Know anything about mountain lions?

[JohnP]

I'm posting this in two subforums since i don't know where it belongs.

I live in OC on the fringe of a large undeveloped area that has had multiple mountain lion sightings and yes...even several attacks and deaths of people. I like wandering up into the hills and this time of year, i'm forced to do it at night....often alone.

So my question for those who know about mountain lions:

1. is this reasonably safe? i'm 180lbs and i know about not crouching over or looking small (like prey)

2. if no, can you give some detail? any actual experience you have with lions at night?

3. if yes, any advice on how to further minimize risks? i've heard crazy things like bells, taping eyes to the back of my cap...i don't know if that's effective.

BTW, this is not a mtn lion, but it's what got me thinking maybe i'd be dumb not to take some basic precaution since people have been killed within my area Leopard Kill

[180ls1]

The bigger you look the better. If your worried i would carry a good knife and a cell phone. You being 180lbs there is a pretty solid chance you can fight one off if you were to get attacked but it would still hurt you pretty bad.

[littlebear44]

Just go down to the orange county sheriff and tell her about your problem, she is sure to issue you a CCW
Carry a knife and pepper spray. If your in the hills around carbon canyon or chino hills state park, i can personally back your clain up because ive seen em there.

[Horton Fenty]

Like you said the best advice has always been make yourself look as big as possible. I've never done a face to face with a mountain lion. The ones around here don't wanna get that close to begin with. Your situation, on the fringe of a large undeveloped area, sounds totally different. At least a knife and a phone sounds mandatory.

[Brewski]

Your not gonna know a lion is following you until something is already happening. Your in their territory. Knife and cell phone is great advice. Not much else u can do other than hike with a partner.

[VaderSpade]

I faced down a mountain lion once.

I was unarmed but was walking with two dogs so I thought between the three of us the cat would run off. My little dog had ran ahead, but my 90 pound lab and I walked straight toward the cat. I was clipping and yelling and he just stood there. We closed to gap between us from about 40 feet to 20 feet when I started to have second thoughts. Finely he turned slowly and just walked away, my big lab right behind him. At that point I started to worry about my lab but he returned soon enough.

What we didn't know at the time was the cat had already killed my little dog who had run ahead, and was reluctant to leave his fresh kill.

I'm a big guy 6'2" 225 and that cat just looked at me like I was breakfast.

[wilit]

I faced down a mountain lion once.

I was unarmed but was walking with two dogs so I thought between the three of us the cat would run off. My little dog had ran ahead, but my 90 pound lab and I walked straight toward the cat. I was clipping and yelling and he just stood there. We closed to gap between us from about 40 feet to 20 feet when I started to have second thoughts. Finely he turned slowly and just walked away, my big lab right behind him. At that point I started to worry about my lab but he returned soon enough.

What we didn't know at the time was the cat had already killed my little dog who had run ahead, and was reluctant to leave his fresh kill.

I'm a big guy 6'2" 225 and that cat just looked at me like I was breakfast.

Crazy story. Sorry to hear about your dog. I have a hard time fending off an attack from my 13lb cat. I can only imagine what a fight with a bigger cat would be like.

[troutbum54]

I would start wearing a backwards mask like they do in India to prevent tiger attacks.

[sierra m37]

For gods sake carry a gun, a knife and some type of spray. Mountain lions exist wherever there are deer. My backyard in NorCal is a Few hundred acres of oak, tall grass, deer, coyote, turkey and cougars I know are there but can't see. They also like to hang out in tree branches so look up as well. The ones that they have taken up here approach 150lbs or more. These are big, stealthy, smart cats that have claws that'll tear you up in a split second. I would never venture up there without my pistol, certainly not at night without something.

[meaty-btz]

As I said in the other thread, masks are for jungle cats like leopards and tigers.

Mountain Lions are ambush predators, if you can't see it before it happens a gun is useless. A large fixed blade in skilled hands is your last resort. Lions do not like people. I have been VERY close (less than 20 feet and less than 6 in one case). A lion never looked at me like I was lunch. In fact they always seemed startled and uncomfortable. In the extremely close encounter we apparently surprised each other and both froze. He turned tail as soon as he figured it was safe, you might think of it as a Mexican stand off but it was more of a question between both of us if either was going to be aggressive. He was scared I was aggressive and I was scared he was. He bolted as soon as he figured it was safe to do so.

