Incredible moment a biologist had a brush with death when a ferocious puma lunged angrily in his direction after shooting the beast with a tranquilizer dart.
Travis Legler, 48, who captured the heartwarming moment, was lucky not to slip off the 150-foot cliff as the furious beast hissed and scrambled in his direction, as the pair attempted to subdue the animal in the Kabib National Forest, Arizona. on January 12.
“You can’t see it in the video, but I was standing on a two-foot by two-foot ledge with a 150-foot cliff behind me,” Legler said. Outdoor life. “So if the cat hit me, the cat and I would fall off the cliff.”
The biologist who wanted to collar the creature for research purposes was also nearby, as the puma jumped on his head, climbing and hissing at him from just a couple of meters away.
Because the tranquilizer did not work immediately, the distressed beast bounced terrifyingly between the two men, before descending 50 to 60 feet to rest on a ledge below.
Legler, who shooed the animal away with a quick whistle, described the incident as one of the most “unusual and intense” he had ever experienced.
The wildlife biologist and his assistant had a scathing brush with death after a ferocious cougar lunged angrily in their direction after they shot the beast with a tranquilizer dart.
Like other cats, pumas only eat meat and often lie in the shadows before hunting their unfortunate prey, which is usually deer.
Cougar sightings are not uncommon in Arizona; As of 2020, the state is home to around 1,715 of these big cats.
Research is often carried out by tranquilizing and placing tracking collars on these huge animals in an attempt to better understand the behavior and patterns of those living in human-populated areas.
Legler, who filmed the grisly moment, is a volunteer dog trapper and also helps hunting agencies in Utah and Arizona capture black bears and mountain lions for research.
So when an Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) biologist asked him to help capture a cougar and attach a tracking collar to the animal, he couldn’t say no.
He started his day like any other, taking a trip with his dogs to the national forest, but they soon found themselves on the heels of a mountain lion.
Following the aggressive animal into a small slot in the canyon, Mr. Legler eventually left with his dogs and went about his day until he received a message on his GPS from an AZGFD biologist.
The animal expert asked him if he had seen any mountain lions that day and if he would be willing to help capture one, to which Mr. Legler agreed.
But the hunter, who is on an approved list to help biologists capture mountain lions, did not expect to be so close to death upon his return to the canyon crevice where he last saw the mountain lion.
Travis Legler, 48, who captured the terrifying moment, helped the wildlife biologist track the angry big cat down to a cave crevice.
Letting out a deep growl as it lunged toward the stalwart biologist, the cougar scrambled up before descending 50 to 60 feet in an attempt to escape.
Hidden in the slot of the canyon was the animal, which had not moved an inch since Mr. Legler located her that morning, and she was not interested in being caught either, emitting a deep growl towards the pair as they approached.
“I could hear him, you know, growling at me when I first got there,” she said.
“And once he got there where he felt like he wasn’t going anywhere, he ushered me over to the other side (of the slot canyon).”
According to Legler, animals normally fall asleep immediately after being administered a tranquilizer, but this big cat resisted, brushing against the biologist’s head and almost knocking Mr. Legler over the edge of the cliff.
After bouncing between the canyon walls and growling at the two men in an attempt to escape, he descended another 50 to 60 feet before finally giving in to the tranquilizer.
Mr Legler helped the biologist rappel down to the big cat, where the anonymous animal expert took samples and fitted a collar to it for research purposes.
After the biologist administered reversal medication to awaken the animal, he carried it back to safety.
The wildlife expert, who was just feet away from the terrifying big cat, has chosen to remain anonymous due to the controversial debate surrounding puma management in the western United States.
An initiative is coming up in Colorado that could end hunting of mountain lions, bobcats and bobcats in the state.
The debate has become heated, and opponents of the hunting bill have filed a petition with the Colorado Supreme Court to stop the copycat proposal, The Colorado Sun reports.
A second revised initiative was introduced in December 2023, calling for limiting the hunting of lions, lynxes and bobcats, but similarly to the first, it would continue to call for a ban on the use of hunting traps, dogs and electronic calls that imitate sound. of distressed animals.
Fortunately, Travis managed to scare the cougar when the animal was about to throw him over the edge of the cliff.
Hunting groups continue to oppose the ban, arguing that it should not be up to voters or politicians, but wildlife commissioners, to decide how best to manage animal populations.
As a result of this controversy, the AZGFD asked Mr. Legler to remove the video, which initially racked up half a million views on Instagram before being reposted on other platforms.
‘I normally don’t post (this content). “Sometimes I send these videos to my friends, but I got a lot of requests from people who said I needed to post it because it was the coolest thing they’d ever seen,” Legler told the publication.
‘And the biologist has no problem with (the video) at all. He thought it actually showed a very positive light on the interaction between a hunter, a biologist and a cougar, and how all that can take place.’