'I just belted it:' Australians fight off cougar in Jasper National Park

CBC News ^ | Aug 28, 2015

[SJackson]

'I was thinking to myself, "How are we going to get out of this situation? This is pretty dire"'

The cougar leapt from the bushes behind them.

"It froze and started hissing at us," said Donald Lauder.

He and his friend, Samantha Lean, both from Australia, were out for a bike ride in Alberta's Jasper National Park earlier this week. They left their bikes at the highway and walked through the brush down toward the river.

About 200 metres down the path, they heard rustling in the brush.

Nervous, she picked up a big stick. He picked up rocks.

The cougar jumped out behind them onto the path.

"We were both looking at it," Lauder said. "It stopped about a metre or metre and a half away."

"My first instinct was it must have been a coyote or something," said Lean. "It was hissing and it was huge."

She reacted first.

'I just belted it, as hard as I could'

"Luckily, Sam started hitting it with the stick pretty much straight away," Lauder said.

"I just belted it," she said, "as hard as I could."

He started chucking rocks. Maybe eight in total. He thinks he hit it six times.

It didn't budge. Thirty seconds passed. Forty.

"I guess it was waiting for us to run or something," he said.

"It was just staring at me," she said, "and hissing at me. I was thinking to myself, how are we going get out of this situation? This is pretty dire."

Then luck, perhaps, intervened. He threw another rock that skimmed the cougar's head and crashed in the bushes. Distracted, the animal turned and chased the rock.

They backed away, walked up the path and got to the highway, got on their bikes and rode away.

Lauder said he later spoke to a park ranger, who told him just how rare it is to see a cougar in the wild. It's believed the animal they saw was a juvenile male that had not come across humans before.

Cougars are elusive, so attacks on people are extremely rare — with only 27 attacks and seven deaths reported across Canada in 100 years. Alberta's only documented cougar death was Frances Frost in Banff National Park in 2001.

"It was so majestic, beautiful animal, but at the time it was pretty scary," said Lean. "We definitely had a bit of a Canadian experience."

[SJackson]

Outdoors/Rural/wildlife/hunting/hiking/backpacking/National Parks/animals list please FR mail me to be on or off . And ping me is you see articles of interest.

[grobdriver]

It's believed the animal they saw was a juvenile male that had not come across humans before.

Pity the next humans it runs across!

[ETL]

Deformed mountain lion a mystery

CNN ^ | Andreas Preuss

(CNN)A hunter tracking down a mountain lion has stumbled upon a biological mystery.

Fish and Game officials say a male mountain lion involved in an attack on a dog near Preston, Idaho, was killed last week near the Utah border.

What the hunter discovered after examining the corpse can only be described as bizarre, even monstrous.

A photo released Thursday by Idaho Fish and Game shows the big cat had another set of fully-formed teeth and whiskers growing out of the top of its head. Wildlife officials say they have never seen a deformity like that -- but have offered up several theories.

They say it's possible the teeth could be the remnants of a conjoined twin that died in the womb and was absorbed into the other fetus. They then grew on their own.

Another explanation is a so-called "teratoma" tumor. This type of abnormality, whose Greek name translates to "monster tumor," can grow teeth and hair. In humans, it can grow fingers and toes.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...

_________________________________

The mountain lion, which was involved in an attack on a dog
near Preston, Idaho, had a strange deformity on its head.

[Bryanw92]

>>Pity the next humans it runs across!

It stood there for 30-40 seconds while they beat it with a stick and hit it with rocks. It obviously didn’t want to attack since they are lightning fast and it was within stick range. Sounds like it got bored. :-)

[Comment Not Approved]

I’ve come across them twice. Once on a backpacking trip in the Sierras. And the second time on my property here in Montana.

They are damn scary when it’s just you ... and them.

[chimera]

That looks like a parasitic twin. It is very rare but sometimes happens in humans. First I've seen in a nonhuman case, but I guess it can happen there as well.

[r_barton]

Just like a drunkin Aussie to come to America and beat up our wildlife. ;-)

[Jack Hydrazine]

“My first instinct was it must have been a coyote or something,” said Lean. “It was hissing and it was huge.”

Large hissing coyotes? Is there a breed of those running around North America I am not aware of?

[Jack Hydrazine]

[Freeport]

10 points for blind dumb luck!

[Abathar]

I was elk hunting alone in Montana years ago and sitting with my back to a thicket of brush looking over a big valley. Just as it was getting dark and it was time to pack it in a damn cougar let lose with a howl in the brush behind me.

Rifle had a scope on it so it was worthless, walked the whole way out with my handgun out, almost got frostbite on that hand. :)

[Berlin_Freeper]

Currently reading: Death in the Long Grass by Hathaway.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

:: told him just how rare it is to see a cougar in the wild ::

[SampleMan]

An adult human male with a suitable club is not that far down the food chain when it comes to lethality in the wild.

Predators don’t want to get hurt by their prey and they’ll generally avoid the prospect. Herd animals rarely fight as a pack, and the human tenancy to stand together in a fight also throws off predators.

I think there is a good chance that the cougar would have attempted to convert one of them into a meal if they had run.

[Comment Not Approved]

The incident in Montana was in front of my house, in the dark taking my puppy out before bed. The lion had patterned our evening outings and was in a tree not far from my puppy’s nighttime spot. I heard it jump down from the tree and put my flashlight on it. Every damn hair on my body was standing at attention as I called the puppy to me and backed the 50 yards to the house.

I never walk my property without a firearm now ... and the dog is always on a leash at night.

[Tupelo]

I be damned!
I did not know there were cougars in Australia.
Well, I did know there were cougars, but I did not know there were cougars of the feline persuasion.

[Tupelo]

Of course, after rereading the story, the word Alberta jumped out. Damnit.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Nervous, she picked up a big stick. He picked up rocks.

It takes more than that to beat off a cougar.

[Bulwyf]

You mean northern Alberta? Heh