Camping in Mountain Lions’ company
Many of our favorite camping and motocamping locations in North America are home to several species that see humans as prey. The most famous are bears and mountain lions. Last month, I wrote a long entry about bear attacks and how to survive them - this time we are looking at mountain lions.
Mountain lions attacks on humans are on the rise, and only a few weeks ago there was the first fatal attack in California in over 20 years, when a mountain lion attacked two brothers, killing one and severely mauling the other.
Authorities are quick to point out that the number of CONFIRMED mountain lions fatal attacks on humans are rare: the official count is of around 130 attacks on human over 100 year in the entire North America, with 29 being fatal. By comparison, there have been 180 BEAR fatal attacks in North America since 1784. But the truth is that not all mountain lions “attacks” are recorded and nobody can give an accurate number of 1) how many mountain lions there are in the United States and 2) how many times there have been encounters that were not reported. Also, like we will see at the end, a non fatal attack by a cougar can still leave you with severe permanent damage.
Let’s go in order.
Current estimate talk of approximately 50-70,000 mountain lions - also known as cougars, puma, mountain cat, catamount, or panther - in the United States. Historically mountain lions - “roamed across all of the lower 48 states. Over time, their range became limited to the western states excluding a small population in Florida known as the Florida panthers”. But that's not the case any longer.
The highest concentration is out West: Colorado, California, Oregon, Texas, Montana and New Mexico have all an estimated population between 4,500 an 7,000 units. Arizona, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Nevada and Idaho have each over 2,000 units. South Dakota has over 200 puma, while sightings in Northern Wisconsin, Montana and Michigan have become common occurrence, even in urban areas - in fact, the Midwest is considered the area with the highest rates of expansion for mountain lions.
Unlike bears, who are omnivores, mountain lions are carnivores. Their diet is mostly deer (80%) and smaller mammals and birds. And unlike grizzly bears, who are thought to attack humans mostly out or rage or fear for their cubs, mountain lions attack humans exclusively for food.
In case of an attack, there seem to be a bit of a contradictory set of recommendations on how to act.
In the past, the main recommendation has always been to stand your ground, look as big and intimidating as you can, and use an angry voice to scare the cat off. More recently, authorities are recommending to slowly back away without turning your back onto the cat. Running away is not recommended, because the mountain lion will just chase you and it will be way faster than you.
Some say that bear spray may work as a deterrent, although there is no conclusive evidence about this.
Many recommend to try and protect your neck area and your face, because that’s where the mountain lion will try to attack - backpackers are encouraged to use their backpack as a shield in case of an attack. Others recommend that you travel in mountain lion areas in groups - mountain lions are solitary animals that do not attack in packs, so IN THEORY they won’t attack a group of people. However, this is not always the case, as this recent non fatal attack on a group of cyclists in Washington State shows - four women were cycling near Seattle when a cougar jumped on one of them directly on her face/neck. The other cyclists managed to chase the cougar away after 15 min of mauling…she now faces permanent face nerve damage.
This last attack I just linked is also very interesting because it shows how often mountain lion attacks happen within one or two seconds of sighting - the cat will be hiding on the trees or on rocks above you and will just jump at your jugular giving you absolutely zero time to defend yourself.
One thing that COULD help, even in the case of this last attack, is a GOOD shot well placed with a gun. Which doesn’t mean to lolligaggingly carry a gun just in case - it means perhaps having a firearm, and knowing how to use it, as a last resort in case of an attack.
So, having said all this, who’s ready to mocamp in mountain lion and bear territory with us this year? Check where we are motocamping at this link.
