One father and daughter exhibited remarkable calmness under pressure after a menacing cougar arrived inches away from them. Their harrowing encounter with the big cat went viral on TikTok, and the CBC provided the full scoop on how it all went down.
TikToker Natalee Dennis (@captain.natalee) shared the video taken in the backyard of her family's Tofino, British Columbia, home.
@captain.natalee face to face with a cougar... Tofino BC
♬ original sound - Natalee Dennis
Dennis recalled she turned on her camera with a flashlight after her cat started acting weirdly, and they heard rocks moving near the hot tub. Both she and her dad suspected it was a raccoon or even a house cat. They scanned the area but couldn't find anything for about 25 seconds before Natalee spotted it and its trademark eyes.
"Oh, it is a cougar," she excitedly said to her disbelieving father. He remained skeptical saying "no, it's not" until he spotted it and delivered a signature reaction — "Holy s***, ho ho, yes indeed," as the video cuts out.
Natalee told the CBC that they leaned into his past experiences with cougars to ensure they handled the situation properly. The duo got out and moved inside as calmly and deliberately as they could. They were able to watch the cougar for another 20 minutes afterward.
"It was just looking around," she recalled in an interview with CHEK News. "It really is cool."
The family's composed reaction is in line with the BC Parks' advice to "back away slowly, making yourself look as large as possible." Local group WildSafe B.C. told the CBC that cougar attacks are rare, and humans should definitely not run if they spot one.
As wildlife-human interactions like these occur, it's important to follow the guidelines. Cougars are alternatively known as panthers and mountain lions. In the U.S., Florida panthers are near extinct and rarely encountered outside of tragic car accidents. In Washington, cougar hunting is legal, but more cougars are dying for posing a threat to livestock after farmers encroach on their habitat. A concerning pattern has emerged in California where females and males are reacting to human presence differently.
Cougars are an important predator in the ecosystem, and the family's actions are to be commended for diffusing the situation.
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Definitely 👍 "'HO OH YES INDEED' in response to seeing a cougar, mere feet away from you as a new kind of class I aspire to achieve," one commenter on TikTok wrote.
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