One of the reasons we love our National Parks is the chance to see wildlife that we otherwise might not encounter anywhere else. Although the prospect of coming across a mountain lion in the trail is one that many people probably would like to avoid. These big cats are fast and efficient predators and you're not likely to outrun one.
Some hikers recently ran across a large mountain lion while hiking in Big Bend National Park, near the border of Texas and Mexico. Fortunately for the humans, the big cat is much more interested in the mule deer standing in the brush nearby.
Amazingly, as a group of people watches, the big cat completely ignores the audience to stalk and then run after the deer. It's a once-in-a-lifetime encounter captured on video.
It's not every day you get to see a scene straight out of a nature documentary happen right in front of you! From the sounds in the brush, it's pretty obvious the cat did catch that deer. Those moans of distress are from the muley, we're assuming.
We wonder if the presence of the humans helped the mountain lion here. Perhaps the deer was distracted watching the people, allowing the cat to sneak up without being noticed. This one acted like the people weren't even there. The way this lion stalked that deer reminded us of the way our pet cat hunts.
We'd like to take a moment to give kudos to the people involved in this encounter. Far too often we see videos of people doing stupid things or trying to interfere with nature in our National Parks. The people here stood by and let nature take its course, as you should if you ever find yourself in a scenario like this.
It's also a good demonstration of safety should you come face-to-face with a big cat on the trail. Don't panic and it's likely the big cat will go on about its business. It just goes to show that humans are not naturally considered prey items by mountain lions.
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and Instagram For original videos, check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
