Wow. What an experience. From how you describe it --- if you hadn't seen
it, there's agood chance you'd have wound up being dinner, eh? It actually
made a run at you --- amazing. Not many people can claim to have had a puma
make a run at them. Were there reports of other attacks on humans in that
area, do you know offhand? They usually get into a pattern of attacking
humans --- if they attack one person they usually can be counted on to do it
again.

Well, from how Andrew describes his experience, I wonder if he also might
have wound up being dinner if the cat hadn't stepped on a twig and attracted
Andrew's attention to it --- he had a shotty right at hand and still it took
a couple rounds fired overhead to make it run away. Yeah, it's no
consolation that cougar attacks are rare --- if you're the one in a zillion
getting attacked, LOL.

Thanks for the link, Dave. I'll go over it. I already read Health Canada's
'official' guide and they basically say salmon is particularly vulnerable to
anasakadis and should be frozen before being used for sushi, other species
are less susceptible. It will be interesting to see where the FDA
recommendations agree and maybe disagree with Health Canada's.

regards,
Tom

Ooops, I meant thanks to Dan, not Dave.

I meant --- thanks Dan, not Dave.

tom wrote:

Ooops, I meant thanks to Dan, not Dave.

No I think you meant Dave.. he sent the link
But your welcome anyways.

--
Dan

On Fri, 11 Apr 2008 05:10:38 GMT, "tom" wrote:

Wow. What an experience. From how you describe it --- if you hadn't seen
it, there's agood chance you'd have wound up being dinner, eh? It actually
made a run at you --- amazing. Not many people can claim to have had a puma
make a run at them. Were there reports of other attacks on humans in that
area, do you know offhand? They usually get into a pattern of attacking
humans --- if they attack one person they usually can be counted on to do it
again.

The spot I was in was a wide spot in the road that people used as a
pull off I guess. I used to stop there because it was about half way
between a town named Gabbs that I worked in and Hawthorne, that was
the nearest town to Gabbs. At that spot, it's about 40 miles from any
houses in two directions and over 150 miles in the other two
directions. I didn't hear of any other attacks in that area, but there
are a bunch of range cattle in those types of areas. If one of the
ranchers had cattle taken by a cat, they bait it and kill the cat
within a couple days. Over the years, the ranchers have gotten cat
hunting down to a science.

Had I not seen the cat, I would have been cat crap the next day. It
still gives me the willies.

Well, from how Andrew describes his experience, I wonder if he also might
have wound up being dinner if the cat hadn't stepped on a twig and attracted
Andrew's attention to it --- he had a shotty right at hand and still it took
a couple rounds fired overhead to make it run away. Yeah, it's no
consolation that cougar attacks are rare --- if you're the one in a zillion
getting attacked, LOL.

I read about two mountain bikers (bicyclists) who were attacked by a
lion or lions in 1984 in CA. At least one was killed.

On Apr 7, 12:04 pm, "tom" wrote:
Actually, the guy who wrote that last trip report at ripplewake.com wasn't
me (I wish it was!), it was a guy named Andrew who goes by the nickname of
"Monster".

All of mine are hehttp://picasaweb.google.com/tomfromvan/

I must already have showed you guys this though, no?

Yeah, mountain lion attacks are pretty rare, only like 20 or 30 in all since
europeans arrived, but almost all of them were on Vancouver Island, right
where we paddle from, LOL. When I lived in Port Hardy a small native girl
was killed by one. They brought in a special government cougar-assassin
with a pack of bloodhounds who tracked it down and treed and killed it.

The worrisome thing about cougars is that they are smart. Bears are stupid
in comparison --- if you're going to have trouble with a bear it'll be all
right in your face first, they're not as capable of sneaky, sudden,
from-behind ambushes. Cougars on the other hand are smart enough to use
almost always use the element of surprise --- they'll usually leap on you
without warning from behind. The fisrt indication you'll have is the sound
of something running and jumping behind you, by the time you turn around to
look it's already flying through the air at you. And they know exactly
where to bite you on the neck to effect a lethal injury. But still, cougar
attacks are rare.
This is way off topic, and I suppose the forum admins might shut us down for
going so far off topic with this, but, just out of curiosity --- what was
your encounter with one? You know, I've never even seen one in the bush.
I've seen zillions of bears, mainly black ones, and a wolf once, but never a
cougar.


"Mountain lion attacks on people apparently increased dramatically
since 1986. For example, in California, there were two fatal attacks
in 1890 and 1909, and then no further attacks for 77 years, until
1986. From 1986 through 1995, nine verified attacks occurred, an
average rate of almost one per year..."

http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/lion_attacks.html



This is way off topic, and I suppose the forum admins might shut us
down for
going so far off topic with this, but, just out of curiosity --- what was
your encounter with one?

I don't think we need to worry about that. Far as I can tell there
are no forum admin's here - as the M15 dude's periodic spamming of the
joint illustrates.

There have been a lot of mountain lion stalking incidents around
Tucson, and they now have warning signs posted all over Sabino Canyon
rec. area.

About 3 years ago I was jogging by the Santa Rita River in northwest
Tucson early in the morning. I spotted some lion tracks that appeared
to be fresh. And then I heard - or thought I heard - a hissing sound
coming from the tall grass. Just at that point a man on a tractor
came along, the first person i had seen down there all morning. I was
happy to see him.

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:46:43 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

I read about two mountain bikers (bicyclists) who were attacked by a
lion or lions in 1984 in CA. At least one was killed.

We may have walked on the moon, but that lion didn't care. I was in
it's life and looked just like lunch.

Had I not been looking, I doubt I would have survived it.

They would have found my bike with some cat poop next to it with my
boots sticking out of it.

Yikes!

It's a very dangerous planet.

On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:27:45 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

It's a very dangerous planet.

Yes, it is. The animals had it WAY before we did. They still own it
any time they wish.