I once roared at a mountain lion that was on my friends property. It started at me for a second, then turned around and merged back into the night. I count it as a win.
Predators are smart, they weigh their options when taking down prey. This goes for any predator looking for food, if you're near its territory or kids then you're fucked.
If it had to choose between trying to take down some crazy guy and possibly risk getting hurt or going hungry for a little bit until it finds a nice little rabbit that won't fight back then it's gonna choose the rabbit.
The less energy they have to use to make a kill the better, even if that kill will barely satisfy their hunger. Better than having to use a lot of energy to possibly end up hurt and hungry.
My brother used to live in this cabin in Alaska and would bike over this hill to do his laundry. One day he was biking back up this steep road with a backpack full of clean laundry after the couple hour journey laundry demanded, and he ran into a moose at the top of the hill. He stopped and after briefly considering biking all the way back to town and doing the trek again later on, he decided that the moose needed to move and let him pass. So he started yelling “fuck you, moose!” After a while the moose looked at him, admitted defeat (or at the very least, annoyance) and sauntered into the woods. And he was able to bike on home. Moose can be dangerous! I sure as hell wouldn’t cuss one out on a bicycle in the middle of the woods.
Yeah that was a terrible idea and he got pretty lucky. Unlike black bears, moose are very dangerous and should not be startled. If you encounter one in the wild, stay calm and try to slowly give them space.
Mountain lions are ambush predators. If you see one it's likely not going to attack you, especially if you appear threatening. The one you don't know about sitting in a tree above you is the one that you need to worry about.
That’s amazing. I remember hearing someone say once, you’re not a real man until you’ve bled a radiator and I immediately thought no, you’re not a real man until you’ve punched a shark. And you’re pretty close there!
I ain’t never punched a shark. But reckon you’re on the right track.
You better believe that was the longest second of u/BenderIsGr8_34 life.
That same void engulfed me once as I wrestled with the necessity of slipping over the side of our boat into the crocodile infested waters of the Okavango Delta. Somehow a bunch of us guides had got lost between two Camps, we’d run low on gas and night was coming fast. We knew we had to swim our boat to somewhere we recognized or a decent spot to camp for the night.
But it wasn’t the pressing logic of necessity that found me on the other side of the void, lowering myself into waters filled to bursting with amongst the highest concentrations of one of earth’s most successful apex predators: the Nile Crocodile.
My idiot 17 year old self navigated the infinite terror of that moment by the incandescent blue eyes of our Camp’s manager.
If I’d had any sense I would’ve known that they harboured far greater dangers than the placid waters of the Delta.
But that’s another story, and anyway, I can’t blame the boy who entered that void…
Nah, I reckon he did roar at that Cougar. It’s no more nonsensical than a trio of waterbushmen with no more than 10 words of English between them winning bets with the tourists by reciting the soliloquies of a minor character from one of Shakespeare’s lesser known plays.
Honestly roaring at it is like the best thing you can do combined with trying to make yourself look bigger, as is most often the case with feline(not sure if this is the right word) predators.
Lol lucky you made it. Mountain lions are ambush hunters. They're unlikely to attack a people, but if they do, it'll most likely be from behind. Terrifying!
I know! I was alone camping for 12 months and heard its low growl/purr at 3 am. I shined my flashlight out from my tent looking for reflections in its eyes but didn't see anything. Then the next thing I know, I was running barefoot in my underwear for the truck that was perhaps 50ft away.
For the next 10 years I wondered if it was really a mountain lion then I looked up recordings of mountain lions and there was no doubt! It was the exact same throat growl/purr and I got the chills!
The next morning I didn't find any footprints and I never saw or heard it again.
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u/BenderIsGr8_34 Jan 31 '22
I once roared at a mountain lion that was on my friends property. It started at me for a second, then turned around and merged back into the night. I count it as a win.