Puma with Cubs

One of the many, many wonderful encounters I had with wild pumas in Chile earlier this year.

We had seen a mother with three cubs on the very first day of our trip.  Two days later, the cubs were dead, having been killed by an adult male cat.  Much of the group was pretty crestfallen after making that gruesome discovery, so it was a pleasant (and almost necessary) surprise to find another female puma with three young cubs a day later!

This family was fairly shy, so in this case our best chance to get shots of the family occurred from a ridgeline across from them as they sunbathed.  We had to scramble pretty quickly down the slope once they settled here.  I tried to line myself up in a spot where the herd of guanacos in the background would appear in the frame.  I had almost too much lens (using a crop body as well), but this was the only chance to get the full foursome looking into the sun and our direction.  Almost immediately afterward, the cubs began to squirm and move.

Canon 7D Mark II
Canon 600mm f/4 IS + 1.4x
ISO 400
1/2000th
f/7.1

Max