A Utah man is getting a lot of attention after he captured a mother mountain lion chasing him after he got too close to her cubs on his run.
Kyle Burgess, 26, was running along the Slate Canyon Trail in Provo, Utah, on a designated trail when he came across what he thought were bobcats, according to the caption of his YouTube video of the encounter.
“I found what I thought were bobcats on the trail during a run. Turns out they were cougar cubs and their mother was not happy to see me.”
For more than six minutes, Burgess said, the mother stalked him back up the mountain, just as he was about two miles from the trailhead, KSLTV out of Salt Lake City reported.
“Although she was acting very aggressive, the cougar had no intent on hurting me,” Burgess contiued in the video caption. “The mother cougar was most likely caught off guard and did what she had to do to protect her cubs.”
Burgess could be heard cursing and making loud vocal noises at the cougar, at one point telling the big cat, “I don’t feel like dying today."
At several points in the video, the cougar could be seen lunging at Burgess, who always kept his distance as he backed away from the animal while facing her head-on.
“When she lunged in the video is when I either took my eyes off of her or I went to look for a rock,” Burgess told the news station. “I didn’t feel like I was going to lose my life. I definitely thought I was going to get hurt.”
Burgess was eventually able to scare the mother mountain lion away when he bent down to grab a rock and toss it toward her.
USA Today reported Burgess waited 30 minutes after the incident to go back down the trail, which is a tip his hunter father-in-law recommended. He didn’t head back empty-handed, though -- he had a stick and a rock in his hands in case the cougar appeared again.
Utah Division of Wildlife Resource officer Scott Root said Burgess did everything right.
“He stayed large, he stayed loud, and he backed away from the area for quite a while and I think he did everything quite well,” Root told KSL. “We don’t want people to be afraid of going into the outdoors, but just know some of the basic safety tips.”
Although mountain lion sightings aren’t likely in Georgia, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division says people should remain vigilant and maintain a safe distance from wildlife.
Other safety measures from the WRD include making yourself look as large as possible, making noise that can’t be confused as that of prey, maintaining eye contact, slowly create distance without looking away, and fight back if attacked.
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