'I didn't want to shoot it': Terrifying moment young hunter comes face to face with a hissing mountain lion alone in the woods
- McKenzie, a young female hunter, came face-to-face with a cougar in the woods
- A video captured the intense stand off in Gunnison, Colorado, earlier this month
- She eventually has to shoot the lion in self-defense when it is about to pounce
A young female hunter alone in the woods came face-to-face with a hissing mountain lion and was forced to shoot it when she failed to scare it off.
Heart-stopping footage shows the lion stalking the woman in the mountains of Gunnison, Colorado, on November 1.
The young woman, identified only as McKenzie, from Duncan, South Carolina, had separated from her father on a hunting trip when she encountered the predator.
Video footage captured the young female hunter, named McKenzie, coming face-to-face with a growling mountain lion in the woods of Gunnison, Colorado, on November 1
She was following some deer tracks in a remote part of the woods when she looked up in a clearing and saw a mountain lion standing so close to her she could see it had blue and green eyes.
McKenzie started filming on her phone when she spotted the cougar as it growled and hissed aggressively at her.
In the video she tries to intimidate the big cat by shouting, snarling and waving her arms, saying: 'Get outta here, go away!'
It stands there, mostly unfazed, until she pretends to charge at it and it begins to retreat back into the woods.
Mckenzie explains she tried to scare the lion away by yelling and waving her arms, but eventually shoots it in self-defense when it looks ready to pounce. 'I didn't want to shoot it,' she said. 'It was the most beautiful creature I have ever seen up close'
However, it turns around in the shadows of the trees and starts coming toward her again.
She throws down her phone and grabs her gun as the lion stands on a log eight yards (24ft) away and she continues to try to scare it away.
The cougar's body language only becomes more threatening, until it appeared it was ready to pounce.
In captions on the video, she describes how the lion looks like it's about to charge at her as it puts its ears back and flicks its tail so she shoots in self-defense.
She fires a gunshot at the lion and it jumps into the air and runs off.
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'I had to shoot him, she says moments later. 'I was afraid he was going to pounce on me.
'I'm shaking so bad. He ran away. I don't know if he's going to die or not. I'm not going to look for him. That was the craziest moment of my life.'
After the incident, she said she ran off in the opposite direction to find her father.
They had to report the incident to the Colarado Parks and Wildlife office who handled the situation from here.
'The mountain lion did ultimately die and I'm very sad about that,' said McKenzie.
According to wildlife officials, a total of 22 attacks by mountain lions on humans have taken place in Colorado since 1990, including three fatalities (stock image)
'I wanted it to keep living, that's why I tried to hard to scare it away. I didn't want to shoot it.
'It was the most beautiful creature I have ever seen up close like that so I was very sad that it ended up dying.
'But I'm also just very, very grateful that I was able to get through that situation.'
It comes after a hiker was followed by a cougar in Utah last month after he accidentally stumbled across her cubs.
Kyle Burgess, 26, was stalked and lunged at by the mother cougar for a terrifying six minutes at Slate Canyon near Provo on October 10.
Luckily, he survived as he managed to scare the protective animal away after hurling a rock at it.
CNN reported that according to wildlife officials, a total of 22 attacks by mountain lions on humans have taken place in Colorado since 1990, including three fatalities.
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