What is this critter?

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Years ago a mountain lion walked right past me at my parents lake about midnight. They are big!

 

[Hay Dude]

Thats a mountain lion all day

 

[12Bravo]

For comparison... video of bobcat killing a fawn.

Watch until near the end. There's almost the exact same camera shot as the OP's pictures.

I will have to change from lion to bobcat. Good video and great comparison to OP's photo.

 

[wawajake]

I vote Bobcat.....they get bigger than ya think, (at least up here in Canada near Michigan) I get one on my trail cams every few years , and they are almost 4ft long nose to tail. Here is one in summer that I know from distance and size compared to deer and bears in same location from camera is almost 4ft......the winter pic based on width of snowmachine trail is also almost 4 ft.

 

[lman]

Not to mention, I've never heard of a black-tipped bobtail on a mountain lion.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[Eagle1]

Full grown bobcats are a tough spot. You can see kittens and young ones but the old wise cats are rare to see, I had one almost 4' about the size of my lab around for a while until I got big dogs to patrol. Still see the occasional young cat but only sign of the big boy are the deer kills deep in the woods.

 

[Jchonline]

Mountain Lion (small), tail gives it away. We have a Bobcat den just behind our place and have multiple sightings/pictures.

We also have mountain lions in our area and Nope….definitely not a Bobcat.

 

[lman]

Mountain Lion (small), tail gives it away. We have a Bobcat den just behind our place and have multiple sightings/pictures.

We also have mountain lions in our area and Nope….definitely not a Bobcat.

It must be one of those black-tipped bobtail mountain lions common in CO.

 

[otlski]

Looks like a long tail to me. Imported into Gimp and ran an unsharp mask to highlight edges.

I say mountain lion.