The Ambush Predator’s Perspective: A Wildlife Expert’s Guide to Mountain Lion Encounters

While mountain lions (puma concolor) are masters of invisibility, human expansion into wildland-urban interfaces means encounters are increasingly possible. As a wildlife expert, I can tell you that a mountain lion isn’t looking for a fight; they are looking for an easy meal. Most dangerous escalations occur when a human inadvertently mimics the behavior of prey. Survival depends on operant conditioning: you must convince the cat that you are a dangerous adversary rather than a fleeing target. Here is how to manage an encounter using biological principles.












