Mountain Lion Safety

May 24, 2018

Question: I read in the paper about a recent fatal mountain lion attack in Washington state. The article said that the two mountain bikers “did everything they were supposed to do” when they saw the lion, but it still attacked. That worries me, because I hike and camp in mountain lion country frequently. What is the best course of action to take in a situation like that? (Kay)

Answer: The mountain lion attack that occurred in Washington was a very unfortunate – and very unusual – incident. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.

Human/wildlife encounters can be unpredictable and very much situational. There is no single strategy guaranteed to be successful one hundred percent of the time. However, based on research, wildlife managers and scientists have developed general guidelines and best practices that help keep humans safe in lion country and reduce potential injurious or fatal encounters with mountain lions. These best practices include hiking/biking/jogging with others (rather than alone) and avoiding recreational activities in remote areas at dawn and dusk, when lions are most active. If you do encounter an aggressive lion, do not run. Make yourself look larger by opening your jacket or swinging a stick. Make noise. Research on mountain lion attacks suggests that many potential victims have fought back successfully with rocks, sticks, garden tools, even an ink pen or bare hands. Try to stay on your feet. If you are knocked down, try to protect your head and neck.

We emphasize that lion attacks are extremely rare. Please visit our Keep Me Wild webpage, www.wildlife.ca.gov/keepmewild/lion, for detailed safety information.

Mountain lion and black bear attacks on humans are both rare events. But which is most likely to occur? The statistics available seem to indicate bears, but personal experience says otherwise. in a life time of working and recreating in the woods I have known two friends that have had close encounters with aggressive cats and there have been zero incidents with bears.       

I’ve had 0 incidents with cats, 1 with a grizzly, and at least a dozen with black bears.

I wasn’t too worried in any of those cases. Black bears are pushovers. The Grizzly was surprising but he must’ve been full at the time.

My experience, having worked over 30 years on the El Dorado Nat'l Forest, is that bears don't intentionally hurt people, just that people get in the way the bear is trying to go. Flee as it were.  I once saw a bear in the staging parking lot at the East end of the Rubicon Trail that ran up a tree as I pulled into the lot.  I pulled up to the tree and the bear was maybe 20' up.  I took a photo and the bear panic, pissed all over itself, hit the ground running and ran straight through a toy hauler trailer.  Seriously; hit it broadside, punched through and out the other side.  BIG bear!  The trailer was between him and his escape route.  On the other hand, cats are hunters and eat mostly other animals.  Their instinct is to capture what flees from them and to stalk.  With the protection of the cats, they are quickly loosing their fear of man.  I'm guessing the intent of a cat over the brute strength of a bear is going to make cats a bigger danger as their populations increase. 

I live in western Montana, and recreate extensively in areas where there are a lot of mountain lions, black bears, and grizzly bears.  I've had four quite close encounters with mountain lions, including one instance in which a mountain lion swiped a deer I had shot and ate a front quarter, but I swiped the rest of the deer back.  Fortunately none of the encounters turned out badly.  I have had many many encounters with black bears, and none of those encounters turned out badly.  Although I recreate extensively in areas were there are a lot of grizzlies, I've never run into any, which is fine with me.

My recommendations: First, carry bear spray in a way that you can get at it rapidly.  Second, when you're in the woods, stay alert and look around.  Don't just trudge along looking at your feet. Look way off through the trees in all directions, like you do when you're hunting.  When I stop for lunch or a break, I do it in an area where I have good views and sight lines in as many directions as possible, and I keep looking around while I'm stopped.  I adopted this practice after I had black bears walk up to me three times in one summer while I was eating lunch.

