Animals around the Basin: Be cougar aware

Situation: A family of four is on a hike to the Chief Moses campsite south of Highway 17 along Rocky Ford Creek. This is on the Ephrata side of the creek where Chief Moses would throw a rope around a large rock in order to tie his horse near his tent.

This family contained two parents and two youngsters, ages 8 and 10. The two youth began to run ahead, about 30 feet, to the spot where the old ranch house was located. They both stopped suddenly when they looked over the bank.

The parents hurried forward only to find a cougar over the bank and looking up at the children. Wow, an emergency situation for sure.

What do you do?

There are several suggestions about what action to take place when coming face to face with a cougar. Here are a few:

Do not turn away from the cat. Do not run away from the cat. They eat meat from deer to sheep, but will eat mice to large animals, such as elk.

You need to let them know you are not prey, meaning you are not something to eat. A person cannot run safely from a puma. The cat can run up to 50 miles per hour.

Make yourself look larger than you are. Put your hands in the air, make noise and act bigger. If you are using a walking stick, raise it to make you look larger than life. Be ready to use it to hit the animal if the cat gets closer.

Also, use bear spray, if you have it, as the puma gets closer. Yell and make yourself look larger and scarier by waving your backpack, sticks and whatever you have to look scary to the lion.

Pick up small children. Don’t bend down and make you look smaller, but stand up and look larger. Don’t turn your back and begun moving away, but keep looking at the animal and back away.

Throw rocks at the animal if it acts aggressively, throw them at or near it. This is to let it know you are dangerous.

Using a hunting rifle or pistol to fire at the lion if it makes a charge at you can be effective. The first step should be to fire what could be considered a warning shot. The intent here is to scare off the animal before it attacks, but if it does attack, kill it.

The name of shadow cat is well named. Several hunters have sighted a cougar, looked away for a second and when looking back never spotted the puma again.

Check out the Washington State cougar sightings Facebook page to find out how often cougars are seen in our state.

The idea of having a mountain lion spotting you, but you never seeing the cat is true. Don’t be afraid of hiking throughout the Columbia Basin. Have fun, but be careful out there.

Be cougar aware.