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Close Encounters of the Feline Kind

Red

Well-Known Member
This happened last Saturday in Slate Canyon, Utah. Guy was out for a run. Good thing he knew enough not to turn his back to the cat, or run. The extreme profanity in the Instagram clip has been edited out. The actual beginning is a few seconds in, when he first sees the two cubs in the road.

 
What happens should you throw some stones against the cougar? Or is a tree branch better for protection?
How far or close was that location to the nearest house, gas station etc?
In my country the hikers and nature lovers say/state that you should be extremely lucky should you encounter lynx because at least in my country the rarest animals usually avoid humans.
How many cougars are allowed to hunt per year in Utah?
 
What happens should you throw some stones against the cougar? Or is a tree branch better for protection?
How far or close was that location to the nearest house, gas station etc?
In my country the hikers and nature lovers say/state that you should be extremely lucky should you encounter lynx because at least in my country the rarest animals usually avoid humans.
How many cougars are allowed to hunt per year in Utah?

He did throw a rock at the end, and the cat ran. Someone said if he threw rocks right away, with cubs still nearby, it would not have been good. But I don’t really know, no mountain lions where I live.
 
I used to backpack a lot when I was younger, and we would regularly encounter bear and cougars. We carried bear spray and I usually carried my S&W .357 mag. Never had to use either against an animal, thank goodness. But more than a few times I held that bear spray at the ready. It's pretty damn scary to run into an animal like that in their habitat.
 
So terrifying. Hard to say or to know what to do on that situation.
Bear mace would have solved things real quick though if he would have had it.

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On the news they said he did all the right things - walk backwards, make lots of noise, look as big and scary as possible.

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I used to backpack a lot when I was younger, and we would regularly encounter bear and cougars. We carried bear spray and I usually carried my S&W .357 mag. Never had to use either against an animal, thank goodness. But more than a few times I held that bear spray at the ready. It's pretty damn scary to run into an animal like that in their habitat.
On the map it seems the Slate Canyon is quite near the suburbs of Provo? Doesn't the Provo department of environment and nature issue enough hunting permits to keep the somewhat dangerous wildlife at reasonable numbers or away from the city? Or is the food supply (deers and other small animals) low enough inside the forest-mountain area so the cougars are brave enough to search food near the homes? For example, in Tallinn having deers and moose quite close to the city centre is not uncommon, this spring we even had a brown bear family here (of course, Estonian brown bear is a toy compared to american brown bear): https://www.google.com/maps/@59.430...=78.00621&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i13312!8i6656
 

Some viewers criticized him, others commended him for staying relatively calm and not running away. Officials with Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources had nothing but praise for him.

“You did great,” Scott Root, DWR’s conservation outreach manager for central Utah, told Burgess on Monday, where they met at the Slate Canyon trailhead. “You did awesome.”


Root, who first watched Burgess’ video early Monday, said it’s one of the most “emotional” and “terrifying” videos he’s ever seen of a mountain lion encounter.

“Oh man, you have to just stare at this thing,” he said, describing how he “didn’t even blink” while he watched. “Your heart is racing. I could feel myself putting myself in his position and (thinking), ‘What do I do? What would I do?’ And I know the steps, but what would the average person do?”

Root said Burgess did almost everything right. “He backed away. He didn’t go toward the mountain lion or her kittens. He made a lot of noise. ... He stayed large, he stayed loud and he backed away from the area for quite a while. I think he did everything really well.”....

Root said Burgess’ video is unlike anything he’s ever seen in his 30 years of working for DWR — and he said it’s going to be excellent teaching material. He hopes hikers and bikers learn from his experience....
 
On the map it seems the Slate Canyon is quite near the suburbs of Provo? Doesn't the Provo department of environment and nature issue enough hunting permits to keep the somewhat dangerous wildlife at reasonable numbers or away from the city? Or is the food supply (deers and other small animals) low enough inside the forest-mountain area so the cougars are brave enough to search food near the homes? For example, in Tallinn having deers and moose quite close to the city centre is not uncommon, this spring we even had a brown bear family here (of course, Estonian brown bear is a toy compared to american brown bear): https://www.google.com/maps/@59.4307032,24.6430642,3a,75y,83.83h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s4vWMgjAS_CQAqsugoaOpDA!2e0!6s//geo0.ggpht.com/cbk?panoid=4vWMgjAS_CQAqsugoaOpDA&output=thumbnail&cb_client=maps_sv.tactile.gps&thumb=2&w=203&h=100&yaw=78.00621&pitch=0&thumbfov=100!7i13312!8i6656

There aren't a ton of cougars around. They get spotted in the Provo suburbs, more in like Springville Mapleton area. But it's not like they are out and about regularly. I'd say there are cougars that are sighted in neighborhoods like 4 or 5 times a year. So it's not super common.
 
There aren't a ton of cougars around. They get spotted in the Provo suburbs, more in like Springville Mapleton area. But it's not like they are out and about regularly. I'd say there are cougars that are sighted in neighborhoods like 4 or 5 times a year. So it's not super common.
There was a cougar wandering around in Murray just last week. People were told not to let their kids play outside unattended and not to leave pets out at night.

 
There aren't a ton of cougars around. They get spotted in the Provo suburbs, more in like Springville Mapleton area. But it's not like they are out and about regularly. I'd say there are cougars that are sighted in neighborhoods like 4 or 5 times a year. So it's not super common.

There was a cougar wandering around in Murray just last week. People were told not to let their kids play outside unattended and not to leave pets out at night.


They had to put at least one down in Bountiful earlier this year after it killed a deer in some dude’s yard. Plus there was a sighting of one at a park across the street from Bountiful High School at like 10 in the morning about 2 months ago.
There are plenty of them around.


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Some viewers criticized him, others commended him for staying relatively calm and not running away. Officials with Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources had nothing but praise for him.

“You did great,” Scott Root, DWR’s conservation outreach manager for central Utah, told Burgess on Monday, where they met at the Slate Canyon trailhead. “You did awesome.”


Root, who first watched Burgess’ video early Monday, said it’s one of the most “emotional” and “terrifying” videos he’s ever seen of a mountain lion encounter.

“Oh man, you have to just stare at this thing,” he said, describing how he “didn’t even blink” while he watched. “Your heart is racing. I could feel myself putting myself in his position and (thinking), ‘What do I do? What would I do?’ And I know the steps, but what would the average person do?”

Root said Burgess did almost everything right. “He backed away. He didn’t go toward the mountain lion or her kittens. He made a lot of noise. ... He stayed large, he stayed loud and he backed away from the area for quite a while. I think he did everything really well.”....

Root said Burgess’ video is unlike anything he’s ever seen in his 30 years of working for DWR — and he said it’s going to be excellent teaching material. He hopes hikers and bikers learn from his experience....

I think the only thing he could have better is be louder. Kick his feet a little. Yell. He was talking the whole time, which is good, but he probably could have/should have been yelling loudly. I don’t think he could have picked up a rock any sooner, she was too close and might have pounced.


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I don't know about Utah, but here in Alberta cougars are allowed to hunt as much as they please. They tried introducing hunting licenses a few decades ago, but cougars had trouble filling out forms.
Well, i meant 4-legged cougars :) (if i properly understood the term on your post and if i know my english).
 
Still don’t get why he would film it. ****ing stupid. And spare me the “to document what happened to him if he died.”
 
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