According to National Park Service tips on mountain lion safety, Burgess handled himself well. Burgess immediately started backpedaling. The mother cougar was out of sight but came tearing around the corner into view and directly at him. He likes to take pictures and videos of wildlife during his runs, so he took a couple of steps closer and turned on his phone camera. Initially, he thought he saw bobcat cubs rumbling out of the weeds and onto the trail. He had heard about other people having dangerous encounters with elk, moose, and other wildlife, but he never expected to experience it. I knew right then and there, like, yeah - I had to live in the moment or this probably wasn’t going to turn out as well,” he said.īurgess was 2 miles down the Y Trail near Provo in the Wasatch Mountain Range when he stumbled on the mama cat and her cubs.
“When I call it a kitty cat, that’s maybe a way for me to calm myself down. In the video, he expresses an initial surprise that soon turns to terror, then settles back into confidence - the point, he said, when he realized he could grab a rock to throw when the cougar looked away. It was a wild, emotional roller coaster ride, Burgess said. This offered him the opportunity to reach down and pick up a projectile. Photo courtesy of Unsplash/Ian Williams.Īfter passing hundreds of baseball-sized rocks, Burgess realized that the cougar would look back or off to the side occasionally. Mountain lions are formidable predators, but encounters with them are rare. He even achieved Eagle Scout status in the Boy Scouts of America. “We always talk about bear encounters, and the need to be safe out here, but you never really expect it’s going to happen to you,” Burgess said.īurgess grew up in Utah, backpacking, camping, hunting, and participating in various other outdoor activities.
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He tried several times to pick up a rock, Burgess told Free Range American, but every time he broke eye contact with the big cat or made himself smaller by reaching down, the cougar charged. “Go get your babies! You’re not getting me, dude.” Although the video doesn’t show this, he was making himself appear larger with outstretched arms throughout the encounter. If the encounter or sighting occurs after hours or on the weekend, please call your local police department or county sheriff’s office, who can contact a conservation officer to handle the situation.“No! Get the fuck away - stupid kitty cat,” Burgess yells in a firm voice. If you have an encounter with aggressive wildlife, please alert the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources office near you.
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