It’s the type of nightmare scenario every Southern California hiker fears — you’re walking alone on a trail when suddenly, a mountain lion appears on the path.
But for Cortney Rasura last week, that nightmare became reality.
In a wild video shared on Instagram, Rasura captured two moments when a mountain lion came onto her hiking trail, and at one point, appeared to be headed straight toward her.
“No!” she repeatedly yelled at the cat. “No, go away!”
Rasura encountered the mountain lion on July 3 on Gridley trail in Los Padres National Forest, she said in an interview with KTLA. After making several steps toward her, the mountain lion diverts from the trail and bounds up the hillside. You can hear Rasura’s relief in the video as she mutters, “thank you!”
Rasura told the station that she’s an experienced hiker, and knew to maintain eye contact with the cat and not run away.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife encourages people to take steps to avoid mountain lion encounters, such as hiking in groups, not hiking at dawn, dusk or nighttime and keeping food stored properly. But in an unplanned encounter, Rasura took several of the agency’s recommended steps, including staying calm, not running away and making loud noises.
The agency also recommends trying to look bigger, if possible, and warns people to never approach the big cat or crouch down.
According to the CDFW, there have been a dozen mountain lion attacks on humans in the last decade in California, one fatal. Even still, the agency said such attacks remain quite rare, as humans are 1,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning than attacked by a mountain lion.
