man chased by cougar

Threatening cougars are not so rare. I know of 6 instances of friends/acqaintances being stalked, three ended with dead cougars, the other three were pepper sprayed (by the same fish biologist, the cats must have like his smell). A five dollar cougar tag seems worth it for the insurance during hunting season. If you have to shoot one, you don’t need to prove any other reason. I have seen two in my life. One near Hopland, CA stalking sheep, another on Profanity Peak,WA (infamous for wolf pack depredations).  The second one was very close and I started looking up as well as around after that.

My wife found Grizzly poop with cougar claws in it on Abercrombie Mt. The USFS biologist we showed it to speculated the bear had been feeding on a carcass as the claws were from a very old lion.

There was a hiker killed on Mt Hood a couple years ago.  Trail about 2 miles from Zigzag Ranger Station/highway 26.

The fact that I remember that shows how rare it is.

If I was attacked by cougar and shot it, I wouldn’t care whether it was legal.  Except I have no gun : )

Fatalities are rare. Stalking is not.

You could just choke it like the guy last year.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/05/us/colorado-runner-chokes-mountain-lion/index.html

or like the supermom with the metal water bottle

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/sep/10/her-son-downed-by-cougar-mother-uses-weapon-at/

<p style=”text-align: left;”>I read a trip report a few years ago on someone that was stalked for miles on the eagle creel trail</p>
I saw tracks on top of mine from previous day so I assume it was checking me out at some point

My cat gets energetic and stalks me sometimes.  Tries to bite my ankles from the rear as I’m walking.  He seems to have learned not to draw blood because then I go nuts and chase him, throw things, yell, cry, he hides under bed.  Or he bats me from the rear when I’m sitting watching TV.  I am startled and yell.  Brenda then reprimands me for startling her with yell.  I tell her to reprimand the cat, not me.  Winnie thinks that all is pretty entertaining.

oh no, another cougar video

not nearly as good as the previous.  Cat at a distance just stared at her until it ran away.

Vancouver Island

https://www.outsideonline.com/2402922/mountain-lion-heavy-metal-music?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Dispatch-10152020&utm_content=Final&utm_term=dispatch

“That’s when I decided I needed to do something a little bit different, because it wasn’t going away. I stopped recording and started swiping through my music library looking for songs that have a real punch-in-the-face kind of start. I went past Norah Jones and Jack Johnson, the mellow stuff. Then I saw “Don’t Tread on Me” by Metallica. That was perfect, just what I wanted. I turned my volume all the way up and hit play. After being so fixated on me and looking so confident, the cat just turned and bolted into the bush as soon as it heard the music.”

Oh sorry, when I  saw the thread title I thought this it was about a handsome young guy being heavily pursued by a well to do older woman.

My daily struggles brother :)

This wasn’t the cougar stalking, but a mother’s reaction to the video guy “stalking” her kittens.

https://www.backpacker.com/news-and-events/no-that-mountain-lion-wasnt-stalking-a-runner

Cougars are typically ambush predators, and reading other comments (cougar hunters, wildlife biologists), this guy was smart to back up away from the kittens to a certain extent.  At a certain distance though, you don’t want to keep backing as that’ll prolong the encounter.

Kittens are cute, but think the correct response would’ve been put the phone away and back out quickly before Mom gets irate.   Plenty of cute kittens on the internet…