Life and Wildlife along the Little Buffalo River

Mark Brisco will always remember his recent fishing trip to Sinking Creek. Seeing a mountain lion would be hard to forget.

Brisco said he takes several trips to the same spot, about a half mile up from Sinking Creek on the Current River. He’s a construction worker, working about 14 days, then taking a few days off.

“I like to go there and fish, camp and relax,” Brisco said. “It’s a perfect spot.”

That day he parked his Jeep and started to make his way down to the river with his fishing pole. He had not gone too far when he saw movement in the brush.

“There it was walking away, stopping and smelling the ground, looking for food and acting like he didn’t have a care in the world,” Brisco said. “I don’t think he saw me.”

Brisco said the mountain lion worked its way to the water. At one point the mountain lion turned and looked and did see him.

The mountain lion seemed to care less that Brisco was around, but Brisco was a different story.

“I was pretty nervous and shaking,” he said. “Here it was, a mountain lion, 30, then 100 yards away.”

Brisco watched as the mountain lion slipped out of the water and into the nearby woods. He did take some pictures.

“He didn’t seem to mind at all,” Brisco said.

Brisco said the mountain lion was the second he’s seen. A few years ago he and a friend saw one in Arkansas.

“Now I want to see a bear,” Brisco said.