On October 25 WWP's Greenfire Preserve resident caretaker, Jerome Rovnak, observed a young mountain lion for more than 20 minutes as it ran about among the wild horses on the east side of the river at the Preserve. The lion was not stalking the horses, but seemed to be playing among them. It even rolled around in the ground a few times while passing around and near to the horses. The stallion of the 8 horse band approached the lion in an assertive way, but the two animals did not fight or otherwise come closer than 30 feet of each other.
Today (11/1/04) Jerome was outside at dawn and observed a group of several deer racing across the east side of the river clearly in flight. With his binoculars Jerome was able to observe in the twilight two very large wolves chasing after the deer at a distance of about 150 yards. Because of the low light levels, he could not tell the precise color of the wolves just that they appeared dark in coloration. The deer and wolves disappeared into the trees at the river's edge at the upstream end of the Preserve.
These are the first confirmed sighting of wolves at the Greenfire Preserve, and indicates that one of the local wolf packs either the Castle Peak Pack or the Buffalo Ridge Pack are hunting the area for suitable prey.
The wild horse band stayed bunched up while the wolves passed by but did not exhibit unusual behavior or apparent fear, just alertness as the wolves passed them by.