It definitely were the longest and most intense 6 minutes from his entire life, for this young hiker in Utah.
Kyle Burgess went for a run at the Slate Canyon, when spotted what he initially thought to be some bobcat cubs, so he decided to have a closer look. But the 26-year-old had no idea he would encounter one of the most frightening experiences he ever had.
The man soon learned, the little ones he spotted weren’t actually bobcats but cougar cubs and their overprotective mom was closely around and the wild cat was far from happy with Kyle’s presence. What fallowed was a six interminable minutes encounter with the hiker backing away extremely slowly, while the angry cougar is stalking him. Kyle filmed the entire scene with his cellphone.
“I didn’t really know what kind of cubs they were or what animal they were,” Kyle told Fox 13. “Once I did realise what they were, I was like, ‘That’s mom right there. I’m screwed.'”
With the extremely irritated animal in front of him, Kyle has somehow managed to keep his temper and that saved his life in the end. He’s backing away slowly and he never turns his back from the cougar. At some point, he manages to throw a rock into the wild animal’s direction and she eventually runs away. At that moment, Kyle’s relieve is almost palpable. “Wow, that just happened,” the man can be heard. “I’m somewhat calm actually. Yeah, not going back that way.”
Thankfully, Kyle escaped unharmed. That’s because he did exactly the right things in a situation like this. “In that situation, with that mother mountain lion who’s being very protective, as you can tell, I would not take my eyes off of her and I wouldn’t bend down,” said. Scott Root with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. “You want to remain large and you want to remain making a lot of noise. And that’s what he did.”
Watch the intense video, here:
The officials warns that whenever happens to encounter a cougar in the wild, you should always keep in mind these advices:
-Stop. Never run from a cougar and do not approach the cougar
-Maintain eye contact with the animal
-Stand up tall
-Do not crouch or squat
-Make yourself look bigger by raising and waving your arms or jacket above your head
-Talk firmly in a loud voice, back away slowly, and leave the area
-Pick up children and pets or keep them very close
-Fight back if you are attacked! Protect your head and neck.
