![colorado mountain lion colorado mountain lion](https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/gazette.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/4/d4/4d4fa130-91bb-11e8-9ade-b72bda30728b/5b5b4a33a5cab.image.jpg)
This mountain lion did nothing of the sort. Mountain lions are considered “ambush” predators, meaning that typically they sit and wait for prey to pass, and then pounce, quickly, and with force.
![colorado mountain lion colorado mountain lion](https://www.denverpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/505.0.5834249-mountain-lion-brady-dunne-03.jpg)
It never attacked, and eventually, ran back towards the cubs. Occasionally, and dramatically, it bluff charged (reminding me of the cheetahs). An intense 6-minute interaction ensued, with the hiker slowly retreating, and the animal continuing to push him back down the trail. He began recording them with his phone, when an adult mountain lion, presumably the mother, appeared and approached. The interaction started when the hiker saw what he thought were bobcat kittens. Nevertheless, such interactions were memorable enough that I still remember them vividly, 30 years later, which brings me back to the viral video. Despite these encounters, I understood that the cheetahs likely felt threatened, guarding their territories against intrusion by us humans, not intent on attacking me. We would face the cheetahs, move slowly, and talk to them in a loud and firm voice. To protect ourselves, we carried wooden poles that we would hit on the ground in front of us when necessary (never touching the cats). Ears pinned back, snarling, hissing, lunging forward and stamping front paws. Occasionally, when we did, some cheetahs were less than thrilled, reacting to us with the type of “bluff charges” I saw from the mountain lion in the viral video. I was one of three keepers at the facility whose daily routine was to enter the large, outdoor pens to feed the animals, clean the area and move cheetahs between pens when necessary. There, I worked at the cheetah breeding and research facility at the Wild Animal Park (now the Safari Park) in the foothills east of San Diego. Fresh from graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Zoology from Colorado State University in 1989, I was fortunate to land a job with the San Diego Zoo’s Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species (now the Institute for Conservation Research).