If you are familiar with mountain lions or cougars as they more popularly called, you are already aware of their proclivity for hunting prey that is far larger than they are. Despite their small body and head, cougars can latch themselves to the necks of even the largest animals and bite them into servitude with their formidable teeth. Many people are unaware, however, that these ferocious big cats can even take down North America’s unofficial tanks: bull elk.
Charles Zelenka, of Colorado, awoke to the horrifying sight of a mountain lion eating on a massive elk it had presumably killed, just on his front porch, in a recent video that went viral. The cougar is less than thrilled with the man’s presence and becomes quite defensive, as one would expect from a cat that had just pulled a 240-kilogram (530-pound) cow elk to the ground. “I figured it was hit by a car or something, so I brought it up to my porch to die,” Zelenka told the GJ Sentinel.
“I was about to step out there when a mountain lion sprang up from underneath the elk, indicating that it had a death hold on the elk and was underneath it,” he added. “…I immediately began shooting when I saw the mountain lion. I was at a loss for what to do. ‘What the hell,’ I thought as I stood in my underpants. The cougar bolted before reaping the benefits of the kill. Zelenka expresses regret for scaring it away from its meal, and the elk meat had left out for far too long, and could no longer be consumed by others.
Charles Zelenka has resided in No Name, a neighborhood east of Glenwood Springs in Glenwood Canyon, right up against a mountainside, and he is used to seeing wildlife in his yard. He has had bighorn sheep, bear, moose, and other species pass through his land in the 17 years he has lived north of Interstate 70, he said in an interview Monday, briefly halting him to chase away a woodpecker assaulting the exterior of his house. After seeing a tiny bear in the region a week or two ago despite it being winter, Zelenka assumed it was a bear when he heard a banging sound outside his house at 1:40 a.m. last Wednesday.
