A 26-year-old man came face to face with a mountain lion who was in protective mode and he captured it all on his cellphone. The video has since gone viral.
Kyle Burgess came across a mountain lion and its cubs while on a trail run near his home in Utah on Saturday.
The roughly six-minute encounter with the mom began as Burgess was roughly two miles from the trailhead.
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“It was when I got down, coming down Slate Canyon, where I ran into the kitty cat,” Burgess recounted.
That kitty cat was a mountain lion cub that was accompanied by an adult mountain lion seen in the video. That’s when Burgess said he knew he was in trouble.
“You see the two cubs and one kind of runs off, but then I didn’t notice mom was right there and that’s when I knew it was not a good situation to be in,” Burgess said.
The mountain lion followed Burgess, who slowly backed away while attempting to intimidate the animal with loud grunts. You can see in the viral video the mom lunges, hisses and flashes her teeth toward Burgess several times.
Burgess said he had no idea what to do.
“It was all improv. I’m not no outdoor expert at all,” Burgess said.
Kate Remsen, who works for the Living with Lions Project, said the mountain lion was not stalking Burgess but rather was trying to push him away from her cubs.
The encounter lasted nearly six minutes and Burgess finally was able to throw a rock and startle the animal, which then ran away.
After realizing he was safe at last, Burgess could barely hold back his relief.
“It was just like it’s over. Those six minutes were so long for me,” Burgess said.