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Old 11-09-2019, 04:55 PM
270person 270person is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: Edmonton
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Quote:
Originally Posted by EZM View Post
I don't know how many people are killed by cougars, but to say they don't stalk people is simply not true. I'm not saying they will turn every stalk into an attack, and I'm not saying they won't follow you and "think about it" but there is plenty of video showing this behavior. It's unnerving and my experience rattled me.

I parked the truck in the early morning darkness, early season elk, my partner ventured one way, I went the other. I made my way up to a ridge about a mile above the road following a game trail, in fresh snow, to get to a lookout point where I could glass as the sun came up.

I wanted to get up and over before day break, but didn't want to push any game out. The last half of the walk I slowed down, walking slowly, stopping occasionally, using a red light sparingly only in the darkest parts of the trail, and picking my way carefully up the trail.

At some point I "thought" I had heard something - stopping to listen - nothing. A few minutes later and another 100-150 yards, again, something made me stop and look around, but the sun was just coming up and it was far too dark to see anything. A little strange - but I chalked it up to creepy darkness playing with my mind.

I got the spot where I wanted to set up, in a small grove of trees, put my pack down and grabbed my sitting pad and settled in to wait for the sun to finish coming up.

Over the next hour or so, at least twice, I turned around thinking I had heard something behind me, and a little unsettled, I just chalked it up to my mind playing with me.

Another hour passed, and I'd calmed back down, the sun was high enough that I was glassing sections down and below me and I was thinking about where to set up next when I heard a distinct noise behind me and jumped up, spun around and heard a crash up above me and to my left. I looked in that direction but did not see a thing. My heart was beating out of my chest. There was definitely something there.

At this point, I'm frozen for a minute trying to figure out what just happened, and I decided I need to move anyways, told myself .... "it was probably just a deer or elk that came up behind me, caught my scent and took off".

So with shaky hands and knocking knees, I pack up and head back up in that direction to catch the trail that winds behind the ridge and continue to a new spot.

I follow my tracks in the fresh snow, and 20 yards back I am frozen, I look down to see cat tracks that clearly followed me in and then veered off to my left and above me) where I heard the noise. I was shocked. I snapped the safety of my rifle at that point and followed those tracks and could see a place where the cat had laid down, then continued, as the tracks kept going around, there was an area where the rocks and hillside had less snow on them, so I poked around trying to see where they went then noticed a place, which would have been 15-18 yards from where I was sitting, behind a row of brush OVERLOOKING exactly where I was sitting and there it was ........ CAT TRACKS and evidence of where it was laying.

If the noises I heard in the last half of my hike to the spot were, in fact, the cat following me, he would have settled in, and been watching me for well over an hour ..... contemplating what to do with me .... YIKES

So ......... if you don't think cats stalk people you are 100% wrong. I'm pretty sure if that cat wanted me, I would have been in trouble with little or no time to react other than wrestle this thing, which would have sucked.

Needless to say, I'm pretty sure my head was on a swivel the next 2 days hunting.


That'd get a guys attention huh? No need for another cup of coffee.
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