Mountain lion| how to survive

[@skiziskin]

Nailed it. Great video. I too am an ulltra runner, 67 years old, and I've had seven mountain lion encounters. Two were in my yard in Boulder. One was in the southern Wasatch. And the other four were in Boulder Mountain Parks trail running. I actually didn't find them terrifying, exactly. But I was highly alert and aware of what I should and shouldn't do in every encounter. In two cases, they were just watching me from about 50 feet away. One of them was at night, Halloween night, and I was running in the rain with a partner. We saw two deer acting skittish on Mount Sanitas so I turned on my headlamp. When we reached the benches at the first big switchback, I scanned the area above us and two green eyes lit up under a tree not much more than ten meters away. It was obviously tracking the deer. My friend said, "Holy shit Z, it's a mountain lion. We should run!" I said that is exactly what we should not do. We obviously were not going to climb Sanitas now because the lion was basically on the trail just above us. We weren't going to go back down the trail because that was where we had just seen the deer and I didn't want to get between the lion and its prey. So we contoured around into the next valley where we reached the bottom and walked right into a whole pack of coyotes. They howled like crazy and we just kept hiking down. Soon we walked right behind the same two deer so now we were between the deer and the lion again. We made noise and just kept walking, looking over our shoulders constantly. Eventually, we ran into a woman walking her dog and warned her that we had just seen a cougar. She thanked us while noting that her dog was not smart enough to avoid a fight with a mountain lion and we all walked out of the mountains together. Many years later I had two encounters in exactly the same place, on the flats at the top of Gregory Canyon near the pavilion two months apart. One time I was running downhill and a deer crossed the path about 15 meters in front of me, followed immediately by a lion. It didn't even look at me. The second time, I turned around at the pavilion and right in the middle of the trail where a couple of minutes before, there had been nothing, there was an entire spine and pelvis of a deer, mostly stripped of flesh. I didn'tsee the lion this time but it was certainly very close by, just watching me. I slowed to a walk and spoke loudly, saying I was just passing through and did not want any trouble. Often in predator country I sing Dixie Chicken at the top of my lungs just to make sure my presence is known. I do that now in brown bear country where I live in Hokkaido. While some of the standard advice differs a little between brown bears and mountain lions, most of the basics hold true for both. Make noise to announce your presence. Do this to ensure that you don't inadvertently surprise an animal by getting too close, especially if they have young to protect. Stand tall, talk firmly, maintain eye contact, and slowly back away. If the lion charges, DO NOT RUN. They will usually stop, just trying to scare you. And yes, if attacked, fight back with everything you've got. They really don't like getting hit in the nose, so if you have a stick, you know what to do with it.

[@ChooseAdventureCaliforniaStyle]

Thank you, and thanks for sharing your encounters! Holly cow, you've definitely had some encounter experience. This video idea came to me because I am getting into ultra running, and I better be prepared. I, too, sing and talk out loud while hiking/running on trail. I definitely don't wanna startle any animal. I'm sure my singing also scares away the humans 🤣. I used to find safety in hiking among deer till someone told me cougars are definitely around if you see deer 😳. That knowledge has completely changed my thinking on trail because it's true. All we can do as ultra runners is be as knowledgeable and prepared as possible. I'm thinking of doing a mini series on these encounters; bears, snakes... it'll be fun to share and good for me to imprint the knowledge in my head. Thank you, my friend!

[@maryanneparsons5242]

Very helpful information !

[@ChooseAdventureCaliforniaStyle]

Thank you! I'm thinking next to do bear safety 🐻.

[@christines2016]

I saw a cougar when I was a teenager. We came over a hill and the cougar was drinking from a stream below us. This was northern Alberta. We watched and then decided to turn around and change directions leaving the cougar to enjoy its own path.

[@ChooseAdventureCaliforniaStyle]

That would be awesome and terrifying 😳. It's crazy how good they are at hiding. I'm surprised I've yet to see one. That's cool you had that experience. Glad it was a good experience.

[@infinityhike]

