A wildlife photographer’s story is now doing rounds on the Internet. The photographer went for a hiking trip on a California trail but nothing went as per the plan. Not only does he spot a lion but also coming face to face with the lion is what is the scary affair and that has left many netizens shocked. It was all caught on camera and has gotten the attention of all online. Mark Girardeau and his friend Rachel de Vlugt went to Orange County’s Trabuco Canyon recently when they spotted the lion looking at them through a bush.
Girardeau spoke to FTW Outdoors. He stated that the duo had only a few tracking cameras set up in the area to catch some wildlife moments in it. That is when they saw the mountain lion run up a hill. The lion then stopped around 20 feet away from them to watch them. Luckily, the photographer knew what to do at the moment. He stayed there and made a loud noise in front of the lion. In the video shared by him, you can hear him repeatedly shouting at the wildcat to go back.
Later the duo stated that the mountain lion followed them for some time, before leaving them without harming anyone. “Thank God Mark was there because I think I would have taken off running (which is obviously the worst thing you can do). We held our ground and so did the lion for what felt like an eternity,” de Vlugt wrote on Instagram while sharing the video captured by them. On his official account, Girardeau said: “I think there are 2 things that could have caused this: either she had a kill nearby and she was defending it or she ran up at us not realising we were humans since she couldn’t completely see us from down below. There were deer in the area that we saw so she probably assumed it was them.”
Girardeau told CBS Los Angeles that the encounter was indeed very scary and anyone in that place would have been scared for sure. Also along with that, meeting with the wildcat without any security is not something that anyone would want. Girardeau has been tracking wildlife in the Orange County wilderness and an update, it was stated that he could recognize the mountain lion in the now-viral clip. The animal was a female mountain lion named Uno, and she was recognized because of her eye which was hurt. “It just happened so fast. You don’t have any time to plan it. It just happens and you’re forced into the situation and you have to react. You can’t run away,” he then added.
