Mountain Lion with Prey, Rural Enclosure, 1950s

Archive & AtlasEstablished · MMXXIII

Mountain Lion with Prey, Rural Enclosure, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

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Mountain Lion with Prey, Rural Enclosure, 1950s — Archive & Atlas

Unattributed 1950–1959

AA-2026-308843

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Somewhere in the rural American West in the 1950s, someone kept a mountain lion in a wooden-rail pen behind what appears to be a farmhouse, and considered this a reasonable arrangement. The cat has a small dark animal — a rabbit or young goat — clamped in its jaws with the calm efficiency of an apex predator that has not been informed it lives on a hobby ranch.

The 1950s produced a particular kind of American who believed that the gap between a wild animal and a pet was a matter of attitude and a sturdy fence. Roadside attractions, private menageries, and well-intentioned rural families all operated on the same theory: that a big cat raised around people would simply decide to be domestic. The water bowl sitting neatly in the corner of the enclosure suggests someone was still committing fully to the project.

The mountain lion is not interested in the camera, the fence, or anyone's theory about its domesticability. It has its lunch, which is the only position in this scene that holds up.

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