Hi, I enjoyed your vid and I have thought about this subject a lot. So I practice a few things in my head and tried them out against air lions periodically. As you mentioned, the more rehearsal, the more responses are in your head when the adrenaline hits your blood stream. I don't purport to be an expert. But I have built up a number ideas. There seem to be two major categories of conflict with lions. First, she is walking up to or toward you growling. She doesn't act stealthily as if stalking, she doesn't crouch like she is about to pounce. She may demonstrate how bad ass she is by clawing at the air between you and her. This style approach might be a warning. She is trying to scare you away from her den full of cubs. Basically, the message is that you are violating restricted territory and she is going to walk you off it unceremoniously. She will not back off, may come within touching distance and will keep growling and maybe bluffing. As you say, terrified hikers should not turn or run but should stay big and face her with eye contact, respond loudly *while continuing to move off slowly* . Be ready to discharge bear spray *but don't unless she actually swipes at you in close range or pounces* (the latter seems highly unlikely). I think the bigger problem hear could be misfiring and starting something that was avoidable. The negotiating point here is that she gets what she wants (rid of hikers without further trouble) *if* she keeps her paws and claws to herself. Second, stalk/chase and pounce. Stalking by itself is likely curiosity or the lion's own practice session. But the chase generally means you don't have to wait for the pounce to know it is an attack. The big, loud face off applies here to. I would mention, try to keep shoulders as high around the neck as possible to fend off the inevitable neck bite attempt while spraying, fighting, wrestling and stabbing. Protecting your neck with arms could work better but then sacrifices fighting back. That is an individual call I guess. Personally, I practice with shoulders up, arms straight out in front of me at shoulder height, bear spray in left hand, knife in right hand which is also steadying the left. I discharge for 0.5 seconds (there won't be much time) aiming at its knees, so it can't dodge under the cloud, and from a high point so it has to come through the cloud even on a trajectory for my neck. I drop the can and get knife forward at my head level, braced with both hands for impact, so I can get some part of the face coming through. Any wild animal that isn't rabid will think twice about risking an eye, nose , ear or throat on a second try. But here is the hardest part. Concurrent with the neck bite will come an attempt at disembowelment via gouging with its hind legs. (Most house cats will play-fight this to some extent or other of if you scratch their tummy, neck bite of hand with rear claw gouging of wrist.) Staying on your feet for size and thrust is not a bad idea, especially if a primary defense is a trekking pole. But, as a practitioner of Jujitsu, you know that most concerted attacks go to the ground pretty early, just as with the hiker who strangled his mountain lion attacker. I practice getting my knees in front of my bowels by dropping into a deep squat an somewhere in latter instant of the stab and the prior instant of a neck bite attempt. God only knows how the real application turn out like. The point for me is to have the concepts clear and embedded. The deep squat is not an easy position for westerners to drop into but it is a highly useful position in the woods. Furthermore it provides for the kind of mobility one might want on long hikes. We did it when we were kids and 4 billion adults of all ages right through senior citizens still do across the world. So it is worth getting back just for general purposes. It will make any westerner feel much looser and younger. There are lots of vids on KZbin about getting into the "Asian squat." Just watch which advice you choose! I think that >90% of mountain lion attacks involve things like 1.) lion hiding in a bush from a trail runner on a trail that runs straight at the bush before veering off at the last foot 2.) mountain bike scaring lion with strange noises, by looking unclassifiable and then racing off like a strange demon 3.) severe illness 4.) possible den defense where someone stumbles directly onto one 5.) the tragically sad misunderstanding around human infants which is a whole other video! Thanks for this video. We need more like it. Interacting with wildlife in an adversarial negotiation is an important understanding to work on. Animals are not monsters. It think they usual respond well to being communicated with or dealt with on their own terms. --Freeman

[@ChooseAdventureCaliforniaStyle]

Thank you, and thanks for sharing your information! It is a lot to think about and prepare for. As rare as these situations are they can be terrible, so definitely best to be prepared. Fear can cause mistakes, so it is definitely best to practice keeping your emotions in check in day to day life to be prepared. It sounds like most attacks are from juveniles that lack hunting experience. It's awesome you think it all out. You'll be prepared, it sounds like 👍. Hopefully, we'll never have to deal with this scary situation 🫣.

[@infinityhike]

​@@ChooseAdventureCaliforniaStyle I like your correlation to daily life. It puts the prospect of adversity with a top predator into a more normalized plane and gives us something beneficial to do in the present. Yes, it does seem that a large, or maybe the greater, percentage of predator attacks are by juveniles, confused, lacking skills and under pressure to get started at life.

[@ChooseAdventureCaliforniaStyle]

@infinityhike ya, not enough people practice controlling emotions enough in daily life. So what, that car cut you off. So what, you spilled paint everywhere... the more you can control how you react to bad situations, the better off you are when a REAL bad situation comes out of the bushes at you.

[@SippyCupAdventures]

Good advice. You say you've never seen a mountain lion, but, it only takes ONE time! A mountain lion could be sick, and not know any better, right? That has happened.

[@ChooseAdventureCaliforniaStyle]

Yes! It sounds like most attacks are from juvenile cats and sick cats. I have a friend that said they saw one in Tahoe. They were in their suburban suv as it walked in front of them. He said the cat came up to his hood and looked the size of a real African lion, not a normal cougar. The more I learn the more I'm afraid of the wild 🤣

[@nightowl7261]

I've seen one early morning up there near Icehouse. It was in prowling mode on the side of the road. Lucky for me, I was in a car and just slightly saw a brownish red 4 legged animal with a long tail. I thought it was somebody's dog at first, until I realized thay ain't no dog.

[@ChooseAdventureCaliforniaStyle]

That's the best way to see a mountain lion, from a car. I still have yet to see one, and I'm out in the forest all the time. They're sneaky for sure.

[@LP-jn4tw]

Great advice to practice mentally in case of an encounter. What air horn do you carry?

[@ChooseAdventureCaliforniaStyle]

Thanks! I carry a small, pocket-sized air horn from Amazon. There's a bunch to choose from on Amazon. I always have that ready to go, and my bear spray on my hip. I used to carry zero safety equipment until I had a bad experience. I made a video about it; haunted hike or something like that. After that, I'm always geared up. I think an animal may have been following me 🤷‍♂️. But ya, just a basic small air horn.

[@LP-jn4tw]

Thank you much.@@ChooseAdventureCaliforniaStyle

[@wollertz]

🤔 How about don't walk out of a mountain at night with a small flashlight, I felt like I was the laser toy for a cat 🤣.

[@ChooseAdventureCaliforniaStyle]

🤣🤣. Soon I'll be running out there at night. One of the runs I have planned is a 100 miler out in cougar and bear country. It's definitely freaking me out 🤯. But ppl run and hike all the time in those areas with zero issues. I've run into ppl that want to run into animals for the thrill. If I see a deer It scares me at first 🤣