mountains. Boone Smith: The more I run in wolf country, the more I am convinced these cats learn some of these tactics and techniques. And the only thing I can attribute it to is they have got canine inversion techniques. They are used to the wolves, so they circle and figure eight and backtrack. They know how to slip them. Narrator: These techniques include running across downed trees to throw off their scent and winding through the forest in random loops that are hard to track. Boone Smith: We better keep moving. I think we're in the same spot. Ah, you gotta be kidding me. And this is what we don't want. We've got smoking fresh wolf tracks coming right through here. Narrator: Which means wolves have joined the chase. got fresh wolf tracks coming through us. Narrator: And could be closing in on Boone's dogs. And looping in the same direction our dogs are. The last thing we want to see or have happen. Narrator: To save his hounds Boone has to get to them first. Boone Smith: Let's listen here for one sec though. Narrator: But if he can hear his dogs, so can the wolves. Narrator: Boone Smith and Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks officers Ben are deep in the lion tracks down the road, a lion right there dogs are chasing. We got fresh wolf tracks coming through us and looping in the same general direction our dogs are. specially trained hounds are chasing a cougar for a DNA study, but now wolves have joined the chase. The wolves will kill Boone's hounds if he can't get to them first. my biggest fear when I run in wolf country. For all I know, those wolves have already caught my dogs and killed them. I can't hear them right now. Let's listen here for one sec, though. Dogs. We need to hustle and make sure we are on top of it just in case. We know we got wolves. We've got cats on the run and dogs are loose making a ruckus. advertising that we're here. We're chasing. Cats have the ability to go to the nastiest terrain on the face of the earth. That means we have to go too. Slick rocks, the ground is frozen underneath, there's poor footing. It just gets to be an ugly scenario trying to get through there safely. And that's the kicker on the end of it. I've got to move fast and find my dogs. We've got to get these things found. I'm just so glad to see the dogs back here close. Narrator: Not only are the dogs safe. I've got a lion. He's right there. Narrator: They have also treed a cougar. dogs have been down in. They have circled in here a million times and they have been working, working, working. This cat's been back and forth and finally one them stepped up right here. Narrator: The crew needs the cat to stay in place long enough to hit it with their dart. Boone Smith: I think it will jump. Narrator: But this cougar is not ready to stop running. Boone Smith: Stay there, here she comes! At a full sprint, a cougar this size has no problem outrunning my dogs. Narrator: This rare footage shows that wolves, like dogs, just can't match a cougar's acceleration. Cougars can hit speeds faster than 35 miles per hour and leap more than 25 feet across the landscape, making them both faster and more agile than any canine. Narrator: But a cougar is built for sprinting and can't maintain that speed for long. It's up the tree. It just treed! And now we got him right here. Now it is time for these boys and girls to go do their work. Narrator: Ben mans the air gun. When the dart hits it's designed to grab a tiny piece of cougar flesh that is used to genetically identify individual cougars. The team gets what they came for. Boone Smith: You got it? Nice, excellent, good job man. Ben Jimenez: Thank you. Very good work. Narrator: This DNA sample will be added to a population study that's mapping where cougars live in the Boone Smith: Pieces the puzzle together. Kelly Proffitt: It is. Boone Smith: And that's what matters. Narrator: The data in the biopsy dart will be combined with previous research that shows Boone needs to focus his investigation on several key areas dense with cougars and wolves. One of those hot zones is near Lolo peak, where recently, a cougar and wolf went head to head. first person on the scene was hunter/houndsman Bryan McCravy. And he's taking me into a remote canyon where the fight went down. Bryan McCravy: This is it right here Boone. This is where I found the Whitetail that was cached. Right here. Narrator: After killing large prey, cougars cache the carcass leaving it covered with leaves, grass and snow, effectively hiding their prey from scavengers. Bryan McCravy: Well the first thing I noticed was the whitetail. Started poking around it. It, to me, was a typical lion kill. Been fed on. And right here was where I found the wolf cached. Narrator: Bryan recognized the mound of snow covering the dead wolf as a cougar cache. Bryan McCravy: It had the puncture wounds in the back of the skull. Typical lion fashion. Making this dead wolf a confirmed cougar kill. Bryan McCravy: It was a lion that had come in and killed a whitetail. Boone Smith: Right. Bryan McCravy: And a wolf came in and tried to steal the kill or something. Or feed on that kill. Boone Smith: And the cat wasn't having any of it. If that wolf is cached right here and that deer is right here. That guy never knew what hit him. So as a houndsman and a hunter what is your take on this? Why is it that here in the Bitterroots we've got cougars killing wolves? Bryan McCravy: You know we don't have the big packs like in the other places. Boone Smith: