An angler got the scare of his life when a young cougar swam up to him while he was fishing. What happened next will cause a lot of arguing.
There are so many unanswered questions here, but we'll try. First off, what exactly is this watercraft? It looks to be a canoe, but the man inside has a kayak paddle. Nonetheless, he seems to be carrying an odd array of gear including what appears to be an old milk can right off of a dairy farm.
He has plastic bags, an old grass seed pail, casting and spinning gear. The one thing he doesn't seem to have that he almost needed was his rifle!
When you see what it is that's swimming up to him, you'll realize why he took the preemptive strike with his kayak paddle. The biggest question is: was the wild cat really after him, and did he really need to go after it with the paddle?
It's certainly not your typical house cat video. Watch this and then decide for yourself:
The video was posted by Jose A. Flores-Zaher to the public Facebook group Kayak Anglers of San Antonio KASA. It's not known exactly where this canoe trip took place at this time, but it obviously happened in big cat country.
It could easily be any portion of the United States, from suburban Los Angeles, California to the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains, and from the frigid Canadian wilderness to the swamps where the Florida Panther resides.
The cougar was evidently a young one that had either decided to cross the lake or had possibly chased prey into the water that got away. It's also likely that the wild cat might have thought the boat was a way to get out of the water, only to discover its human inhabitant upon closer inspection.
It's doubtful the young mountain lion was trying to attack the fisherman, but when you have close encounters with a large predatory cat in the great outdoors, you'll probably do just what he did! You could travel around the world, and most would tell you the same.
In all my time kayak fishing, I've never stumbled upon one of the stalwarts of the American animal kingdom going for a swim. Seeing a game animal you can hunt in the water is a little surreal. What on Earth is going on here? Was the big cat trying to attack him or just swimming up to investigate?
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NEXT: JIM SHOCKEY'S FIRST-PERSON ACCOUNT OF BEING ATTACKED BY A COUGAR
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