Best way to react when confronted with a 300lb Mountain Lion?

Factual Questions
1

Recently I was hiking just outside Phoenix, Arizona with a friend of mine. We were hiking on the Usury Mountain State Park. Basically, this park has one major trail about a mile long straight up the side of a mountain to what’s called the windy cave.
We were up there to get some shots of sunset over Phoenix.

After we got the shots, it was getting dark, and we were walking down the mountain when we heard this high pitched screeech/scream. It sounded like a woman screaming. Anyway, we continued around the corner of a small butte when we saw it…A very large tan cat about 70 feet away, staring right at us. In an instant its ears and head lowered and she started backing up to the small shelf she was sitting next to. The cat was approximately 5 feet from head to tip of tail, all tan with a white belly. The tail was strong and bulky looking.

Well she stopped backing up and moved across the trail, and screamed once again. My buddy and I stood motionless until we couldn’t see it anymore. I started talking to my friend and he was fumbling around in his backpack. I said “what the hell are you doing lets get outa here!!”

Well he found what he was looking for – a small, black 9mm hand gun.

“This is the only reason I carry this in my back pack, for situations just like this one,” he said.

Thankful that he had it, I was not convinced we were out of danger yet. To make a long story short we walked back to the car, talking very loudly to each other so as not to surprise the cat later on down the path. It worked and we only heard her scream a couple more times while decending the path.

Things could have gone much different. She could have flat out charged us, then what? My friend would have had no time to fumble in his bag for his side arm. Would it have been curtins for both of us?

Anyone have similar experiences, maybe with a different animal? A bear maybe. I know they tell you when confronted with a bear, you are supposed to curl up on the ground put your hands over your neck and … wait… YEAH RIGHT!!!
Does that really work? I woudl hate to do that only to have the bear start gnawing on my living flesh, from behind no less.!!

So what should we have done? Granted my buddy had a gun, but what if he hadn’t? I’m a pretty big guy and so is he, but come on what if? Could we have jumped on the cat and wrestled it ? Would that have worked?
I used to live in Phoenix full time when I was in grad school, however I was only visiting a few weeks ago. I never really heard of too many hikers coming upon Mountain lions. And I have hiked all over the desert south west and never seen one. Only warnings and such.
So any dopers have similar experiences? What are you really supposed to do when confronted with deadly animals? Can they really smell fear?

2

What you don’t want to do is run away or act like prey in any manner.

In my bear behavious courses, they advised making a great deal of noise on trails so as to avoid any surprise encounters.

Of course, stay the heck away from a kill site or cubs/ kits/ etc.

Should you come in contact, don’t appear threatning and slowly move backwards while continuing to face the animal.

Then go clean yourself up.

3

I don’t think a 5 foot mountain lion is going to weigh 300 lbs. Depending on your size and attitude the lion will decide whether you are worth the risk of tacking or not. IIRC people attacked have mainly been fairly small women.

http://www.dfg.ca.gov/lion/

4

Most mountain lion attacks would be over long before you had a chance to pull out a gun. They have a tendency to attack by stalking their prey and dropping on them from above. They usually break the necks of their prey, death being very quick.

If you saw a cat, he wasn’t stalking you. It has been said that if you see a mountain lion, it’s been watching you for some time already. They rarely attack adult humans, perfering to pick smaller prey, like young humans for example. Several children have been attacked, hiking solo.

The gun was nice to have, but probably not very useful in most situations. Do you think you could have fired an accurate shot at a big cat (not 300lbs, maybe 100 to 150 or so) that was charging you at 30MPH? You’d probably only get one shot, it’d better be good. Your best bet is to look large, hold your hands up over your head, back away slowly, never run or curl up in a fetal positon, don’t bend over or crawl. If attacked, fight back, go for the face and eyes, kick and punch.

Some good advice:
http://ndnd.essortment.com/mountainlionat_rfem.htm

5

Ok. It was dusk, and my poundage was off a tad. But it was big, and sure did look like it was going to attack. As quick as it gained interest in us, it quickly lost interest as well, and moved along crossing our path and continuing on down into the gully. It was certainly not malnourished either. It did in fact have a large mid section with a pretty long fold of skin under its belly.

6

I read an article by a fellow who encountered a puma. The cat was some distance away. When the guy bent down to pick up a stick, or diverted his gaze, the cat advanced, but stopped when he stood up and looked at it. He found that standing large and staring at it was most effective in keeping it from coming at him, as previous posts indicate.

