Catamount
Up To 8-Foot Long, 160-Pound Mountain Lion On The Loose In Greenwich, Conn.
An unusually large mountain lion has been spotted in the Greenwhich suburbs. Predictably,
Greenwich Conservation director Denise Savageau said that if anyone happens upon a suspected mountain lion, they should, “Act large, stand up tall, wave your arms and make noises. Don’t freeze. You don’t want to act like a bunny.”
By doing so, the animal more than likely will not view a human as prey, Savageau said.
Murdoc’s been pointing out mountain lion encounters here and there for years now. Back in 2004 I noted that the California state suggestions to deal with a mountain lion, including “Do not approach a lion,” “Do not run from a lion,” and “Do all you can to appear larger.”
To their credit, they also suggest fighting back if attacked.
A hiker in Southern California used a rock to fend off a mountain lion that was attacking his son. Others have fought back successfully with sticks, caps, jackets, garden tools and their bare hands.
That’s not fighting back, that’s a desperate last-ditch attempt to continue living.
Also see Friendly neighborhood mountain lion . And I posted a page from the Worst Case Scenario A Day calendar I had at the time:
Though option 3 might be tough against 160 pounds of cat muscle, claws, and teeth.
Incidentally, the Eastern Cougar was declared EXTINCT in March, with researchers believing it had been so since the 1930s. This, of course, may or may not be an eastern cougar, and/or it may or may not be a native wild animal.
Via Instapundit.
[...] Catamount Up To 8-Foot Long, 160-Pound Mountain Lion On The Loose In Greenwich, Conn. [...]
http://imgur.com/vCfCe
LOL! I like it.
A couple of years ago a buddy of mine and his wife were “shadowed” by a mountain lion in a national park out west (can’t remember which one) but it all worked out okay.
After he told us about it, I sent him that page so that he’d know what to do next time it happened.
He replied “I am NOT going to flash a cat.”
Would this work for a female puma defending her cubs? A number of attacks in Southern California have been allegedly due to that, not random encounters with some puma just wandering its territory. In those cases, they’re not looking at you as prey; they are the ones in semi-frenzied defensive mode. Maybe Grizzly spray…
I ran across one at Yosemite once, far into the back country where few folks except hardcore campers go. It was a good 100 yards away; it just looked at me & my mates, and then sauntered off.
They’re sighted pretty frequently at the edges of Silicon Valley, typically around Stanford and the cities on the border of the Santa Cruz mountains. A few years back one found a nice perch in a tree in residential Sunnyvale and decided to snooze; the Police didn’t know what to do, so they shot it. That pretty much pissed everyone off, so now the local police are trained for big cat intervention.
Murdoc’s no expert and doesn’t even play one on TV, but in the case of a mother protecting her young…all bets are off. Which he’s sure everyone knows.
Your point that the encounter could be one of any number of scenarios is a great one, and a good reason to keep all of your options open. Including an option that goes boom when you pull the trigger if it comes to that.
Recently a sometime shooter friend of mine came to me asking what caliber to carry in the wilds in defense against big critters; he has a new wife, wants to introduce her to the great outdoors, but she’s a city girl and skittish – except not about guns ^_^ I told him it depends on where you’re going, what the local laws about camp carry are, and what you hope you won’t encounter.
Now, I have friends in Alaska too, and one of them actually had to dispatch a grizzly in his camp; he did it with a S&W 500 – one shot to the head at about 10 yards (scary!). I’d hardly recommend one of those for camping in California, but for your regular mountain lion or black bear, or even a wild boar, I’m guessing anything less than a .357 is just gonna make them madder. What do you think?
Both he and his wife are of slight build; I don’t think he’s ever shot bigger than a .38 or 9mm. I don’t feel like I can really recommend that, but it’s gonna be way better than nothing. I also think wheel gun is the way to go, not semi-auto, but again, better than a rock or a pointy stick.
It’s now an ex-mountain lion – got hit buy a multi thousand pound rock (a car)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43365895
Wow! Thanks for the tip!
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Interesting, I live in Southern Az and have large cats here. (one came through the back yard a few years ago) I was talking to a friend that works at the local desert zoo and she mentioned that, if you have spent more then 30 minutes on any trail in just about any southwestern US mountain, then you have probably been seen and ignored by a large cat. She also mentioned that no one in Arizona had ever been killed by a healthy mountain lion. Attacked Yes. Killed No. Oddly several people have been killed in California. She thought it was rather odd in that they are the same type of cat. I don’t know if her statistics are correct or not but I replied that many hikers in Arizona pack heat, many more than in Cali. Those cats are not stupid.