“The Predator in the Darkness” reflections and research after a (possible) mountain lion encounter

I would like to say that I had an encounter with a mountain lion, but in truth, I can’t say what it was. I think the beast was within about 10 feet of me, 20 at the most, but I never saw a thing. I was sitting by a campfire, alone, in a dark forest at night, so I was night blind from the fire, even if there was any moonlight penetrating the canopy. And I heard something padding closer in the leaf litter. Everything sounds bigger and scarier in the dark, so I told myself it was nothing. And it came closer. And closer. One step at a time. Then, suddenly, it pounced! I heard a small animal screaming – this is the point at which it sounded like it was a mere 10 ft away, just outside the fire light. At this point, my brain, which had been saying ‘mountain lion’, said it VERY LOUDLY. I hopped in my truck which was right there, and drove all the way home, leaving all my stuff. I went back for it the next day, and my campsite was untouched.

I was living in Nashville at the time, and I believe this was west Tennessee, probably 2008, possibly 2009. I don’t think I had driven far enough to leave the state. The festival that I had found listed online either never happened or I was in the wrong place, but I decided to camp out anyway. And after dark, with my tent set up, and full dark on the forest, came the Lion.

Wikipedia tells me that Mountain Lions are ambush predators, so that checks out. Bobcats also often take prey by ambush, although I would think a smaller creature would have kept more distance from a human with a fire. The word ‘ambush’ does not occur in the wiki articles on red fox, grey fox, or coyote (and coyotes are also not solitary), so I am guessing that rules them out…

What was going on in its mind? Did it want me to know it was there? Of course I must have been in its territory, but could there have been cubs nearby? Maybe it actually was intending to eat me, until it spotted easier prey? Was it trying to scare me away? Assessing my capabilities? Or was its target just inconveniently close, and it felt safe enough in the darkness? I had seen some people fishing earlier in the day while I searched for the supposed festival, so clearly this forest was not infrequently visited by humans…

The mountain lion is and was the most widely distributed mammal in the Americas, adapting to almost any habitat type. Its range includes almost all of South America, Mexico, the western US, and southwestern Canada as far as the Yukon Territory. Its historical range encompassed all of the US and southern Canada as well, and these areas are increasingly being reoccupied. They were believed entirely extirpated due to human hostilities in the eastern US, as well as by the decimation of deer populations prior to the institution of regulated hunting. Up to 80% of mountain lion scat and stomach contents can be from white tail deer. Now, mountain lions are growing up largely unhunted, while deer populations unused to predators explode in open territory in the suburbs, where deer hunting is mostly not allowed.

In [20xx], there were about 100 people killed by car accidents involving deer annually, but only about 1 every 2 years by mountain lions (one dead or one attacked?). So recovering lion populations could actually save lives, by driving the deer into more sheltered areas, as well as backyards and gardens, which are favorite food sources of deer.

My experience was in 2008 or 2009. The first confirmed sightings of mountain lions in west Tennessee happened in 2015. In 2016, a researcher says there are 8-10 reports of sightings in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, on the Tennessee-South Carolina border, of which he judges 40% are really lions. The cat was native to the park as late as the 1920s. So it definitely could have been one! Transient and cryptic populations can precede well established breeding populations.

The first recorded female east of the Mississippi was in 2015… Estimates of male territory sizes range from 25-1300km2 to 150-1000km2, with the very small territories occurring more often near urban areas. They are long distance travelers, and males do not share territory, so there is pressure for an eastern migration to recolonize the east.

These cosmopolitan cats, also known as cogars, pumas, and panthers, hold the Guinness Book of World Records title for ‘Animal with the Most Names’, having over 40 in English alone. As ambush predators, an

animal that allows itself to be seen is likely much less of a threat than the one you never see, although one specialist says, “If the cougar is really looking at you, he’s probably thinking he could take you. Probably the worst thing you could do is run.” It might be that my mountain lion would have attacked me if I had broken for the car before it got its rabbit (or whatever it was). They are looking for an easy kill, though, and will often break off an attack if they meet any resistance. The chances of attack if there are two or more people are vanishingly small.

Wildlife officials have often been dismissive of mountain lion reports in eastern states. One woman in Alabama in 2017 whose horse and dog were killed was told it might be a raccoon, and said “and I was like, a raccoon is going to kill a horse?” The dog died of infected injuries and the horse was blind, but it was also a 200 pound mastiff. So 20 or 30 pound bobcat seems like an unlikely assailant. Whatever it was, Spenser Bradley, of the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (a network housed within the USDA) said: “In the future, we are going to have confirmed mountain lions in Alabama. That’s just something that’s going to happen.”

People who have seen both bobcats and mountain lions say that there is no mistaking the difference. The lions are enormously larger, and have large, fluffy, tails up to 3 feet long, while bobcats max out around 40 pounds and 8 inches of tail.

My mystery killer in the darkness will always be a mountain lion in my mind. That’s just the way it is.

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… as of the writing of the paper in 2021, I found in my research the confirmed presence of mountain lions in at least Maine, Tennessee, and Alabama, if I remember correctly (or was it Maine & North Carolina?). So, as of today, it is December 2024 and very nearly the New Year of 2025! And so, wherever you are in the United States, the lower third of Canada, Mexico, or any of the countries of mainland Central and South America, mountain lions are a definite possibility! And since they are so good at remaining unseen, even in dense areas such as Los Angeles County, and since they are (usually) avoid face to face encounters with humans, there could be a few living far closer to you than you might have imagined!

Black Friday 2023 Fun Fact Update: Mountain Lions, like cheetahs, are more closely related to our commensal cats than to lions and tigers. The Panthera family has only 5 members, lion, tiger, jaguar, leopard, and snow leopard. This is why mountain lions cant do the roar and ordinary lions cant do the purr (unsure on the last point).

Featured image cropped and reduced from Photo by Zach Key on Unsplash