7

Telemark, oddly enough my friend and I were speaking (very loudly) on our way down the mountain of what we would have done if she had attacked. And he remembers his grandfather saying that if you are going to shoot an animal that running at you, you had better wait till its at the end of your barrel before you fire. Because there is no way your going to hit it otherwise…

8

I was told on a survival course to make oneself look as big as possible ie spread arms out, especially with coat draped over you. And don’t act either aggressively or scared. You want to make it so he is intimidated by you but not threatened (so as to defend)

9

According to Worst Case Scenarios, you want to make sure you do not turn your back on the cat, but back away slowly. You should also make yourself appear as large and formidable as possible.

For example, if you have a jacket or large shirt, lift and hold out the corners to give yourself the appearance of more mass.

I also heard that carrying a large walking stick is a good idea. It will make you seem more formidable, and if the cat does attack and you are holding the stick in front of you it will most likely go for the stick first.

If you are lucky it may be content that it has shown dominance by beating the shit out of the stick.

Chances are that if you saw it, it was protecting a den of cubs, or a recent kill.

10

Carrying a whistle is a good idea too. A shrill blast from a whistle sends a “don’t come over here” message to preditors like lions.

11

Buy him a latt’e. & a nice piece of cheescake.

Sit down with the mountain lion, & try to reason things out.

Compromise is possible.

After all, do we really need to bring the lawyers in on this?

----this message for peace brought to you by P.E.T.A. fnord

PS-- Don’t you mean “puma”?

12

PS-- Don’t you mean “puma”?

Not sure if the above was part of the joke, but puma = mountain lion = panther = painter, etc. Different names for the same critter.

13

Also catamount here in New England. They haven’t really become a viable population here yet, but unconfirmed sightings are way up and there have been a few confirmed ones. Right now the population may be transients from Canada, or escaped pets (people are insane) but they may establish a breeding population soon.

14

Offer him a 25 lb. mouse? :smiley:

15

I can’t believe no one has suggested the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch (and of course the Book of Armaments). It worked on a rabbit, why not a mountain lion?

OK, seriously I have read in old books/novels that the guides in African safaris used to wear hats that had a flap that hung down in the back. Painted on the flap was a face. The thought was that most big cats will not attack a human that is facing them. The flap on the back made it appear that the human was facing them even if the cat was stalking form the rear. This could all be UL but it makes a bit of sense.

NP: Iron Maiden – Somewhere in Time

16

Reminds me of a scene from the movie Continental Divide where John Belushi is confronted by a Mountain Lion in his (or rather the woman he was staying with) cabin.

The woman upon returning from her eagle watching notices her front door open and runs inside to find Belushi scratched and battered but generally ok. He explains that a Mountain Lion surprised him. Shocked that he survived that (big time city boy not cutout for the wilderness) she asked him how he fended it off.

“Well,” Belushi explains, “when I saw him coming at me I thought to myself what would stop me if I were a Mountain Lion so I picked up that broom over there and hit him in the balls.”

[sub] (Mind you…been a long time since I’ve seen the movie so my quote may not be exact but the gist of it is right.) [/sub]

17

I hiked many times in Wyoming when I lived there spending overnight many times. I heard moutain lions but never saw one. I was told your best friend doing this is a nice stout walking stick. Not only does it support you walking and all that but you can use it like a spear, holding it out infront of you lengthwise to keep a charging animal away.

I don’t know if it works having never had to do it but it did feel better to have it.

18

A 9 mm? A bit anemic if you ask me. If tramping through the woods known to have bear, I would suggest a .357 Mag at a minimum. A .44 Mag would be ideal.

19

…I have read in old books/novels that the guides in African safaris used to wear hats that had a flap that hung down in the back. Painted on the flap was a face. The thought was that most big cats will not attack a human that is facing them. The flap on the back made it appear that the human was facing them even if the cat was stalking form the rear. This could all be UL but it makes a bit of sense.

Some time in the last few years there was an aritcle in Smithsonian Magazine about tigers in some part of India. The technique you mention was described, and I believe they had a photo of one the rear-facing masks the locals used.

20

If you’re going to carry a firearm to deal with animal attacks, I’d suggest a rifle. A good shot with a .308 will kill a polar bear.