Here's some pictures of a dead mountain lion which I found.  I was sneaking up a ridge while hunting, and saw a bird fly up from a small patch of fur sticking out of the snow.  I went over to see what it was, and it was an animal covered by a couple of inches of snow.  I thought it was odd that it hadn't been eaten, because there was a wolf pack active in the area, as well as the usual array of carrion eaters such as coyotes and ravens.  So I took a picture.  I wondered what kind of deer it was, so I bent over to brush snow off its head.  As soon as I touched its head, I knew it wasn't a deer!  It was a big male mountain lion.  What I thought was a stick covered by snow was its tail.  The only injury visible was a hole in its flank where some intestines had been pulled out.  I brushed it off and took some pictures.  When I got to a game check station, I showed the pictures to a game biologist who was there.  He had written a paper on mountain lion on mountain lion and mountain lion on bobcat kills, and he said it looked like the mountain lion had been killed by another mountain lion.  And he reminded me that in Montana, if you find an animal which died of natural (i.e. non-human) causes, you can keep the head, antlers, and other parts, unless it's a bighorn.  So a day or so later I went back to the spot, sawed off the mountain lion's head, carried it out, and had it cleaned by beetles.  It was kind of scary, knowing that there was a mountain lion in the area which was big enough to kill another big male mountain lion, but actually those cats are out there all the time. The skull measured out at only 5/8" under Boone and Crockett.

The last picture is of our cat Sherman with the skull.  He looks pretty tough in that picture, but unfortunately about a year later he went out for a stroll one evening and got eaten by a mountain lion.  The lion gobbled up a bunch of pets, and was eventually killed by officials from Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

I don't consider aggression from bears habituated to humans over food to be a serious attack. Once a bear has your food he might fight to keep it.
It is the predatory attack, when a bear stalks you with the intent of eating you that I am considering. Such attacks by black bears are rare but do occur. Both of the mountain lion attacks I am familiar with were apparently predatory. One occurred in the Arc Dome Wilderness in central Nevada and the other on a ranch near Georgetown Ca. Both friends were hunting at the time felt fortunate to be armed at the time as they killed both cats in self defense.  A California Warden told one "any time you can kill a lion with dove loads you had better do it".     

Thanks for sharing the story and pictures Pete.

"any time you can kill a lion with dove loads you had better do it".     

That's some solid advice.

For as much time as I've spent out and about I've only ever seen 3 mountain lions.  I'm sure 10 times that number have seen me.  I've had many bear encounters and never had one even think about being aggressive, maybe I'm lucky there.  I'm more nervous about mosquitoes and ticks and rattlers and sea lions than I am about cats or bears. 

"any time you can kill a lion with dove loads you had better do it".     

That's some solid advice.

For as much time as I've spent out and about I've only ever seen 3 mountain lions.  I'm sure 10 times that number have seen me.  I've had many bear encounters and never had one even think about being aggressive, maybe I'm lucky there.  I'm more nervous about mosquitoes and ticks and rattlers and sea lions than I am about cats or bears.

I never trust turtles 

"any time you can kill a lion with dove loads you had better do it".     

That's some solid advice.

For as much time as I've spent out and about I've only ever seen 3 mountain lions.  I'm sure 10 times that number have seen me.  I've had many bear encounters and never had one even think about being aggressive, maybe I'm lucky there.  I'm more nervous about mosquitoes and ticks and rattlers and sea lions than I am about cats or bears.

I never trust turtles 

I can see why a turtle might be motivated to totally fuck you up.   I'd be careful if I were you.

  I'm more nervous about mosquitoes and ticks and rattlers and sea lions than I am about cats or bears.

This^^^

 

  While in my days of bow hunting up in Northern CA (Chester area) the list of critters I've seen is small.  I've only heard a bear once, as it was bulldozing its way into some brush about 100 yards south from the tree stand I was in at the time, and then played peek-A-Boo with a canine of some sorts, probably coyote, once and almost got run over by a coyote chasing a fawn. No big cats ever, no sign of them in the area I hunted either.   
  At the home front, though, caught 3 different cats on my trail cam in my yard! One had a tracking collar on the other 2 did not have collars.   A number of coyotes as well.  In my yard! 15 yards from my back deck!

This thread is very similar to the argument I always use with my wife regarding being on the ocean in a kayak.  It is often my point that I am more likely to be attacked by a bear or lion than a shark. 

I have only seen one mountain lion that was not pursued by dogs in the wild in all the time I have spent outdoors across this country.
For the most part I think most people try to one-up the other guy or catch a flash of a deer in summer coat and swear it was a cat.
Either way, cats are rare during daylight and bears will fight if they feel cornered or you are between mama and a cub.
People and politics will get ya a lot faster than any wild animal.