Utah Man Stalked by Puma After Filming Her Cubs

[JasonEvans]

"Marty Nessley was not involved in the incident."

Just when I was ready to declare OPK the winner of the thread...

Nor Kim Cattrall.

[Nrrrrvous]

Having lived in UT for 5 years and gone on many solo day-hikes, this reminds me of how stupid I was.

[bundabergdevil]

Having lived in UT for 5 years and gone on many solo day-hikes, this reminds me of how stupid I was.

Yes, it’s best practice to hike with a buddy but a mountain lion is pretty low on the list of things to be worried about in the woods. You can hike your whole life and never see one. My guess is you hiked by some (I lived in UT for a bit, too) a time or two and they paid you no bother.

This is a good reminder to cat owners though that if your pets were just a bit bigger, they’d almost certainly kill you over a minor annoyance. Those claws don’t play.

[Devilwin]

Yes, it’s best practice to hike with a buddy but a mountain lion is pretty low on the list of things to be worried about in the woods. You can hike your whole life and never see one. My guess is you hiked by some (I lived in UT for a bit, too) a time or two and they paid you no bother.

This is a good reminder to cat owners though that if your pets were just a bit bigger, they’d almost certainly kill you over a minor annoyance. Those claws don’t play.

Actually encounters are on the rise, as the big cats are expanding their ranges. There is evidence of two in Tennessee, and attacks on humans are increasing out west.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/mountain-l...ry?id=62144482

[CameronBlue]

Why didn’t he just pick up a nice sized rock and go all Sandy Koufax?

Nolan Ryan. Nobody charges the mound when Nolan is pitching.

Guy was incredibly composed for my money but he should have stopped with "Go back to your babies" talk. No female likes her parenting techniques questioned. I tried that in a grocery store once and had to duck a heat-seeking cucumber.

[Jeffrey]

Yes, it’s best practice to hike with a buddy but a mountain lion is pretty low on the list of things to be worried about in the woods. You can hike your whole life and never see one. My guess is you hiked by some (I lived in UT for a bit, too) a time or two and they paid you no bother.

Absolutely, most people pay poor attention to their surroundings and would be shocked to know what has been within striking range! I had a large cat (thought to no longer exist in the U.S.) frequenting my back yard for years. I’m in a gated community, with many vacant lots, and nobody else in my area ever had a clue. The cat never caused anyone any harm and adapted amazingly well to his surroundings. Our neighborhood is surrounded by hundreds of vacant acres and the cat probably lived within a mile of our house. I took videos of the cat but unfortunately didn’t film when a large stray dog (I was taking care of) foolishly got to close to the resting cat. Even then, with the dog doing considerable barking, for several minutes, nobody else in my neighborhood ever recognized the big cat.

[YmoBeThere]

Nolan Ryan. Nobody charges the mound when Nolan is pitching.

Except that someone did...

[OldPhiKap]

Except that someone did...

"That escalated quickly."

(One of my favorite sports clips -- not ashamed to say).

[duke79]

And of course, what was the first reaction? Let me walk backwards and record this for my Instagram feed.

Smh.

My thoughts exactly! Seemed sort of crazy to me. The last thing I would do, if I were being stalked my a mountain lion, would be to fire up my cell phone to video the potential encounter. But to each is his own.

[Nrrrrvous]

My thoughts exactly! Seemed sort of crazy to me. The last thing I would do, if I were being stalked my a mountain lion, would be to fire up my cell phone to video the potential encounter. But to each is his own.

Well, in his (slight) defense. He encountered the cubs first and said he thought they were Bobcat kittens so he got out his phone to record them. Then out came Momma. I was thinking myself, "If I already had my phone out recording, would I just continue? Not sure the answer to that."

[duke79]

Actually encounters are on the rise, as the big cats are expanding their ranges. There is evidence of two in Tennessee, and attacks on humans are increasing out west.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/mountain-l...ry?id=62144482

Yea, a couple of years ago I thought I saw one just down the road from our house, in rural, western Massachusetts. And many other people have claimed sightings in this area, although the Mass. Department of Wildlife and Fisheries states that mountain lions do not exist in Massachusetts (or, if they are here, they are not native to the state and have come here from somewhere else or escaped from captivity). There was a mountain lion killed by a car on a road in western Connecticut several years ago and they traced the DNA of the large cat back to North Dakota!

[bundabergdevil]

Actually encounters are on the rise, as the big cats are expanding their ranges. There is evidence of two in Tennessee, and attacks on humans are increasing out west.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/mountain-l...ry?id=62144482

Makes sense if they're expanding their range that there would be more conflict. We're always expanding our range so there are inevitable conflicts. We also manage their food sources (deer, elk, etc) for hunting so they've rebounded with a stable food base.

Still, IIRC, there have only been a few dozen lion fatalities in 100+ years in the U.S. There are a few thousand wild animal-caused deaths in the U.S. each year and most of those are from animals with hooves.

I mean, in the U.S., 100M+ go hiking, camping, fish, hunting, etc each year and almost none of them will have a negative wildlife encounter. For those that do, it's probably because they did something stupid like leave food out or try to feed a raccoon foaming at the mouth. You get millions in the backcountry even and most of them will never have a negative encounter or even see something like a big cat. Doesn't mean it doesn't happen but it's low, low, low on my list of things to worry about in the wild.

[rsvman]

I grew up in Utah and there a quite a few of them out there.

[weezie]

... I was thinking myself, "If I already had my phone out recording, would I just continue? Not sure the answer to that."

Hhhhmmm.

Well, if it had been me and husband-of-weezie on a hike, I would have said, to his own self, "Have you lost your precious mind?!"

But it actually would not have been the word 'precious' but rather something less endearing.

[Jeffrey]

Hhhhmmm.

Well, if it had been me and husband-of-weezie on a hike, I would have said, to his own self, "Have you lost your precious mind?!"

But it actually would not have been the word 'precious' but rather something less endearing.

My sweet wife frequently expresses similar concern about my precious mind.

[duke79]

My sweet wife frequently expresses similar concern about my precious mind.

LOL, mine too, as a matter of fact! But she does NOT use the word "precious".

[jimsumner]

LOL, mine too, as a matter of fact! But she does NOT use the word "precious".

Anybody else seeing Gollum in their mind?

[Devilwin]

In NC where I live, the black bear population has exploded in the last twenty years to over thirty thousand animals. Two thirds are in the coastal plain, where a rich diet makes these bears grow huge. The bear in my avatar was from New Bern, and was weighed and tagged. He weighed 705 pounds..The heaviest black bear ever shot came from Carteret County, NC and weighed 880 pounds.

[niveklaen]

Got a call from my wife back when I was deployed in 2015 - my family was living on the edge of town out in the mojave desert and one evening when my wife opened the door for our dog - a 150lb bull mastiff - to do his business, he just whimpered squatted and peed right inside the door. My wife looked outside and their was a mountain lion in the yard. It glanced over and then just sprung over the 6th privacy fence. Our kids were 10 and 5 at the time and often played in the yard unattended - but not after that

[OldPhiKap]

Got a call from my wife back when I was deployed in 2015 - my family was living on the edge of town out in the mojave desert and one evening when my wife opened the door for our dog - a 150lb bull mastiff - to do his business, he just whimpered squatted and peed right inside the door. My wife looked outside and their was a mountain lion in the yard. It glanced over and then just sprung over the 6th privacy fence. Our kids were 10 and 5 at the time and often played in the yard unattended - but not after that

Great story — and thank you for your service.