The hunters that head into elk country know that these animals inhabit rough country, along with the other wildlife species, such as mountain lions, that live there. There has been a photo circulating around the web of a mountain lion stalking an elk hunter. In the photo, the successful elk hunter apparently is not aware that a mountain lion is standing only a few feet behind him.
Here is the elk hunter’s description of the photo as it was forwarded around the world: “This is freaking scary. As you know I was alone when I downed this bull elk in North Dakota. I was using my camera’s timer attached to my shooting stick to give me enough time to get into the picture. I knew there were a lot of mountain lion sightings in the area but had no idea they would come in this close to people. He had to be within 10 feet of me and I didn’t even know it. I about crapped my pants when I looked at the pictures the next morning and saw he was there.”
So is it true. No! This photo is totally fake. For one, who uses a timer and does not look at their photos afterwords? Duh. Two, the mountain lion (photo #2) was taken from a photograph snapped during February of 2008 by a wildlife biologist in California. So when someone ask if the mountain lion stalking an elk hunter is real or not, you inform them that the picture is a big fat fake.