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You never quite know who or what you’ll meet on local wildlife trails, as local resident Lore Bazemore experienced firsthand on Monday. 

This morning she posted the above video to social media along with the following description of what happened:

Yesterday, in the Arcata Community Forest at the junction of Trail #6 and the upper part of the Jane’s Creek trail l met a young college student who [showed] me this footage unedited.

She had been sitting on the green bench, reading [when] out of the corner of her eye she saw what she thought was a dog approaching.

She had the presence of mind to turn on her camera and seconds later to stand up and fully reveal how big she could be and as you can see the lion trundled off down the trail toward West End Rd.

She was shaken and so was I but she did the right thing and I reassured her that it wasn’t likely to happen again in this afternoon!

Unlike the more elusive Gigantopithecus canadensis (Bigfoot), mountain lions fairly regularly get spotted (and filmed) in this region, according to Steve Gonzalez, a spokesperson for California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The young student in the above-described encounter did the exact right thing by standing up to reveal her full size.

“If you encounter a mountain lion, make yourself look large, wave your arms, and yell loudly to scare it away,” Gonzalez said via email. “When hiking in mountain lion territory, travel in groups and be especially cautious during dawn and dusk, when mountain lions are most active.”

Many commenters on social media note that this young-looking feline appears rather skinny and is thus probably hungry. While fatal cougar attacks do happen, they’re rare. 

“Mountain lions mainly hunt deer and generally do not seek out interactions with humans,” Gonzalez said.

Still, stay alert and be careful out there!