Two hikers were on a hiking trail in the Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in southern California when they had an experience of their lifetime. Mark Girardeau, a wildlife photographer, and Rachel de Vlugt were returning from a hiking trail when they came face-to-face with a mountain lion. Scared, they held their ground and shouted at the lion. Realising this was a staredown, they took out their phones and made videos.
In the chilling video shared by Girardeau on Instagram on Saturday, November 6, a mountain lion, which is also known as Cougar, can be seen hiding in bushes and staring at the two hikers from a distance of about five to 10 feet, who are behind the camera. Girardeau can be heard, “there is a mountain lion over here.” Then he shouts, “Ger back, mountain lion!.” When the animal does not budge, Girardeau yells more loudly, “Get back!” He shouts 5-10 more times and then asks his co-hiker Vlugt to relax, “just chill,” to which she says, “No!.” Then Girardeau can be heard saying, “it’ll back away slowly..just don’t turn around.” When they turn to walk, the mountain lion moves and follows them in the same direction at a distance. Girardeau asks his co-hiker to hold on and not to turn their back to it. “this encounter lasted 2 minutes before the cat backed down,” says Girardeau in his Instagram post’s caption.
According to the photographer, an incident like this was bound to happen with him because he spends a lot of time in the wilderness. Trying to explain the situation, he writes that the female mountain lion, named Uno, did either have a kill nearby and she was defending it or she mistook the hikers for deer or some other animal. Cougars are not aggressive and are known to rarely attack humans. He further explains that he was yelling to assert dominance so that the lion does not understand them as prey.
Reacting to the video, an Instagram user commented, “so glad that you are safe and you are teaching everyone what and what not to do.” Another user wrote, “got so close too! Wow.” A user applauded their bravery, “Great example of what to do!”
What do you think of the video?
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