Yeah? Bryan McCravy: It's, uh, they're busted up for some reason. But it seems like there is one or two or three of them here in this drainage and one or two or three in the next drainage over. And it's, uh, pretty amazing to see that. Narrator: This is a huge breakthrough for Boone's investigation, if the wolf packs here really are small, that could be why cougars appear to have the upper hand in the Bitterroots, but Boone won't know the answer to that unless he travels deeper into the mountains and tracks down a wolf pack. Boone Smith: So we're in some of the most rugged country in the west. We're out here today tracking wolves. To increase my odds of success, I'm teaming up with Tyler Parks and Liz Bradley of Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. These two track wolves for a living. Liz has collared wolves all over the Bitterroots. The collars emit a signal and Liz uses radio telemetry to hone in on the pack as it roams the upper ridges. This morning, Liz and Tyler have led Boone close to a Bitterroot wolf pack. Liz Bradley: We should probably just start hiking from here and get a good vantage point across that ravine. Once they get onto us I don't think we will be seeing them again. Predators, especially wolves, don't let you get close that easy. We kind of have a big challenge before us here. They can cover huge, huge distances. They are going to be in some terrain that is really big, rugged, rough. Hopefully get in their home range, right in their back yard. And hopefully we'll have a little luck on our side. Narrator: Wolves have extremely strong senses of smell and hearing, which they use to hone in on prey up to a mile away, allowing them to stay one step ahead of humans. And the telemetry signal can only get Boone, Liz and Tyler so close. have huge home ranges and can cover amazing distances in just one night. It's a needle in a haystack. Where are they? Boone Smith is searching for wolves deep within Montana's Bitterroot Mountains on the front lines of the battle Boone Smith: So we're out here looking for something that has never been seen before. The first-hand head to head interaction of a wolf going at a cougar. Narrator: To investigate this battle, Boone has teamed up with wolf experts Liz Bradley and Tyler Parks of Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks. Boone Smith: I got wolves, right across the point. Liz Bradley: Oh I see one. The big, yeah. The one on the front is a big, big black. Liz Bradley: Yeah, I see them moving. Boone Smith: Yeah and they're just trailing through the wide open. Liz Bradley: We're lucky to be this close because most of the time if you get any closer than that and the wolves are going to sense you. They've probably been resting all day up on this hillside in the saddle. They're kinda stretching their legs and getting moving again. Maybe start hunting tonight. Narrator: As the wolf manager for the Bitterroot Mountains, Liz knows this pack well. Liz Bradley: This pack, the Cache Creek Pack, established about three, four years ago. It was a dispersing male. Narrator: Most young wolves leave their pack and head out alone to begin or join a new pack. These wolves are called dispersers. Liz Bradley: So he paired up with a female and they started running this upper Fish Creek and had a litter of pups and has been pretty successful in holding this territory in here. Narrator: This encounter offers an important clue in Boone's quest. It shows that if a single wolf can survive in cougar territory, it can attract other wolves to its pack. Boone Smith: In a concentration of wolves like that that's kind of the curiosity for us is how is that going to drive the other predators or carnivores in the area. Liz Bradley: Definitely in this Fish Creek area, we've just had more packs move in and squeeze in, so now where we've had one pack historically, we have three. Boone Smith: Wow. Narrator: Three wolf packs and high cougar density make this the perfect zone for Boone to focus his investigation. they go, trailing out. Narrator: And now that he's found cougars and wolves, he needs to search for something else, the prey they both eat. Boone Smith: This is where they're at. And both these predators are coming in to compete for the same prey right now. Narrator: More than anything, the battle between cougars and wolves comes down to the fight to control prey. Looking at this rare footage we can see the source of this cougar and wolf conflict. An elk carcass has brought in wolves and sparked off the chase. Boone Smith: If I'm going to have a chance to witness this head to head confrontation the best place to have a cougar wolf interaction is going to be at a kill. So now I'm headed back out with Liz and Tyler to track down the Cache Creek wolf pack and hopefully find their recent kill. Narrator: Boone and Liz have split from Tyler who comes across the first sign of evidence. Tyler Parks: Hey, Liz, it looks like we've got a cat track, wolf track, and possibly a scrape near this cedar. We're on our way. Narrator: Finding fresh tracks like these could lead Boone into a cougar wolf conflict. What do you got? Tyler Parks: Well, we got a cat track here and a wolf track. Liz Bradley: Are they both going the same direction? Tyler Parks: Yeah looks like they're heading up the drainage. Boone Smith: Perfect just what we've been looking for. Tyler Parks: Yeah. Liz Bradley: Yeah. Boone Smith: Not only does he have two wolf tracks. He's got a cat track right on top of them. Got our lion