00:00Why do people risk their lives on trails where mountain lions live to asterisk people do it
00:05because the actual risk is tiny? And the reward feels big. On paper, mountain lion habitat sounds
00:12like you're walking into a predator's hunting ground. In practice, lions want nothing to do
00:17with you. Asterisk, in theory, asterisk. But they are not sharing. They are invading territory.
00:24Ask people who actually got attacked and live to tell dot dot dot asterisk biologically. It's
00:30encroachment. We build suburbs, trails, and running routes into habitat that was theirs first. And then
00:37we put up a sign that says mountain lion. Country hike at your own risk. Wildlife. Agencies will
00:44tell you the same encounters are becoming more common. Across Southern California as development
00:49continues. To fragment natural habitats, asterisk they almost all say it, was not like they
00:56imagined dot it's not a roar and a chase. It's usually silent, from behind, on a narrow trail,
01:02at dusk, or dawn, often when they're running or biking fast and crash low. The cat isn't
01:09defending territory like a dog gets a predator that misidentified a jogger as prey. Asterisk
01:15many of them do not stop hiking. But they don't call it sharing anymore either. Take the well-known
01:21case of an hiel she was mauled in Orange County in 2004 by the same lion that killed her friend
01:26Mark Reynolds. She survived because her friend fought the lion off and later received a Carnegie
01:32Medal for heroism. In interviews afterward, Hiel said she still goes outdoors, but with a completely
01:39different awareness. Groups only, constant scanning, no headphones. Same for the Colorado
01:45trail runner in 2019 who choked a juvenile lion to death after it attacked him. He said he still
01:51runs those trails, but he would never run alone there again. The common line is I was in its home.
01:57I wasn't paying attention the way I should have been in its home. Asterisk some do quit or have
02:03lasting trauma. Attacks are rare, but when they happen, they are brutal deep lacerations to the
02:09head, neck and face, long surgeries, PTSD, and kids who are afraid to go outside for years.
02:17A four-year-old attack last year in Olympic National Park is a reminder that it's not always an adult
02:23who
02:24made a risk calculation. That's the part that doesn't fit neatly into the we take calculated risks
02:30for nature story. Asterisk. People keep going back for the same reasons anyone goes back to a place
02:36where they were hurt in a car crash or a surf lineup because the place matters to them. And
02:42because telling themselves it won't happen again if I'm smarter is easier to live with than never
02:46going back at all. Asterisk. Why not take the smarter, easier step and let them live in their
02:52territory in peace. Asterisk. Asterisk.
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