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Mountain lion kills California man in state’s first fatal attack in 20 years
(www.theguardian.com)
this post was submitted on 25 Mar 2024
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The article mentions two previous attacks by a mountain lion on cyclists, which I did not expect. One of the victims was a professional cyclist. I honestly thought that would be fast enough to avoid mountain lions (though obviously ambushing doesn’t require you to be fast, just well timed)
I surprised a cougar once coming out my back door. We startled each other and it ran away and I slammed the door. Then I ran to get my camera and ran down the porch to take a picture. It saw me running and perked right up, you could see it was thinking about getting me. Then I jumped on the railing to take the picture and it pounced off. They like running things.
Just watched two videos last night from hikers who came across cougars or mountain lions. Both of them would back away from the animal, doing their best to never turn their head, shouting or talking to it telling it to leave them alone or "fuck off" as one guy kept repeating.
Cats are ambush hunters: they'll stalk you and attack when you've taken your eyes off them. The guy narrating the video even mentioned that once you've taken your eyes off the cat but it's still staring at you, instinctively it will attack because it has deemed you are now food. One of the videos showcased this, as the guy telling it to fuck off turned his head from a moment (literally) to make sure he wouldn't trip, and the camera goes back to the cat having covered a 20 ft distance in the blink of an eye, skidding to a halt because its "prey" was looking at it again. He ended up scaring it off with a rock.
This is why folks in places like Africa and India will wear those masks on the back of their heads with painted eyes and faces on them: big cats are much less likely to attack if they think they're being watched by their prey. It's nuts, and makes me glad they're not common in my neck of the woods. We just have black bears, mostly, and they're easier to scare off unless they've got cubs.
Is that why tigers have white spots on the back of their ears?
They say with mountain lions, you want to make yourself big; make loud noises, and not flee. You want to show them that you are not an easy meal and will fight back. They say if you flee, they'll view you as prey and chase you down. I'd imagine unknowingly riding a bike past a hunting mountain lion could have disastrous results.
I totally see how it attracts a mountain lion (all cats are the same in that regard, lol), I just thought a professional cyclist would be able to outpace one.
I just looked it up though, and it’s not even close. Average tour de France cyclist on flat roads is ~28 mph, average cougar is ~45 mph.
One time I was hiking, and at the trailhead there are typically warnings about how to deal with wild animals that might be dangerous if you should encounter them. For mountain lions the advice was to speak to them in a deep stern voice and not turn your back.
MFW