

If you’re really terrified of getting attacked by a lion, I would highly recommend clipping bear spray and a straight blade knife to your backpack straps, ready to be deployed if you’re rolling around on the ground with a mountain lion. There are many accounts of a second person successfully scaring a mountain lion off of a companion. If your companion is being attacked, apply those same principles and attack the lion. If you find yourself behind the lion when grappling around, you can also try to choke and suffocate it.Tell yourself that people have survived this and you can too. Focus on nothing other than surviving and hitting back.If you do have bear spray clipped on your pack, and you haven’t discharged it, do it now directly into the mountain lion’s face.The longer you can punch, hit, and fight it off, the more you will convince the mountain lion that you’re not worth the effort.

Start hitting the animal in the head, specifically the eyes.If you don’t have anything, use your fists. Grab a knife, a GPS, a rock, a stick, anything hard that you can hit with. A women in Northern California fended off an attack with a ballpoint pen. Try to grab something to fight back with.If you do find a mountain lion attacking you, here’s what to do. A mountain lion will see you long before you ever see it. Ideally they’ll ambush you and try and crush the back of your neck with their bite. If a mountain lion really wants to attack you, you probably won’t see it coming. If it does start to charge you, use any of the tools previously mentioned to start swinging at it. Usually the previous steps will do enough to convince the mountain lion that you’re not a deer, and scare it off. What To Do If a Mountain Lion Attacks You If you have reception, call it in from the spot, if not, call the ranger when you’re done your hike. If you do spot a mountain lion, proper etiquette is to report it to a ranger. Also note that he’s running, which makes him seem like prey. Here you can see a trail runner fending off mountain lions with bear spray. Just don’t come at it, corner it, or antagonize it in any way. Some people say not to look it in the eye, but there’s nothing empirical about that advice. Wave sticks, wave your pack, whatever you can do to look scary.If you have bear spray, get ready to let it loose if the mountain lion approaches.If you have an air horn, give that some blasts.If you have trekking poles, raise them up too and get ready to use them if it approaches you.Put your hands in the air, make noise, and act bigger than you are.And FYI, you cannot outrun a mountain lion, they can run up to 50mph. You want to show it that you are not prey and you are not scared. They eat about 10 pounds of meat a day, and only eat meat. Mountain lions normally eat things like deer and sheep, but will eat anything from mice to elk. If you are lucky enough to see the mountain lion before it’s on you, DO NOT RUN AWAY OR TURN YOUR BACK TO IT, as these are signals that you are prey. But sometimes you will see them when they’re curious and maybe sizing you up to determine if you’re prey. Even though they’re big, they’re also very quiet, and will generally stalk and pounce. If a mountain lion attacks you, you probably won’t see it coming. Let’s start by getting the most dramatic scenarios out of the way first.
XFOLDERS MOUNTAIN LION HOW TO
Lauren and Kelly went into detail to answer your questions about mountain lions and how to enjoy the outdoors in mountain lion country. And FYI, mountain lions, cougars, pumas, and Florida panthers are all the same thing. I spent some time interviewing Lauren Serrano and Kelly Andersen at the Orange County Zoo, where they have two adult mountain lions in captivity (orphans rescued at birth). Here Lauren Serrano explains mountain lion behavior at the OC Zoo. This is the best way to see a mountain lion. This article goes over how to understand mountain lion behavior, what to look for to spot their activity, and what to do if you encounter one. After thousands of hours on the trail, I’ve never even seen one. To start, I’ve never been attacked by a mountain lion. But it makes sense to be aware of them and their behavior, and be prepared for anything that could occur. 99.99999% of the time, mountain lions keep their distance from humans and avoid hikers. One of my most asked questions is “do I have to worry about mountain lions when I hike?” The answer is no and yes.
