A hiker recently recorded a terrifying encounter with a cougar trying to protect her cubs in Provo, Utah.
Kyle Burgess pulled out his cellphone to record the agitated cougar as he walked backward up the trail.
“It wasn’t until I realized once I saw mama, that’s when I realized there were baby cougars,” he recalled.
The cougar dipped into the tree line then slowly reappeared to stalk him.
“Mama cougar was doing what she was supposed to do, she was protecting her babies like any mom would, right? So my intention was to try to get away from her cubs as quick as possible,” he said.
Burgess tried distancing himself from the cubs and the mom but she followed him for nearly 6 minutes.
“Anytime I looked away or bent or even thought about bending down to grab a rock she pounced at me,” he continued.
Burgess tried different methods to scare her off but he was eventually able to grab a rock and toss it at her.
“At the end of the video, that’s where she got spooked because I was able to throw a rock at her and she got spooked and ran away,” he said.
Burgess says it was an intense and terrifying experience but he’s OK.
“If she wanted me, she would’ve had me,” he added. “I would’ve been this little yarn ball.”
When Burgess finally made the 2-mile hike back down the trail, he warned other hikers and wildlife authorities about the protective cougar.
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