“ I think I would have put down the phone started throwing rocks." ^...this
No, thanks. When you bend down to pick up a rock, you give up your big, scary size advantage and that can trigger the charge.
But I did see a note that the guy did manage to bean the cat with a rock, which cause it to break off the pursuit... maybe he got close to the hill and was able to snag one without bending down too much.
I kind of wonder what might have happened if he had taken his Big&Scary advantages to the next level and charged at the cat? Would she hold her ground or back down???
The cat didn’t want to eat him. Only bluff him. I doubt a rock early on would have had much effect. She was set on pushing him out of the location and that is what she did.
I’m guessing both parties subconsciously knew how to defuse the situation and when to do it. People simply do not give animals credit on their reasoning ability. And, they don’t recognize instinct impulses.
His biggest mistake is to continue to taunt the cat with his voice. I think if he would have been quiet for a few moments he would have put some distance between he and the cat. You can see her reaction often when his voice gets aggressive. She continued to see him as a threat and thus continued to follow. Easy to guess afterward, but just my opinion. I would have tried to maintain my large size appearance and then calmly back away without any aggressive sounds and if that didn’t work then resort to a rock.
Call me crazy, but I figure If she hadn’t been concerned about his size, she wouldn’t have been bluffing. I wonder what he was doing each time that she did charge him, though?
What triggered her to launch the attack, and what caused her to choose to break off? I’m also curious about just how close she was. Given cell-phone camera lenses, he had to be getting spit on.
It appears he had made it to the crest of the hill or very near. She may have backed down once she was convinced he was out of her canyon.
Back to the "dropping the sidearm" threads... It was a lion that caused me to buy my ultralight titanium 44mag despite 3 close encounters with black bears prior to that. Even a little .380auto would have been worth that fellers whole bank account about thirty seconds into the video... Handy for the 2 legged critters too.
Not sure how you could say "I doubt a rock early on would have had much effect"...he grabbed one rock and it surely had an effect. I guess we could pick it apart second by second and rock by rock lol.
IMO....bouncing a few of the thousands of rocks off the cat's head would have induced an immediate attitude correction upon said cat. Pajama boy's continued use of f-bombs and speaking to the cat may have kept the cat engaged longer than it normally would have stayed engaged. Think of two domestic cats in the back alley hissing at each other for a while...neither one backs down. Or maybe a dog/cat interaction where the dog barks at the cat and the cat stands it's ground hissing back at the dog. Once either shuts up and walks away...it's over. Trying to look at it thru the cat's eyes....Pajama boy staying vocally engaged with the cat for so long may have been a perceived threat to the cat. All just a guess of course...
No chance I’m bending over to pick up a rock at the beginning. She was ready to go at the beginning. Bending down and lowering your stature would have been a great way to trigger an attack. Later on her attitude seemed to change once he was away from the kittens.
Ok as I watched my thoughts were. Why are you huffing, hissing or doing anything to agitate an all ready agitated momma. I also thought of grabbing a rock early on but wondered if kneeling to grab one would trigger an attack. I think he played it pretty good other than his aggression towards the cat. It’s funny though listening to him, you can tell what thoughts are going through his head.
I'll give the guy credit at least he did not just turn and run. Good outcome for both man and cat! Definitely reinforces my habit of carrying a pistol all the time also.
Scary, guy did better then most nonhunters would have. He kept his cool and back away yelling. I would have picked up a rock a lot quicker but also agree bending over might have triggered an attack. I am surprised she left her kits so long.
Midwest you’re right. But that was a looooong ways from the kittens. Hard to say what would have happened when he was within 50 yards of them. I think she might have been a little more aggressive in protection mode. Hard to say, in the end he got really lucky.
That was intense. I didn't think the cat would follow for that long and leave kittens. So if you had a pistol and had it drawn, what would have been your first move? Fire a shot off to the side to see if that deterred her first or immediately shoot the cat?
“ So if you had a pistol and had it drawn, what would have been your first move? Fire a shot off to the side to see if that deterred her first or immediately shoot the cat?”
Depends on whether she was in full-on charge mode or not by the time I had the gun up.
If she was full- tilt, chances are pretty good the first would go wide or high regardless; once she had pulled up (but still following) and just trying to make her point, I would probably put one in the ground in front of her to let noise and gravel make my point for me.
GF, you're thinking too much :) Drop yourself in that video not knowing the outcome. Just a cat doing exactly what she did in that video. Gun is drawn already and she is slowly coming at you like that. Again, you don't know the outcome because you are in the moment. Just wondering what people would do.
If I had it drawn I would have fired on the first charge after I had my gun out. If I had time between drawing and a charge I would have shot in the dirt very near it’s front feet. At least that’s what I say from behind the keyboard. In all likelihood I would have emptied the magazine as soon as I got drawn.
Good point about it being closer then it looks. Given I saw kittens I would have shot assuming she was not stopping and she as to close for a second shot if first was just a warning. That is one heck of a predator and very close range, likely 5 yards or less.
I think a warning shot would have made it run if not I’m shooting every round I got. I was approached by a black bear once and I can say without a gun you feel small and helpless that is for sure!
Let’s drop me in there knowing there were kittens involved. My Preference would be to not kill that mother; if you do, then best case scenario is that the kittens get killed before they starve. Worst case, they live long enough to attack somebody.
But if she was still coming full-tilt at the time that I could get off a somewhat aimed shot, of course I would shoot (and most likely miss by a fair margin).
And now that I’ve seen the full-length version... I’m tempted to say that this guy waived his right to deadly force when he APPROACHED those cubs. Dumbass.
I hope he had to walk home with a load in his pants.
1) Cubs... Kittens.... I’ve heard it both ways many times so I use them interchangeably... just like all of the wildlife biologist PhDs and PhD candidates I used to hang with in grad school. Didn’t think I was going to confuse anyone.
2) “shortly after” as in AFTER he dug out his phone and moved in for a closer look....
You can call me a chicken if you like... but I would have been backing out of there as soon as I had a good idea of what I was looking at - especially without a suitable weapon at hand, but even with one. Approaching a predator’s young is asking for a confrontation. We all know better than to try to get closer to bear cubs, don’t we?
If you read the article, he says he thought the kittens were bobcats at first when he took out his phone for video.
"Thinking they were bobcats (it wouldn’t be the first time he’d seen those), Burgess pulled out his phone and started recording. Seconds later, when their mother came into view, it dawned on him that he was in big trouble. "
kyrob, not sure if the Gun would have helped or not , but I sure would have felt better with one than without. No dumping the pistol, maybe get a lighter weight one.
https://www.facebook.com/thehodgetwins/videos/2455108774798070/?vh=e&extid=0&d=n Here is the real unedited version. Sorry I don’t know how to pull out of Facebook.
If that cat actually wanted to kill him, he would have never seen her. He would have had difficulty getting his phone out with the lion on his back clamping down on his neck. Her actions basically said "Get the F@#K out of HERE!" in cat language.
Such a wild video, that cat is really, fast when it wants to be, and it's MUCH closer than the video makes it look. Love the armchair quarterbacking here, remember how bad the 'kitten' tore up the guy in Ft. Collins before he strangled it?
