Mt Whitney Zone Forums General Discussion New cougar attack

The guy must have tasted bad.

"NEW"..... hmmmmmm, the last attack on a human in California was 2007.
Adds more excitement when it's a "dangerous" (lol) Mountain Lion. I'm just giving the other side of the issue.
This guys lucky he didn't meet a DEER!!!!


Deer Kills Man - New Brunswick

Deer Kills Man - Fort Wayne

p.s. More people are killed by deer then by Mountain Lions :-)

Here's some pics of a Mountain Lion captured, data collected, collared and then released in my area. Love these guys. Only seen one in real life when out on a hike. And it was after the hike when I was in my car. I've tried to get on one of these captures, but they only give me the rats and mice to help on.

And more people are killed by people than deer.

Just don't mention moose danger around here.

Alan.... you forgot Grouse!!!!!!

It's kinda funny, because even though I know the chance of getting attacked by a Mountain Lion is miniscule..... When I'm in the mountains, I always have someone hiking behind me :-)

My wife was attacked by a rutting young buck in our own backyard in May 2009. The animal gained access to an unsecured gate at the south side of our house. Didn't want it to stay there because it could freak out and break the window while jumping into the house.

I encountered the buck and tried to lure him out of the confines of our backyard near the garage(Steve C and wagga know the layout). He immediately reared up on his haunches and tried to mount me...(deer made mistake #1). I closed the gate to re"ass"ess. No pun intended. The buck did manage to lacerate my left arm with his front hoof.

I then proceeded into the backyard trying to lure the buck up to the gate it came through. Having failed in that endeavor, I went inside to ask my wife for assistance. At that time, the buck made it up to the rose garden near our pool.

She saw the buck and as soon as it started eating the rose bushes, that was it. Wife was pissed.

We developed a plan: have the buck follow her out the gate as while she gets into her car and I will shut the gate behind them. That worked. I went back to the house to get my stuff to go to work.

Then, I heard my wife screaming. I grabbed my pistol. Ran back outside, as I saw the buck knock down my wife in our gravel driveway. She was on her back as it attacked her with its antlers as she tried in vain to punch the deer with the side of her fist with one hand and trying to hold on to the antlers with the other hand....(deer made mistake #2).

Grabbed the military entrenching tool and whacked the animal on the side of the head...fazed him. Then I took the side of the tool and buried it into its neck...that got its attention...definitely fazed...blood runneth...fired 3 shots into the critter's brain housing group....plop...Dear, dead deer deed done. Called Uncle Tommy, "Come and get it."

Wife was okay. A few scrapes, visibly shaken, but nothing serious.

Great venison.

Never underestimate the power of these animals no matter how tame they may be. We laugh at it now, but it wasn't funny then.

Yes, the buck stopped here. Pun intended.

Cougars and bears, no problemo. Wanna see me freak out?



With three of these things in 3 days, plus hikers coming the opposite direction warning of more, I was convinced that the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne was not the place for a moose.

Fun trip, but y'all can keep your low elevation slithery things.

The girls on the trip definitely got a kick out of me chasing the bear off. I just don't know what came over me...

Awww. When I first read that a 63 year old guy got attacked in his sleep by a cougar, I had my bags packed for Nevada City. Turns out it was just a mountain lion.

It gets worse.

My preference is the opposite of Laura's. Of the three (mountain lions, bears, rattlers) -- and not that I'd be going out of my way to run in to any of them -- I'll take rattlers any day compared to the other two, and esp mountain lions). Rattlers, you just walk around and keep going. Bears just want your food. Mountain lions are silent, track you without your knowing it, and come from behind. So yeah, bring on the slithery things . . . just don't ever ask me to touch 'em (major creep-out handling any snake in any condition).

CaT

PS - On a semi-related note, for you photographers out there, next time you're taking a posed picture of a person (or group of people), try this (it only works once with the same person(s), but it usually works pretty well that one time). When you're ready to take the pic and you want them to smile, instead of saying "Say 'cheeese' ", say "Now everyone say (slight pause for effect) 'rattlesnake' (spoken quickly)". Wait until maximum effect from creepy unexpected word, take picture, enjoy results. Works 99% of the time for me.

And then again, Laura, there are some vipers in my part of the country that don't even bother with the courtesy of a rattle before striking . . .

That is not a rattler. It's a boa. They make very nice pets :)

Actually, it's a copperhead.

Which make lousy pets.

Although shy and seldom seen, the native Northern Copperhead Snake has the "honor" of having bitten more people than any other venomous snake in the United States. However, there have been very few deaths attributed to its very painful bite.

I like my odds better wrestling a big cat, except I don't like the sneak attack, and I would be pissed off if my Western Mountaineering bag got ripped.

Although I've seen my share of copperheads, cottonmouths and rattlers over the years, I can personally attest that it's the snake you don't see that often gets you. In my case it was a timber rattler. I didn't even have the supporting story of being in the thick backcountry when it happened - I was simply retrieving my mail.

Never saw the little bastard till he bit me. He buzzed briefly and while I was looking aound for the source of the sound he nailed me. He was literally right between my legs. I didn't get a photo of him, but he definitely went to the hospital with me for verification purposes - in a somewhat mangled, bloody mess. Fortunately it was a mostly dry bite and I was home the next day with just a little swelling.

That left me with a healthy respect for how silent these vipers can be till it's too late. To this day, if I'm hiking along an overgrown trail I constantly sweep the vegetation ahead of me with my trekking poles, and I never step over a log or large rock till I've had a peek at the other side. That practice has probably saved me from at least two additional bites.

Bulldog, these snake stories remind me of the one I heard at the Exped Med conference last year.

Some good ole boys were out fishing in the swamps of Georgia. They had to be rescued because the jonboat sank, and one of the guys had a serious shotgun blast to his foot. What happened? A snake fell out of a tree into the boat. The guy fired his shotgun to kill the snake, but blew half his foot off, plus a hole in the bottom of the flimsy jonboat.

He survived ==> no Darwin Award

Five will get you ten that was a cottonmouth - which might explain why he acted so hastily. Cottonmouths (water moccasins) are bad news.

And if they were in the Georgia swamps, in a boat with a shotgun, I bet they were poaching gators as opposed to "fishing" . . .