Posted on 05/17/2021 10:44:35 AM PDT by SJackson
Jared said he filmed the incident on his camera phone and believes the cougar was trying to protect her cubs.
A hiker in Utah's Salt Lake City had a terrifying experience with a wild animal when he went out all by himself on the Broads Fork Trail in Big Cottonwood Canyon on 13 May.
Jared Smith was hiking without any worry when he suddenly came across a cougar out in the trail. The big cat didn't run away immediately but proceeded to stalk him for five minutes.
But Jared stayed calm and kept backpedaling slowly until the cougar gave up the chase.
In an interview with Fox 13, Jared recounted the ordeal and said the big cat pounced periodically and was even baring its teeth.
"I was running back down the trail and was probably about a mile from getting back to the parking lot when I heard something off to the side of the trail and looked and there was a cougar oh probably 15-20 feet away from me... definitely startled me,” Jared told the news channel
"Periodically the cougar would pounce and was baring it's teeth and kick it's legs and its tail up, almost like a little sprint right at me,” he added.
Jared said he filmed the incident on his camera phone and believes the cougar was trying to protect her cubs.
"I am going away, I am going away. I am not gonna bug away," Jared is heard saying as he backtracks through the isolated trail
Watch video:
"It was about five minutes into the encounter that she just veered off to the side of the trail and I continued to back up for another minute or two continuing to talk because I couldn't see where she went off to," he said.
Cougar attacks are uncommon in the United States. But last year, one cougar chase video had shocked millions of netizens worldwide.
The incident that went massively viral in 2020 showed a runner named Kyle Burges being stalked by a cougar through an isolated stretch in State Canyon, near Provo for nearly 6 minutes. Burgess managed to capture the ordeal on camera.
RELATED NEWS Caught on Tape: Cougar stalks hiker for a terrifying 6-minsCaught on Tape: Cougar stalks hiker for a terrifying 6-minutes through an isolated trail [WATCH] In the video, the cougar is seen acting aggressively and it even lunges forward. Burgess is heard yelling, "Go away! I'm big and scary!"
The cougar kept lunging forward and hissing at Burgess. But after six minutes, Burgess managed to throw a rock at the big cat and she immediately ran and ran away.
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Spring means cubs.
I had cougars chase me when I was younger. I just left the lido deck and it was all good.
I can aim it better than my cell phone anyway....
Throwing a rock sooner works for me.
Too busy video recording the encounter to defend himself.
Soy boi alert!
Per comments on this video elsewhere-
A mama cat with kits nearby. Just chasing him off. If she wanted him dead it would have happened.
The trouble with picking up rocks is you have to bend down. The moment you do that, you look a lot smaller and that’s when they will attack (so I’ve read).
I haven’t tested that hypothesis, though. When I’m hiking in cougar territory I carry a big club or rocks. Pick them up before you need them. I think most people are unprepared for the ferocity and violence of a big cat attack and sticks and rocks may be useless. They also hit you hard and try to snap your neck, so you don’t have time to use them.
I think that cat should have taken him down just to shut him up.
If a cougar meant to attack him, he would never have known until it was on him.
...(he) believes the cougar was trying to protect her cubs.
Well, you can believe anything. Believe the cat was just wanting to have a conversation with you.
A tiger was loose in Houston, TX last weekend.
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