Re: Mountain lions fear humans, fleeing when they hear our voices

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eeek

Mountain lions fear humans, fleeing when they hear our voices
June 21, 2017 09:23AM

Admin
Registered: 15 years ago
Posts: 17,111

New research into the behavior of mountain lions indicates they don't like encountering humans any more than we like bumping into them on hiking trails. The findings are particularly valuable as human development encroaches on lion habitat and drives up the number of human-puma encounters.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170620195905.htm

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plawrence

Re: Mountain lions fear humans, fleeing when they hear our voices
June 21, 2017 03:07PM

Registered: 15 years ago
Posts: 4,173

Not all mountain lions flee.

The following attack on on six-year-old boy (hiking with a large group of adults) occurred in the same Santa Cruz Mountains as the study above about three years ago:

http://abc7news.com/news/mountain-lion-attacks-child-on-hiking-trail-in-cupertino/298481/

The study above has a flaw in thinking the mountain lions are afraid of humans at all times. The response to the piped in human voices probably startled those mountain lions in the study because they hadn't detected the presence of any humans (by sight, sounds or scents) while retuning to the kill site. Hence they were taken by surprise when they heard the human voices and instinctively fled until they could sort the situation out.