right here cruising through. And then the wolf track is right here coming underneath it. Finding these two tracks on top of each other is a good way to start the day. Now we just need to follow them out, and see what it takes us to. He's just going to keep working this little spine and go all the way up. Walking out these animal's tracks means we go where they go. Steep brushy, kinda ugly looking. Not always the easiest path for humans. Now we're in cat terrain. This is cat stuff. The rocks, the ledges, the nooks, the crannies. This is ambush habitat. Cougars are silent, solitary predators that use thickly wooded, rocky terrain to their advantage. This way, they can strike out and ambush their prey. Boone Smith: Is that? Just wondering if that's the wolf tracks going up the other side right there? Narrator: The wolves have traveled into more open terrain, highlighting a key difference between them and cougars. Boone Smith: I think this is really cool the contrast in here. And even within the small scale in the landscape we see the separation of the two. Of habitat selection, to the open, to the, the heavy, thick timber. Narrator: While cougars prefer to hunt alone in dense, rocky forests, wolves travel in wide-open terrain. This way, they can use the full strength of the pack to attack prey. Boone Smith: Let's follow this guy out and see where he goes. Narrator: The group follows the cougar tracks. Hoping to spot a kill. Boone Smith: I think I've got the lion right here. Tyler Parks: Looks like a really good track here. Boone Smith: Little bit chaotic for tracks there for a minute. That's actually a scrape right there isn't it? Yeah, so he's actually made a scrape right there, right in front of all this. Narrator: A scrape is from a cougar aggressively marking its territory. But that's not all this site is hiding. Boone Smith: While chasing cougars with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, we catch a break. Hey, hey, hey. Yeah, then they've drug it up here and then disemboweled it and then everybody, it's kind of a free for all. They have just hammered it. This could be exactly what I'm looking for. Boone Smith: Got our lion right here, cruising through and then the wolf comes underneath it. Narrator: In Montana's biologist Boone Smith and wildlife manager Liz Bradley are tracking down a kill site to find out which predator is winning the war between cougars and wolves. While chasing cougars with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, we catch a break and find our first kill. Okay, check it out. Look right here. The carcass drag on the ice. Here it's, obviously it went down. Yeah, and then they've drug it up here and disemboweled it. And then kind of went every which way with it. Narrator: With three Bitterroot wolf packs nearby, this kill is most likely their work. Boone Smith: We've got great wolf signs here and that's super exciting. We can see a couple wolf prints just coming down the hill. One coming in over here. A wolf kill's not pretty. When I say, I mean, they've taken pretty good advantage. They've cracked all the big, long bones. You know we look, we can see, there's the puncture holes here on things. You can see the areas where there's been hemorrhaging so the trauma you know when it's been hit it's been bit on its side here and there probably. Gives you exactly an idea of what it looks like when the pack's been through it. It's kind of All the kids at the dinner table trying get their own at once. And so this is the result is it's just all over the place. One of the things we have seen, cougars, come in behind and they'll scavenge off the kill and clean it up and finish it off. Narrator: But this carcass isn't going to create any predator competition. Boone Smith: Obviously there's nothing here off a deer with this many wolves for a cougar to scavenge. Not something we expect for a cougar to come in here and challenge these guys to try and get food. I mean this thing is done and gone. Narrator: While this kill won't be a source of cougar and wolf conflict, it serves as a valuable source of information. Boone Smith: You can see the blood and the marks off the side right there. Gnarly, man. This kill has shown me what I need to focus on. I need to find a fresh carcass. So I can figure out which predator has the advantage here Narrator: The problem? Predators rarely leave fresh kills untouched. A cougar will cache its prey, making it difficult to find, while a wolf pack almost always completely devours their kills. Boone Smith: Finding a fresh kill won't be easy, but it's the best chance I have at getting close to the conflict. Something up in the middle road. Son of a mother, that's blood. That's a drag across the road. Got dead stuff right here. Holy cow, this is like right now. So right off the bat we find a recent kill right on the edge of the creek. Blood spraying here, blood spraying there. We've got wolves that've run an animal off the side. Looks like they've actually got it down right there. It hit here and then there's the drag right across the road and down and over. I mean there's blood all over the road. Let's see if we can put a little bit of that trail together. Narrator: The first step to finding the kill is to recreate the take down. Boone Smith: Yeah so here's where they come in. You've got a deer running and you've got a wolf right on its side. Just kinda tearing at it tearing at it. Then there's a splatter of blood, splatter of blood. Just a great example of