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Many of America’s national parks are home to animals you don’t want to cross paths with while visiting them. That includes Big Bend National Park in Texas, and some hikers had a fairly unnerving encounter with a mountain lion that was filmed staring them down during an early morning excursion.
Mountain lions (a term that’s interchangeable with cougars, pumas, and panthers) have a documented natural presence in 16 states; Florida is the only one that’s not located west of the Mississippi River.
Colorado boasts the largest estimated population at approximately 7,000, but Texas is also near the top of the pack thanks to the 5,600 big cats that are believed to call the Lone Star State home.
Their territory is primarily situated in the southwestern part of the state, which is also the location of Big Bend National Park. Visitors are advised to keep an eye out for mountain lions while traversing that approximately 1,250-mile expanse, and some hikers were doing exactly that when they came face-to-face with one on a trail.
A mountain lion was filmed staring down a group of hikers at Big Bend National Park
In the grand scheme of things, mountain lions aren’t a huge threat to humans. There have only been around a dozen documented fatalities linked to a cougar attack in America in the past century, and you have to go all the way back to 1911 to find the last time one of them killed someone in Texas.
With that said, you never know what’s going to happen if you encounter one in the wild, and most people would prefer to avoid that particular experience.
According to the Houston Chronicle, three hikers who embarked on a trek on Boot Canyon Trail before dawn on Saturday morning were able to check that box courtesy of the animal that darted across the path where they were walking before heading up to a hill where it was filmed gazing intently at the trio.
Joey Thometz, the hiker who captured the video, said he and his companions started yelling and slamming the poles they were using on the ground in an ultimately successful attempt to ward the animal away, and it disappeared into the wilderness before they continued on their way and relayed the sighting to a park volunteer.
Thometz told the outlet the group knew how to react thanks to the signs that were posted in the park, as making as much noise as you can is the correct route to take if you ever find yourself in a similar situation. If you ever do, you should also know experts recommend attempting to make yourself as large as possible and throwing rocks and other objects at a mountain lion if it seems intent on attacking you.