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I've been growled at by mountain lions twice. They were chill. Just wanted me to respect their space.Quote:
Originally Posted by muted
I'm not really scared of any wildlife in the US besides griz. Moose and cats are potentially dangerous, but really unlikely to be aggressive.
Whoa! Bad ass women! That's impressive.
I don't know man. I know a couple people who have been stalked by mountain lions in a very scary predator/prey way.Quote:
Originally Posted by leroy jenkins
That was about 10 miles away from me. And 5 miles from where a cougar killed a biker in 2018. That whole wilderness area is a private commercial forest crisscrossed by logging roads. Word I heard is it was two juvenile cats. Cougs roam all over the place around here but are like ghosts.Quote:
Originally Posted by babybear
Hey, we probably all have, and just didn't know it. But yea, I've seen those videos of them pursuing someone for several minutes at a time down a significant stretch of trail. Oddly, I have never heard of that behavior till recently, not sure if its an effect of so many people having phones, or an actual behavior shift from so many people being in the outdoors all the time and the cats getting pissed or stressed or whatever.Quote:
Originally Posted by yeahman
I am glad we can own and carry guns for protection here.
Really, being complacent with any animals is stupid. Some old dumbass got iced by a mnt goat in rocky mnt national park a few years back. he decided instead of yeilding he was going to scare it off the trail. A single headbutt revealed the difference in bone density of a billy goats forehead and this old geezers sternum and he died from a heart attack. Really pretty sad as his kids and grandkids watched, but its hard for the guy who tried to bluff charge a big male mountain goat.
I've had baby mnt goats approach me and my on leash dog and just about boop snouts with him while a big billy was behind looking on. I was once playing guitar by a creek, look up, and see a calf moose six feet away from me, and mom on the other side of the calf. Both cases were honestly scary, with the goats I stayed put and let them cruise by, with the moose I got out of there, but really, the vibe was chill in both cases. You can read animals, at least somewhat. Especially them seemingly fine with letting their young get in between you and them, I mean its a warning sign if it happens by chance, but it can also indicate they just do not view you as a threat. Despite being growled at, that was somewhat my vibe with mama kitty, although way scarier, it was pretty clear she could have growled way louder and been way scarier. Really, she growled like just loud and scary enough to without a doubt tell us we were basically about to stumble on her and her cubs, in the shade of a juniper on a full moon night.
My wife shooed a bear out of her garden with water from a hose. She's a gamer. Disarmed a kid with a knife when she was teaching HS. I wouldn't trust her with a gun tho.
at the elbow or the shoulder? impressive either way.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cisco Kid
Haha. She did it with her mouth and the Admin wasn't pleased.
probably the first story i remember hearing as a kid was my great grandfather regaling his experience with exactly that back in the 30s. had a honey ham and was walking the railroad tracks to get to christmas dinner with my great grandmother's family before they were married. if that fucker wanted the ham, it was gonna have to go through him. he was real nervous the lantern he was carrying would run out of oil before he got to the house and the cat would pounce but he made it. may or may not be true but he was a preacher man and didn't take kindly to untruths.Quote:
Originally Posted by leroy jenkins
Mmmmm, ham.
my buddy and his lab pity cross, me and my wife and our dog (shar-pei, rat terrier cross) were scouting a trail and I heard a mother chirping at cubs very close by while we were coming through a bouldery area...then slipped on some very fresh and stinky cat piss walking down a log. Dog's never picked up on them, but about 20 minutes later both went after the biggest black bear any of us have ever seen in Whistler, the dogs got to about 15 feet away and the bear just sat down. Dog's didn't know what to do with that, and eventually they followed us away from it! lol Can't say I'm scared of wildlife in the forest, I know there are cougars everywhere, gotta pay attention! Certainly didn't mind having my dog with me trail building in Whistler for years.
also recall nearly a decade ago now, we were riding Castle Pass loop in South Chilcotins, we were riding in on the fsr and me and one buddy were a ways ahead, the remainder of the group, 5 or 6 guys came around a corner and there was a big cougar sitting in the middle of the road watching us ride away from it....
I'm talking hour-long stalking/snarling pursuit, not a few minutes. Both guys had only stout sticks to wave and fend off the lions, which wouldn't do much if the cat really went after them. Not sure if pepper spray works, I don't think felines have much in the way of olfactory senses.Quote:
Originally Posted by leroy jenkins
Anybody interested in the lethal power of big cats follow @bigcatsnamibia on the gram. Fucking amazing the animals they take down.
I camped in that North Bend area last April and it definitely seemed very "catty". I'm just guessing its the same issue that is happening a ton in urban/wilderness interface areas like SoCal foothills etc. The terrain is perfect for cats, but most of their natural food animals have left the area. So they go after dogs, pet cats.....people sometimes.
We have cats around here, but I am never scared of them because they still have plenty of their normal food around to eat.
They are actively logging that area, if you pull up Tokul in Trailforks it’s shaded red.
