Mountain Lions, Big BS News Coverage
Aug 30, 2022 13:38:56 GMT -8
rebeccad, swiftdream, and 1 more like this
Post by Travis on Aug 30, 2022 13:38:56 GMT -8
From Port Angeles, Olympic National Park, Washington State,
MAN PLAYS CHICKEN WITH COUGAR AND WINS:
Sometimes the "news coverage" about mountain lions (cougars) is so disgusting, that I walk away from my computer and say, "what a bunch of b---s---! Repeatedly! I wonder, How can news media be so gullibly stupid to carry such stories?!
If I'm wrong, show me.
But until then, I see absolutely no evidence behind the claims made in these news articles. It seems the local news station takes a fisherman's bravado and claims without question, and accepts his short video as evidence. Then other news media pick up the story and run with it, essentially repeating all the main points. Why not? It's just sensational!
There's talk of some "wildlife expert," a short quote of doubtful reinforcement, and much ado over nothing but a mountain lion with ears perked up and a facial expression showing perhaps a little concern over a human in its territory.
But no feline aggression!
Just a few of the news media that picked up the story:
USA Today
Yahoo News
KIRO7 News
A fisherman is hiking on a wide path through a forest in Olympic National Park. The man happens to catch a glimpse of a mountain lion off many yards in the forest. The forest is crowded with fallen timber too dense to hike through, not to mention to run through in an effort to charge a watching mountain lion.
Yet the man claims that he and the mountain lion are locked in a "death stare" and that he fears for his life because he is sure that the mountain lion is about to attack him. No real evidence, just his fear. So the man decides either he or the lion is going to die, and he charges the lion. (Spoiler: no one died.)
Pardon me, what a bunch of B.S. Mountain lions prefer to attack animals that don't see them. They don't as a rule play "death-stare" challenge to see who blinks first. They commonly pick a location where they can dispatch prey by a fast charge from the rear, not from the front after a prolonged stare-down.
There is no documented account, to my knowledge, of a mountain lion attacking from the front after a prolonged bobbing up and down through a hopscotch course of densely tangled up fallen timber.
But there is well-known, documented and photographed body language associated with a mountain lion preparing to attack. That does not include any of the posture of the mountain lion in the short video accompanying the "news" coverage. If preparing to attack, the lion would be crouched very low to the ground, ears laid back on its head, and rear legs quietly pumping as the cat anticipates its timing. Watch an angry house cat, because the postures are quite similar.
So I wonder: Since when is wildlife in national parks merely a prop for some human need to tell big whoppers, fibs conjured up by demented minds in the backcountry? These stories make hotheads want to kill wildlife and clamor for fish-and-game departments to reduce populations to mere survival level.
MAN PLAYS CHICKEN WITH COUGAR AND WINS:
Sometimes the "news coverage" about mountain lions (cougars) is so disgusting, that I walk away from my computer and say, "what a bunch of b---s---! Repeatedly! I wonder, How can news media be so gullibly stupid to carry such stories?!
If I'm wrong, show me.
But until then, I see absolutely no evidence behind the claims made in these news articles. It seems the local news station takes a fisherman's bravado and claims without question, and accepts his short video as evidence. Then other news media pick up the story and run with it, essentially repeating all the main points. Why not? It's just sensational!
There's talk of some "wildlife expert," a short quote of doubtful reinforcement, and much ado over nothing but a mountain lion with ears perked up and a facial expression showing perhaps a little concern over a human in its territory.
But no feline aggression!
Just a few of the news media that picked up the story:
USA Today
Yahoo News
KIRO7 News
A fisherman is hiking on a wide path through a forest in Olympic National Park. The man happens to catch a glimpse of a mountain lion off many yards in the forest. The forest is crowded with fallen timber too dense to hike through, not to mention to run through in an effort to charge a watching mountain lion.
Yet the man claims that he and the mountain lion are locked in a "death stare" and that he fears for his life because he is sure that the mountain lion is about to attack him. No real evidence, just his fear. So the man decides either he or the lion is going to die, and he charges the lion. (Spoiler: no one died.)
Pardon me, what a bunch of B.S. Mountain lions prefer to attack animals that don't see them. They don't as a rule play "death-stare" challenge to see who blinks first. They commonly pick a location where they can dispatch prey by a fast charge from the rear, not from the front after a prolonged stare-down.
There is no documented account, to my knowledge, of a mountain lion attacking from the front after a prolonged bobbing up and down through a hopscotch course of densely tangled up fallen timber.
But there is well-known, documented and photographed body language associated with a mountain lion preparing to attack. That does not include any of the posture of the mountain lion in the short video accompanying the "news" coverage. If preparing to attack, the lion would be crouched very low to the ground, ears laid back on its head, and rear legs quietly pumping as the cat anticipates its timing. Watch an angry house cat, because the postures are quite similar.
So I wonder: Since when is wildlife in national parks merely a prop for some human need to tell big whoppers, fibs conjured up by demented minds in the backcountry? These stories make hotheads want to kill wildlife and clamor for fish-and-game departments to reduce populations to mere survival level.
