Posted on 10/16/2020 11:46:27 AM PDT by SJackson
A viral video of a mountain lion has inspired headlines about the cat "stalking" the runner who recorded it.
But that's not what the clip shows.
By now, you've doubtless seen *that* viral mountain lion video. Shot in Utah, the six-minute clip shows a mountain lion advancing, snarling and batting at the air, as Kyle Burgess, the trail runner holding the camera, slowly backs away down the gravel path. Since first appearing online, the video, titled "Cougar Attack in Utah | Mountain Lion Stalks Me For 6 Minutes!" has appeared in publications from CNN to Newsweek, many of which have parroted its language about "stalking" and "attacks" in their titles.
Beth Pratt has a problem with headlines like those.
"'Stalking' implies you're hunting something, right?" she says. "I always say this: If a mountain lion is stalking you to hunt you, you will probably not know."
Pratt has had her fair share of encounters with cougars, both personal and professional. As the California regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation, she works with conservation groups trying to protect mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains near Los Angeles, and has helped collar the animals for National Park Service projects. She's also encountered lions, on lawns and in backyards, near her home outside of Yosemite National Park.
As Pratt points out, mountain lions are ambush predators, sneaking up on their quarry and staying hidden until the very last minute.
In contrast, she says, the snarling, lunging cat in the video is trying to warn off a creature that it likely sees as a threat. She points out that the cougar's reaction begins after Burgess, the runner, approaches its offspring. (In interviews, Burgess has said he thought the kittens were bobcats.)
Pratt uses the analogy of a mother on a playground to explain the lion's reaction.
"She looks over and a strange man is going up to one of her little kids," Pratt says. "So she's probably responding. 'That's a threat. Oh my God, I don't know who that is.'"
Aside from approaching the kittens, Pratt acknowledges that Burgess did many things right: He made himself as tall as possible, backed away while talking firmly to the mountain lion, and threw a rock to dissuade the animal when he felt safe doing so. She worries, however, that sensational headlines and fear might prompt some hikers to take more drastic measures.
"You have people panicking and saying the cat needs to be shot, or that you should run with a gun. It just incites fear where it doesn't need to be," Pratt says. "I think it actually makes people less safe, because [they believe] they can behave in the wrong way around wildlife. And it certainly makes the wildlife less safe."
While there are no guarantees around wildlife, mountain lion attacks are extremely rare: In the United States, roughly 20 people have died in cougar attacks over the past 100 years. (In contrast, about five people die from venomous snakebites countrywide every year, while about 86 die annually from bee and wasp stings.) Speaking to the New York Times about the case, Scott Root, the conservation outreach director for the Utah Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife Resources, said he couldn't recall a fatal cougar attack in the state in his 30-year career.
To ward off encounters like the one depicted in the video, Pratt suggests giving mountain lions space and learning a little about their behavioral cues so you can "read the room" should you run into one. For those who feel the need to carry some kind of protection, bear spray—which Pratt carries regularly—works as well on cougars as it does on grizzlies.
Ultimately, though, she says a mountain lion you can see is unlikely to attack you.
"If you see a mountain lion and it sees you...you probably aren't in danger," she says. "That mountain lion knows you're aware of it, and it's not on the hunt."
Cougars where I live are too busy chasing rabbits to notice humans.
Interesting thread. I thought the mountain lion was trying to scare the hiker into running away, making him easy prey.
I think he was aware that bending over might prompt an attack. That would have been my concern.
Did this mountain lion “expert” actually call cubs, kittens?
And if you see one during daylight i’ll is most likely rabid (or in this case defending its young)
Rocks work on everything I've tried them on except aggressive wild hogs.
I obviously wouldn’t do this with a cougar, but what works with some animals is to charge them. This is what you do if a duck, goose or peacock is going after you. Don’t run away, that makes it worse and encourages them, they feed on your fear. Charge them. They will freak out once you are the aggressor and take off. They are basically bullies.
When I lived in California there were cougar warning signs posted on some of the trails in the hills. Some lady got killed while hiking in the Bay Area I remember. I used to jog on a trail near Berkeley that supposedly had cougars although I never saw one. There were always enough people on that trail that I assumed it was safe.
“Stay away from young critters. “
Paging Joe Biden..
Rubbish .... the Mountain Lion would have been on the runners back/neck if he had turned his back and ran away!
I was stalked by a pair of mountain lions back in 1995, a mother and full grown cub, at work of all places.
I started work at 5am back then and was always the first one there. It was pitch black at 5:30 am when I took the trash out to our dumpster. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground, maybe 3 inches. I couldn’t see a thing in the darkness, but knew where the dumpster was in the parking lot. As I threw the bag in, I let the metal lid slam shut with a large bang. I heard running sounds near me and heard something big hit a chain link fence in the darkness. I thought it must be dogs running around startled by the trash can lid and walked back inside.
Later that morning, one of my co-workers came in and said “Did you see the fresh mountain lions tracks in the snow by the dumpster?”
When I looked, I could see where two sets of tracks, one slightly smaller than the other, came within five feet of the dumpster, before turning and taking off at a fast pace toward the fence.
He was jogging up the road. I got within kicking distance of a coyote that was watching baby quail, once. And spitting distance of bears can be done.
Wow!
Ironically, when I lived in Berkeley the most dangerous things were racoons. Extremely smart, and primarily interested in trying to figure out how they could get the lids off your garbage cans to eat what was inside. But if you surprised one or it thought it was trapped it could go after you. The main fear was that if it bit you, you had to assume it was rabid and you would have to go through the rabies treatment which I understand is painful and involves poking needles in your stomach.
We live part time at our farm on Lookout Mountain, GA. We picked up a mountain lion on a trail cam about a year ago — our neighbor had spotted it the week previously. According to our state DNR, mountain lions do not exist in our state. I beg to differ.
I’ve run into coyotes while jogging through vineyards in early morning in Northern California. It’s often foggy so sometimes you don’t see them until you’re fairly close. They basically look like skinny starving dogs. They’ve always run away, although my uncle and aunt were always worried about them attacking their dogs when going out for a walk with them so they often carried a handgun because of that possibility.
Bobcats have a little nub of a tail, so it should be pretty obvious those kittens ain’t Bobcats.
I'm not pimpin' one of my books, but the latest one actually takes place on the VA side of the Appalachians, where my lead character's son is killed by a mountain lion, or Eastern Mountain Lion (wrongly approaching a cub). Regardless, the cat was supposedly wiped out largely by Pres. Jackson's men...at the same time he ran the Cherokee out of the hills and across the Trail of Tears...
The Eastern Mountain Lion is not listed as endangered in the east, but "extinct" - and yet they're spotted all the time - and the book is actually about things that are supposed to be gone, but really are not!
Just FYI Big Cat Stuff...and my books are about grief and loss.
Well sweetums, tell us what the lion would have done if the guy had just stopped and stood his ground?
You carry the spray and I’ll carry the gun thank you very much.
That was the old, horrible treatment. These days you usually get shots in the arm, and four shots instead of thirty.
A lone coyote really doesn’t want a fair fight with a dog. My pit took off after something one time and came back with the little tell-tale bumps that would rise on his scalp a few days after a dog fight.. Could have been a coyote, or a dog running loose. Better than a porcupine I was with a large dog the time I jogged up on one. *Doink* A single bound and it was down a trail that the dog couldn’t follow.
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