A hungry lion is another thing entirely, a starving one yet again. A hungry one might consider the punt dogs people own as food. A starving one would be desperate enough to come after the apex predator known as man. Then again most modern humans are more like cattle than men so maybe kitty is getting a taste for the new beef.

If the cat is on you it comes down to luck, strength, and will to kill. You better be one savage mo-fo if you want to come out alive and not lunch. It will have weight, strength, flexibility, and claws-n-teeth vs your toothpick, puny muscles, and inexperience.

[Citadelgrad87]

I hate to sound fatalistic, but ambush predators are not going to give you a chance to do anything with pepper spray.

You will have a knife, he is sporting, what, 24 of them, and he's windmill kicking your insides out.

Two scenarios, one, you surprise one, and it's the uncomfortable standoff until he leaves, which would be spooky but not bad in the long run. Making noise would seem to help avoid this, but may lead to the below.

The other scenario is like when the biker got killed several years ago. He was a full grown man on a bicycle, certainly a physically imposing sight for a predator, but he got a flat or threw a chain, and when he bent down to fix it, ie tie your shoe, etc, it killed him.

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jan/13/local/me-lion13

This is the one that I think you're screwed.

[ScottB]

If the area you are referring to is the CNF, when I am there, I'm packing a .357 and typically have my dogs with me. Be discreet. Guns freak a lot of people out and that can cause its own trouble. I have seen lions east of SJC on several occasions and south of Sierra Del Oro area of Corona (actually inside a development). They are a magnificent sight and your chances of being attacked are very small, especially in areas that get a lot of human traffic.

I have seen tracks in the city nature trail/park at the end of Las Ramblas in SJC. You can't pack there nor can you pack in Caspers Park,or Whiting Ranch Park both known to have resident lions and where the attacks have occurred.

In the unlikely event you actually find yourself mano a mano with an attacking lion where a knife is actually an option, you are seriously up sheet creek. Lions are stealth hunters and attack from behind, going right for the neck. You can't out run them and I suspect trying would just make it worse. Distance is your friend. I'm thinking a big can of bear spray is your best bet.

[Jeepergeo]

Taking on the role of being the "prey" certainly adds interest and excitement to the evening hike.

Polar bears, GRIZZLY bears, brown bears, mountain lions, and some sharks have no qualms about taking on a human if they feel threatened, encroached upon, or simply hungry.

The reality is that people being taken down by mountain lions in California is quite rare. Oh, yes, it has happened, but you are more likely to get taken down by a gang banger or dirt bag than you are a mountain lion.

[VaderSpade]

In the cases I've heard about (where the victims lived). The cat clamped down and would NOT let go even as others banged on the lions face with whatever they could find. The lions then dragged or tried to drag the person where they could be finished off. You see this with African lions on a zebra kill. They lock on and will not let go.

IF and it's a BIG IF you had a knife and the presents of mind you could do some damage to the cat as he tries to drag you off.

[meaty-btz]

In the cases I've heard about (where the victims lived). The cat clamped down and would NOT let go even as others banged on the lions face with whatever they could find. The lions then dragged or tried to drag the person where they could be finished off. You see this with African lions on a zebra kill. They lock on and will not let go.

IF and it's a BIG IF you had a knife and the presents of mind you could do some damage to the cat as he tries to drag you off.

The reason that the others couldn't get the cat to let go is in those reported incidences they never had a knife. Cat latches on to your buddy a few quick knife thrusts will kill it. The same exact way as you kill a boar with a knife. You just need a real knife and not the toothpicks most people use and carry because of silly laws and scared cattle, I mean people.

Like I said, most people today don't have the attitude it takes to survive man vs nature. They are city folk with silly ideologies about nature or hippies under a delusion. They go riding into "beautiful mother nature" "where she is kind and man is evil, let's go to nature". Nature, lol.

Mountain Lion attacks are rare and deaths are even more rare as the linked article above stated (all though it is rather dated at this point):

Reynolds, 35, was riding alone last Thursday about noon and had apparently crouched down to fix a broken bicycle chain along the Cactus Ridge trail when he was attacked. He was the sixth fatality from a mountain lion mauling in California and the first since 1994.

1994-2004 = 6 fatalities.