I was riding there in November (saw lots of cat shit) and there were dozers and equipment building fresh roads and ripping out trees, etc. probably scared away a lot of the cats normal food, maybe.
I've been told that the teeth of a lion are designed to latch around the spinal cord on the neck to take down prey but the jaw thing has been a thing I've actually seen before. I had a lion attack a deer right in front of me and my dog one time here in Flagstaff. We were hiking down this social trail in a tight and steep canyon. About 30 feet down trail I see a deer and then a flash of tan off a rock from above. My dog took off to investigate and sure enough there's this deer there with it's jaw hanging off it's face. It was stunned and drooling. My dog ran circles around it barking and I hollered at her to get going and leave the poor deer alone. The cat must have been right there waiting for us to leave.Quote:
Originally Posted by AK47bp
With trail building I've had a bunch more encounters. On two occasions now I've found a kill stash along the trail corridor and had cats hang out with me for several days while I work. I strangely get pretty comfortable with this, especially knowing that they have food. I've heard them roar at night from my tent at camp a half dozen times or so too.
My best encounter though was going out to do design work while driving to the trailhead, a beautiful female ran across the road right in front of me. Her tail was being used like a rudder as all of her legs were airborne and in motion. It was sick af. The athleticism those cats have is astounding! I pulled over immediately as she stopped running and ducked down in a small patch of baby ponderosas about 40 feet away. I got out of the car and gave her the I see you hand gesture with my fingers and said just that out loud and she fucking replied (or so it seemed) by twirling her tail up in the air like, I ain't scared of you. I then gave her a short bluff charge and she didn't budge so I got back into my car and continued my drive to the TH. I'm pretty certain she was with me a lot during my design work ou there that year. She didn't scare me at all and seemed genuinely curious. I'd often feel like I was being watched and there would sometimes be random bones on trail on my returns, they seemed like gifts or warnings but f if I know.
I came up behind one coming back down just below Mystic Lake about 12 years ago. It was drizzly dusk time and I saw a large beige butt on the trail about 20yds ahead, and I remember thinking “that’s the biggest coyote I’ve ever seen”…then its tail swung out all kitty cat like, and I gasped and hit my brakes, which honked because they were wet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Whiteroom_Guardian
I spooked it, it stopped and looked back at me and my HR went north of 200. Then it jumped up above the trail and disappeared without a sound. It was wild. I grabbed a little stick that had a little hook I fancifully imagined I could gouge it’s eye with, waited for my heart rate to drop somewhere functional then sprinted my ass off for a half mile.
I had wanted to see a lion for many years, but now I’ve scratched that itch, I’m good.
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I know I have recommended this book prior but anyone interested in Mountain lions should check out the book, "Beast in the Garden"
the author references some of what RA noted about their teeth fitting right around a vertebrae.
Out of any of the animals here in the Greater Yellowstone Region I am most scared of mountain lions.
Griz are more predictable and don't want to interact. Mountain Lions want to eat you. Maybe it's also being a female who more often (along with children) are the targets.
AK47bp- I don't blame you for bringing spray! apparently they usually pounce from behind but it can't hurt to have
^^You did recommend that before and I read it based on your rec. It is a very interesting book.
Yea, going up against a bear with a hose sounds pretty stupid, I wouldn't trust her with anything. Including children.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cisco Kid
Gosh, I just feel like its the opposite. Not saying you're wrong, I mean really, we could both be right, with this varying geographically, but I feel like we would see WAY more cat attacks if they weren't avoiding attacking people. LIke, grizz tend to be avoidant of being around people at all, while cats often exist in the urban/wild interface and are around people all the time without attacking them.Quote:
Originally Posted by babybear
There is also of course a huge variation in cat size and behavior based on local environment food sources etc. I could see cats that coexist with grizzlies being more interested in people, because griz compete with them for their other food sources, while many cats don't have access to enough food to ever grow large enough to be confident attacking a person. Thats a cool adaptation, for anyone who isn't aware, that unlike bears and many other species, cats have a big variation in their full grown size, meaning a cat who finds a niche living off bunnies, will remain smaller and more adapted to that prey, while a cat whos mom shows it how to bring down deer, will grow larger and more adapted to that prey source.
Yea, everyone knows children and females are way more likely to get attacked by a cat, and are basically the only people at risk of a coyote attack, but is there any such gender disparity in victims of grizzly attacks? I'm not aware there is one. This does kind of support your contention that cat attacks are predatory.
In my personal anecdotal experience, the two cats who growled at me could have been far more aggressive if they had wanted to, but those were both defensive growls, who knows how many times I've been stalked by a curious kitty.
LeRoi, firearms and predator expert
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She would kick your ass little man.Quote:
Originally Posted by leroy jenkins
I don’t watch Joe Rogan, but this scrolled on my feed.
https://www.facebook.com/share/r/QYC...ibextid=7niigQ
Update on the Cougar attack story. 60yr old lady smashing a Boulder on the cat’s head.
Crazy
https://www.kuow.org/stories/cougar-...state-cyclists