Holy Cats!

[AddyLO]

Has anyone else seen this email? The author/photographer is unknown (it was passed to me by my folks). Not sure if it's real or not but it sure looks convincing.

-----------------------
"This is freaking scary. As you know I was alone when I downed this elk in ND. 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 cats 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."

[OldSchool]

I can tell you from experience: Cougars will be close by far more often than you'd care to believe!

[Dave2]

Oooh.... and that cougar is ready to kill! He's already activated his demon eye powers!

[Hoi Polloi]

I've seen that exact cat photo with the demon eyes and forward leg without the guy and elk in front. I believe it is photoshopped, combining a night photo of a cougar with a night photo of a kill.

[Carry-a-Kimber]

Photoshop.

Original photo of cougar.


http://www.snopes.com/photos/hunting/stalking.asp

[The Annoyed Man]

You all beat me to it..... Definitely PhotoShopped.

For one thing, even if it were real, no self-respecting mountain lion would be just standing there like that. It would have been in ninja mode, crouched down, if it were that close to prey. They see better in the dark than we do. There is no way a big cat would have just stumbled onto the hunter like that.

[AddyLO]

Original photo of cougar.

Now why didn't I check Snopes? Thanks!

Pretty cool photo but I knew it just didn't smell right.

[OldSchool]

You all beat me to it..... Definitely PhotoShopped.

For one thing, even if it were real, no self-respecting mountain lion would be just standing there like that. It would have been in ninja mode, crouched down, if it were that close to prey. They see better in the dark than we do. There is no way a big cat would have just stumbled onto the hunter like that.

Regardless whether it was photoshopped, the big cats will stand there just like that -- usually at a small distance. I've been followed by them in just that manner. Paid a lot more attention after I discovered it the first time.

[NcongruNt]

Beyond the fake cougar in the photo, this also suffers from the same stand-behind size exaggeration as the "hogzilla" photos that like to circulate via e-mail.

The guy is obviously much further behind the animal than reality would allow were he actually touching it, and he's pretending to hold up the head by the antlers, but no part of his hand breeches the radius of the antler itself. It's the same technique used in old scifi movies to make average-sized actors in monster suits appear to be giants.

[C-dub]

And where's his rifle? Don't most people posing for this kind of picture usually have the rifle they used with them in the picture? All this guy has is his binoculars.

[Carry-a-Kimber]

And where's his rifle? Don't most people posing for this kind of picture usually have the rifle they used with them in the picture? All this guy has is his binoculars.

You mean like this?

Sorry, the only Cougar in mine is me.
Shock 'em Coogs!

[C-dub]

Exactly!!!

[shh83]

wow!

[Oldgringo]

Raise the bull flag on this one...that's for sure.

[The Annoyed Man]

Total PhotoShop fake. You can take that to the bank.