the tenacity that they have as predators, the endurance. They're running it, running it, running it. Staying with it. Narrator: But this is not a typical wolf kill. Boone Smith: There's only one animal on it right here, it's not like we got two or three wolves or anything. There's one animal chasing the deer right here. It looks like one wolf and a big one at that by the track. It's what pursued him and taking it down, so. So hopefully we've got some carcass and meat left. Let's go down and check it out. Narrator: Normally, Boone tracks the blood trail right to the kill site, but this scene is anything but normal. That's actually, really kinda strange. What's odd about it, is I would expect wolves to feed right here and they've drug it. Like, there's a drag mark off through here. Which is interesting for wolves. They usually don't drag stuff. Narrator: Dragging is a cougar technique. And if a cat claimed this kill, this could be the site of a battle between a cougar and wolves. Boone Smith: I need to get back on the trail and track this kill down. got wolves that have run an animal. See if we can put a little bit of that trail together. Bitterroot Mountains in a hot zone where cougars and wolves are competing, Boone Smith just found a fresh blood trail. Boone Smith: Can't believe that thing got back up. Never had it killed. It's here that a dense cougar population and three wolf packs are colliding. Giving me my best chance to see which predator has the upper hand. Yeah I can still see the blood dripping off. Narrator: Boone is looking for a fresh kill to set remote cameras on so he can observe wolf and cougar interaction. Boone Smith: There are no tracks down here like it hasn't come through. We should have it, I mean. There it is! There it is right there at the base of the tree. Looks almost untouched. Let's go check this out because I don't think it's been fed on. This could be exactly what I need. Look at that so the only thing that it's got on this. The birds have been on it, which that's what drew us to it. We've got serious bites on the neck and head. But obviously not enough to put it down right away. So this is the coolest wolf kill I have ever seen. Not to mention the freshest. Like we are on top of this right after it happened. I've actually never been able to see what it looks like before they feed. This is pretty cool. This is a wolf coming in taking a bite at the flanks. Taking a bite at the hamstrings. And you can see right here we've got oozing punctures. Oh man! This guy is missing a huge chunk of hide right here. In fact you can see punctures from the tooth marks going in. It broke the ribs right here where it got hold of him. I mean there is nowhere that this guy doesn't have a bite. But this is the technique that wolves use. They run, they run. They bite at things they nip at them until eventually they can just got hold them and drag them down. If a cougar gets caught in the open, it faces the same challenge. Can it move and get away far enough to the safety of big trees to get away? If not, it ends up like this deer. Narrator: A kill this fresh is almost certain to attract both cougars and wolves. Boone Smith: This is a single wolf and these are all the nips and bites he gives everywhere. But right now, he's still going hungry. Narrator: So Boone sets up cameras in hopes of witnessing rarely seen competition between these predators. But he isn't the first to try to capture footage of cougars and wolves on the same kill. In January 2011, University of Montana professor Dr. Kerry Foresman learned about a dead bull carcass on a ranch just outside Missoula and rushed to the scene. Dr. Foresman: My first thought was, you know, here's two thousand pounds of fresh meat and I wanted to get cameras on this carcass just to see what was on the South Hills in the city limits of Missoula. To my amazement I had a mountain lion that had come in to this carcass and it was one of the largest mountain lions I had ever seen. Kind of staked out the bull as its own territory. In the next series of pictures, the mountain lion had left and all of a sudden a very, very large wolf comes walking into the scene. But you could see through its behavior that it was in my mind almost terrified. The ears were pinned back the tail was between its legs, constantly looking over its shoulder. Narrator: In less than twenty minutes the wolf was gone never to return. While the cougar returned to the site regularly and fed for the next two months. Dr. Foresman: So the wolf knows if that lion comes back it's toast. Narrator: Back in the hot zone, Boone is searching for another fresh kill to put his cameras on. Hold on, hold on. This is just what I've been looking for. We're on our way back up here; we're just a couple hundred yards away from a kill. From here it's too hard to tell. Just gonna have to walk in and check it out firsthand. Amazing man, absolutely amazing. Actually not what I expected to see. This does not appear to be a kill. I actually almost think it's like a winter kill. Narrator: Winter kills are animals that have perished from lack of food and other challenges of the season. Boone Smith: It's actually a great opportunity. Narrator: This intact carcass is a free meal, attracting any hungry predators that can claim it. Boone Smith: A winter kill's a big chunk of meat, and we've got to see if we can take advantage of that. motion activated cameras set up on two kills. This is Boone's best chance to gain a window into the little