Some years back, an old elk-hunting friend related the account of one spring evening when he was walking back to his truck after an afternoon of looking for shed antlers. It was growing dark, and he was walking down a trail with a 5-point elk antler in one hand and a small pocketknife as his only possible weapon. Suddenly, as he told the tale, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and he turned around to find a big tom mountain lion crouched on the trail about fifty feet away, watching him, its tail lashing.
My friend yelled, waved the elk antler over his head, and generally made himself look big. The mountain lion watched him briefly, then turned and walked casually away. Now, there’s no evidence that the lion would have attacked him had he not turned around — but there’s no evidence it wouldn’t have, either. Big apex predators tend to see any…
