A man is lucky he didn’t become a cougar’s dinner after he and the 140-pound beast stared each other down for nearly an hour.
Adam Bartsch was out looking for shed antlers last Thursday along a popular walking trail just north of Campbell River in Canada when he had the close encounter with the big cat.
‘I just found a shed antler and there’s a monster, monster tom cougar at 20 meters (65 feet) looking at me,’ Bartsch said in the video he recorded of the terrifying incident.
If Bartsch was afraid, he did a great job at hiding it. ‘And no I don’t have a gun. I have nothing and he is huge. How cool is that?’ he says in the video.
Adam Bartsch is lucky he didn’t become a massive cougar’s dinner after he and the 140-pound beast (pictured) stared each other down for nearly an hour in Canada
Bartsch was out looking for shed antlers last Thursday along a popular walking trail just north of Campbell River when he had the close encounter with the big cat
According to his wife, Chantelle Bartsch (right, pictured with Adam Bartsch), who is a filmmaker and hunting instructor, her husband tried to evade the cougar numerous times
‘He might think I’m dinner. He keeps looking around like he’s got a friend here. I don’t know I don’t trust him,’ Bartsch says in the video.
‘I just keep thinking he’s going to have a buddy come sneaking up from behind.’
Throughout the entire video the cougar didn’t flinch. His eyes were locked on Bartsch.
‘Look at him. He’s just eyeing me up like I’m a black-tailed deer,’ Bartsch is heard saying.
According to his wife, Chantelle Bartsch, who is a filmmaker and hunting instructor, her husband tried to evade the cougar numerous times.
‘This little game went on for about an hour. He actually three times did scare off the cougar successfully, or at least he thought successfully,’ Chantelle told Global News.
During one clip in the video, Adam Bartsch is heard saying: ‘Here he is again. He’s 25 meters away from me.
‘Trying to sneak in on me again. This is one dangerous little kitty cat.’
During one clip in the video, Adam Bartsch (pictured) is heard saying: ‘Here he is again. He’s 25 meters away from me. Trying to sneak in on me again. This is one dangerous little kitty cat’
Throughout the entire video the cougar didn’t flinch. His eyes were locked on Bartsch. ‘Look at him. He’s just eyeing me up like I’m a black-tailed deer,’ Bartsch is heard saying
When Bartsch got about 15 meters away from the beast he said: ‘He keeps slinking down like he wants to come and attack me’
When Bartsch got about 15 meters away from the beast he said: ‘He keeps slinking down like he wants to come and attack me.’
Chantelle said her husband actually had a machete in a backpack, but he had put down during his walk as he made his way down the trail setting up more wildlife cameras.
She told Global News that her husband kept trying to ditch the cat, but it kept stalking him through the woods.
‘And the cat was actually watching him. The cat was hiding behind a tree the whole time.’
Adam and his wife, who are both licensed taxidermists, later returned to the site to try and get a better sense of the animal.
‘We did some more investigation and took a few measurements and such of the tracks and just looking in the mud, and we estimated this particular tom cougar to be 140 pounds,’ Chantelle said.
She said the cat is a ‘younger cat’ and he’s actually still growing. She said he may be one of the biggest cougar’s they’ll have seen in the area.
His wife said the cougar is estimated to be 140 pounds
The big cat finally retreated after the hour-long stare down