The amount of violent suggestions in the replies of those cougar video tweets is exactly why wildlife professionals are desperately trying to the video framed correctly:

He had stalked her and her cubs for a vid and she was responding. Not the other way around.

There is almost an insignificant chance that you’ll ever be stalked by a large predator in North America. We’re talking roughly one person every other year is killed by a wild cougar and that’s not strictly predation, that’s just a general lethal encounter.

But when videos like this circulate paired with a false narrative, the audience begins to believe predators like this are a danger to them and their kids.

This is part of an media ecosystem that feeds the idea that North American predators pose a threat to people. As a whole it makes preserving carnivores/hunters like cougars and wolves incredibly difficult for conservationists and politicians.

And credit where credit is due: when the man realized he was in danger he appeared to act in the exact way we would recommend. Back away calmly, keep your eyes on them, maintain your footing, make noise, and if you have the chance to drive them off by throwing objects do so.

The following tweets will contain links to other professional takes on the subject. Feel free to real through em

Petros works around human/wildlife conflict https://twitter.com/pchrysafis/status/1315510181904572417

Imogene studies snow leopards and is incredibly well read on the subject of big cat behavior https://twitter.com/biologistimo/status/1315742028781756417

Yashar lays things out well here with a full video https://twitter.com/yashar/status/1315856091821948929