A tiny mountain lion cub trotted by a trail cam in Orange County, California, and Mark Girardeau shared the adorable moment with the world. The little lion squeaked as it wandered by the camera, probably calling for its mom.
Girardeau is a nature photographer with a following of over 65,000 people, and he also runs an online community called Orange County Outdoors. He operates trail cameras in and around the Santa Ana Mountains of southern California and occasionally shares photos and videos of mountain lions that stroll past his cameras. In this particular video, a cub about one month old steals the show.
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“This was quite the surprise when checking my cameras yesterday after not checking this area for about a month,” Girardeau wrote in his Instagram post sharing the trail-cam footage. “This cub that’s less than a month old just wandered by.”
Girardeau’s footage also revealed what could be the cub’s mom before she gave birth to her litter.
“I was not aware of any pregnant mountain lions around this location until I kept scrolling through the footage from the last few weeks,” he explained in his post. “This young female with a big belly and a noticeable limp on her right hind leg has been hanging out here for a few weeks, basically since I was there last.”
Watch the adorable mountain lion cub trot around a trail cam in California here:
Header stock image by Jeff Wendorff/Getty Images
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