LAPORTE, Colo. (KDVR) — It’s rare to see an up-close look at mountain lion behavior in the wild, let alone a whole family. But that’s what the Meeter family got to experience (safely) through the lens of a trail camera in their backyard.

Joel Meeter and his son Nate were walking around and noticed some mountain lion tracks.

“Follow the tracks and my son Nate says, ‘There’s a kill,’ a dead deer that the lion had gotten,” Meeter said. “Boy, that looks pretty fresh. Let’s take the trail camera and put it here and see if she comes back.”

Thinking they may only get a couple of shots, they returned to the camera a day later to find hours of footage of a mountain lion and her three cubs snacking on their hunt. 

“For me, that was just amazing to see, because I know a mountain lion with one cub, that’s common, two pretty uncommon. But three, I feel like that’s rare,” said Nate Meeter.

The family uploaded a video of the highlights of the mountain lion family picnic.