If you live in north Monrovia, large wild animals are just a part of daily life.
But, rather than living in fear, we should peacefully coexist with them.
That's the message from Ashley Bowie, who spoke with NBC4 about her viral TikTok video that has more than ten thousand views, so far.
Around midnight in her front yard, her outdoor wildlife cameras were tripped by a silent predator in the darkness, a full-sized adult mountain lion.
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Bowie says she's known for awhile now that he visits once-a-month, always at night and early morning, but she's never seen him in full color like this.
He pauses for a second, takes a glance around then continues on his way.
Like many residents in the area, she has pets, including a Husky dog and some cats.
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All of them are indoor animals, she says, and for obvious reasons.
But seeing video of a mountain lion so close is not a cause for concern for Bowie and her family.
“I get excited. I don't know, there's something about creatures and how majestic he is and how beautiful he is. I want to know more,” Bowie said.
She showed NBC4 the route the lion took, right along the side of her house.
This path will trip as many as seven cameras she's set up around the yard and soon, there'll be an eighth, once she puts in another one that she received for Christmas.
But lions aren't the only things they capture.
Her TikTok account has videos of bears, bobcats, foxes and deer, too.
She says her cameras are just catching what people who live here have known and seen for decades:
Wildlife is here to stay, and can be beautiful in its own way.
