Kyle Burgess was a few miles away in Slate Canyon, Utah on Saturday when he saw what looked like four kittens near the trail. He paused to take the video, not sure what kind of animal they were, but they thought they looked like bobcats.
He soon realized he was wrong.
Just after Mr. Burgess turned on his camera, an adult mountain lion emerged from the thick brush.
“I took three or four steps, and I saw Mama Cougar,” Mr. Burgess, 26, said in an interview Wednesday. “He made a crazy swamp. I started backing up like crazy. I’m running backwards right now. “
For the next six minutes, Mr. Burgess recorded the business in a video that has been viewed more than three million times, with the animal pushing him backwards, both trying to escape and keeping an eye on Cougar and shooting as he went.
The video of the encounter, in the foothills of Utah County, feeds on human brushes with wild animals, and how – or – people get out of it has fed the internet attraction.
In the interview, Mr. Burgess, who grew up in Utah, said he thinks the encounter could go a long way in those six minutes. With no wildlife training formal training, he fluttered his wings as he tried to remain calm, maintaining a solitude in the animal’s ears that could not understand a single word, but could indicate the balance of his life.
Mr. Burgess found the mountain lion for the first time .After his moments, she Instincts seem to be kicked. Cougar slipped into the woods after a while, as if trying to get him out.
Then he appeared in the open again and walked towards her.
As Mr. Burgess trapped backwards, in a follow-up with cougar padding, the explosives flowed. He often called Cougar a “dude.” “Go and take your children,” he pleaded.
“I’m big and scary,” Mr. Burgess said at one point. He tested some of his own roar.
He tried to compliment: “You’re a good kitty cat.”
But mother cats were all maternal attitudes. About three minutes later, she woke up, let go of her rabbit and charged Mr. Burgess, gritted his teeth and pinched his ears.
But the animal kept its distance.
“This is scary,” Mr. Kurgas says in the video about five minutes after the incoming cougar. “My heart is racing.”
Mr Burgess said he was told to “grow up” if confronted by a wild animal. At an altitude of about six feet 150 feet and a speed of 1,150 pounds, he tried holding hands.
But every time he took his eyes off Cougar, he seemed to lunge.
Scott Root, conservation outreach manager for the Utah Department of Wildlife Resources at the Department of Natural Resources, was warned for an encounter Saturday night. The next morning a team was sent to make sure Cougar and his young man were no longer near the sidewalk.
In his In0 years on the job, Mr. Root could not recall the fatal attack by the state cougar, where he hunts deer, especially in the area where Mr. Burgess was confronted.
Such encounters are rare, as cougar is the only predator that maintains distance from humans.
Except, they are defending their youth.
Mr Rouge, who had seen Mr Burgess’s video several times, said the mountain lion was showing attacks to intimidate him.
“That behavior was like a lot of bears or moose – we call it a bluff charge.” “Naturally, it became clear that her No. 1 goal was to get her out of the area.”
He further added, appearing big, retreating and making noise was helpful. Maintaining eye contact can also work, he said.
“But wildlife life is very unpredictable,” he added.
Debra Chase, chief executive of the Mountain Lion Foundation, noted that mountain lions are ambush hunters who try to stay out of sight when they are being beaten with sticks. She said Mr. Burgess did the right thing by retreating, not speaking loudly and running, but not touching infant animals in the woods.
Mr Chase said in a statement that “she clearly did not see him as a victim.” “This behavior was to chase him, which he did very well. Mata Singh was reacting to the perceived threat to her youth. ”
He said, “We need to confront the idea that mountain lions are naturally dangerous to humans.
With about 15 seconds left in the video, the camera gives a jolt. Mr Burgess said in an interview that he felt as if he had enough distance to bend down and grab the rock he had seen near the cat.
It took a turn.
The cougar walked away from him and followed the trail. Mr. Burgess let out a few more explosives and let out a sigh.
Then he turned the camera to himself. “Look?” He looked in the direction where the cat came out, down the trail running through the hills of the forest. “Yes,” said Mr. Burgess. “It’s not going back that way.”
