NEED TO KNOW
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While hiking in Big Bend National Park in Texas, a trio of hikers was surprised to run into a mountain lion on the trail
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Joey Thometz revealed that his group was on Boot Canyon Trail when the wild animal crossed in front of the group
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After the hikers realized what was happening, they took preventative measures to avoid a serious encounter with the mountain lion
A group of hikers in Texas had a scary run-in with a mountain lion while exploring Big Bend National Park.
Joey Thometz was on Boot Canyon Trail with two other hikers when the group noticed something unexpected running across the path and disappearing again off the trail.
“All I could see at first was a large tan body, long tail, black tip,” he recalled to the Houston Chronicle. “It disappeared in the hills for a few moments.”
Once the group stepped back from the shocking moment, they realized that it was a mountain lion that had run by, and now the big cat was sitting by the trail watching them. Thometz recorded a brief video of the wild animal staring the group down from a hill.
Brandon Bell/Getty
Big Bend National Park in Texas
They were experiencing one of the roughly 150 mountain lion sightings that occur at Big Bend every year, according to the National Park Service.
“It looked surreal, with sharp facial features and muscles,” Thometz told the Texas outlet, adding that the group was “in disbelief” and “glad to be in a group of three adults.”
Thometz noted that he and the other hikers had seen signs on the trail warning them about the rare risk of encountering a mountain lion while hiking, which they were “glad” to have paid attention to.
“The signs specifically say not to run so that you do not trigger their predator instincts,” he said, noting that the group instead made loud noises to scare the mountain lion off.
After the lion started moving, he said that his group continued hiking in the opposite direction, hoping “to add more distance between us.”
“We could still see it moving in the opposite direction up the hill. The whole encounter lasted under a minute,” he recalled to the outlet.
The group found a park volunteer a few miles along the path and alerted them to the mountain lion sighting. According to the Houston Chronicle, the group also alerted other park officials to the sighting.
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Mountain lion warning in Big Bend National Park
Per the National Park Service, mountain lions at Big Bend are typically spotted along Big Bend’s roads. However, encounters on trails are not unheard of, and “several mountain lion encounters in the park have resulted in attacks on people.”
The agency shared that mountain lions often don’t attack but can display “aggressive behavior.”
This “can be caused by a number of factors, including: a mother protecting kittens, a juvenile cat learning what is and is not prey, an older, injured, or ill cat who is stressed for food and approaching non-typical targets in desperation, or a curious cat whose ambush instincts are triggered by human behavior.”
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The National Park Service noted that running away from a mountain lion may trigger the animal’s “attack instincts.”
Instead, hikers should “maintain eye contact,” and “stand up straight” so that they “appear larger.” People should fight back if a mountain lion does attack. However, to prevent that, hikers are encouraged to “throw rocks or sticks and yell at the animal” as it approaches.
The best advice is to “back away very slowly in case the lion is guarding a kill or her den.”
Read the original article on People
