Image of wild cougar in front of the Hollywood sign that took more than a year to capture

Tinseltown's most reclusive star is finally photographed!

By James Nye
PUBLISHED: 18 November 2013

 

 

Perfectly framed with the Hollywood sign in the background, a cougar stalks through the City of Angels at night, the spectacular image the culmination of 14 months of painstaking work for legendary photographer Steve Winter.

Famed for his photographs of big cats in their natural environment, Winter's latest masterwork is part of his 'Ghost Cats' story for the December 2013 issue of National Geographic in which he took on the challenging task of photographing cougars in their natural urban environment.

Adept at using camera traps to capture his eerie images of cats blissfully unaware they are being photographed, Winter was inspired by the story heard around LA that a cougar was once pictured in Cher's backyard.

A hidden camera records Hollywood's most reclusive star? This male cougar first seen in Griffith Park in Los Angeles almost two years ago is captured by National Geographic photographer Steve Winter

Contacting biologist Jeff Sikich, an expert in cougar's in the Santa Monica Recreation Area on the outskirts of LA, Winter outlined his dream photograph, 'Wouldn't it be great to get a photograph of a cougar with the Hollywood sign?'

Undeterred by the odds of capturing this image, Winter was told that a cougar had been seen recently crossing the 101 freeway near to the Hollywood Bowl before moving onto the Hollywood sign.

The flash of a hidden camera diverts a Wyoming cougar from its kill. These largely nocturnal cats are so secretive that camera traps are one of the best ways to illuminate their lives

Cougars are usually more shy than fierce. But when men with dogs approached this Montana female with babies, the baying hounds stirred up a whirlwind of feline fury - all part of (right) December's edition of National Geographic

Photographed on a ridge above Los Angeles, a male cougar labeled P22 made his way from the Santa Monica Mountains to Griffith Parkan island of habitat surrounded by homes and highways

'I immediately call my editor Kathy Moran to tell her I’m going to go out and figure out how we can get a photograph of this cougar … with the Hollywood sign,' said Winter.
Setting up four motion-stop cameras, Winter was faced with three being stolen despite being heavily chained and locked.

It took 14 months to actually get an image, but ever the perfectionist, Winter was not satisfied with his image.

Experts thought cougars rarely socialize, but F51, a female living near Grand Teton National Park, traveled and fed with another female one spring. Eventually the other female adopted one of F51's kitten (pictured)

'Everybody was very happy, but I wasn’t happy. We are all our own worst critic or best critic. I went back to L.A. and changed the lighting so a shadow would appear around the cat’s neck so you would not see the collar as much,' said Winter.

'People were just happy that I got it, but then it’s like, we can do better. So I wanted to do better, and I knew I could.'

Eventually, Winter got his shot, commenting, 'You talk about urban wildlife and, boom, there's the picture.'
 

Read more:

• http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2013/11/14/a-cougar-ready-for-his-closeup/

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