understood world of cougar versus wolf. Boone Smith: Followed wolf tracks there, there's been cat tracks coming up the canyon. We're starting at the front lines of where these two big predators are going after it. Narrator: Coming up. a very fresh lion track. Narrator: Boone returns to the kill site. what we came to find. might not be alone. Boone Smith: The kill site is all wolf track right here this is all wolf. Narrator: Boone Smith pioneering big cat tracker and biologist. is the point of impact. Narrator: Has closed in on uncovering the secret war between cougars and wolves in Montana's Boone Smith: I've been all over the Bitterroots I've pin pointed it down to two kill sites. bites on the neck. Stick some cameras on this. If I'm going to have a chance to witness this head to head confrontation this is where it's going to happen. Out there in the wild you're either a winner or a loser. The camera's straight uphill from here, but right away I can't believe what I'm seeing. Wolf track. This whole hillside is all wolf tracks, right here. This is all wolf. That's what we wanna see. Let's just tip toe, so just slow and easy. This is a very fresh lion track, coming down and back in. Narrator: The kill site is close, and fresh tracks mean the cougar could still be here. Boone Smith: We're just going to have to step out here. The cat, if it's there is going to have a bed off to the left hand side. Twelve yards and that's where I'm going to be looking for it. Just going to have to go for it, oh yeah, the wolves frickin hammered this thing! All this is just wolf tracks everywhere. Got a lion track coming off right there too. Now the question is, were they here at the same time? Or do we got a pecking order going on? Narrator: The remote footage tells the story. Boone Smith: Nice but it's gotta be night. Boom, right in front! A cat comes in and claims the kill. Which is exactly what I hoped would happen. All this meat out here. Someone's got to take advantage of it. Narrator: Soon, a wolf moves in on the kill. just like the wolf just outside of Missoula. He comes in tail tucked between his legs. He knows there's another predator there. And he knows he's got to be wary. Narrator: This is valuable evidence. Here in the Bitterroots, it appears solitary wolves are on high guard when they smell cougars in the area. Without a large wolf pack behind them, these wolves may retreat from kills claimed by cougars. Boone Smith: But I wanted to get more than just this footage. I really wanted to get that firsthand encounter of a cougar wolf battle on camera. second camera may hold that footage. coming back in to check the cameras on the kill. And right as we get there we've got wolf tracks This is what we've got going this morning. A fresh lion track up the road, and a wolf right on top of it. This is what we came to find this is what we wanted to see today. Wolf tracks on top of cougars. Cougars on top of wolves, hoping to see both these big predators at this kill site. So this kill site, is not at all how we left it. We have had both big predators come here to the kill. And our camera appears to have taken something at some point. So that will be the moment of truth. We've got our cards all pulled up on the computer. Going to see what we've got. Oh, looks like a female mountain lion there we go now she gets up. And there's our female mother cougar crouched down onto the ground, looking out into the dark. And ten feet in front of her are two wolf tracks. And these wolf tracks come up and then square to meet her. And we see her growl, we see her hiss. Come up to fight. And by standing her ground, the wolves aren't willing to mess with her face to face. What the wolves are doing I have no idea. Narrator: Unfortunately the wolves were in the darkness, the camera frame, so it's impossible to gauge their reaction to the cougars' display. Boone Smith: Aw man! I wanted to get more than just this footage. battle on camera, other than the Yellowstone footage. This would've been the closest thing out there to an interaction between a cougar and a wolf. So that's a bummer. Um, the cool thing is, even though I didn't get the whole thing, I got part of it. And so I learned something from that. In this situation, we've got two wolves. The cat is aware of this. So she's not as intimidated as if there were eight nine or ten. And what this shows is that with the smaller wolf packs in the Bitterroots the cats are better able to stand their ground. Narrator: By standing their ground these Bitterroot cougars are able to maintain their territory, exploit prey and remain apex predators even in the presence of multiple wolf packs. So for now it appears that when small wolf packs are involved it's actually the cougars and not the wolves winning the war here in the Bitterroots. Boone Smith: Out here in the wild Rockies, there's signs and tracks of the cougar/wolf rivalry everywhere. We've got our lion right here and the wolf track is right here. We've gathered information, analyzed behaviors. It's able to pick a rock like that pivot turn stand it's ground and And got a better understanding of why in one instance one predator dominates the landscape. But definitely a wolf kill and it is about done. And in others, the tables turn. They've got canine They're used to the wolves. But one thing is for certain, the rivalry will continue to evolve. And that's why I'm going to keep on tracking studying and following these amazing predators, to ensure they continue to thrive.