It turns out big cats are not fans of heavy metal. A hiker said blasting a Metallica song from her phone helped scare off a cougar stalking behind her and her dog during a stroll in Vancouver Island, off Canada’s Pacific Coast.
Dee Gallant told Kelowna Now she and her husky, Murphy were walking on a road in Cowichan Valley when she felt “like something was watching them.”
The animal started creeping toward them, and Gallant realized it was a cougar when it was about 50 feet away.
“It was crouched down, doing that kind of prowl, predator walk that they do — that was when I waved my arms and yelled ‘hey, you stop!’ and it did,” she told the media outlet.
Gallant said she had seen cougars in the area before.
“Initially I wasn’t that scared, I remember thinking ‘cool that’s a cougar,’ and then it was ‘why is it still there?’ before turning into ‘oh my god it’s coming toward me, I need to make it stop,” she said.
Don’t Tread On Me: Vancouver Island woman fends off cougar by blasting Metallica https://t.co/vb30S9M5g6
— KelownaNow.com (@KelownaNow) July 28, 2019
Gallant was able to pull out her phone and record video of the situation, while yelling at the animal to “get out of here” and calling it a “bad kitty.”
When the “bad kitty” didn’t respond, Gallant turned to her phone’s music library to find the most “threatening” song and decided to blast “Don’t Tread On Me” by Metallica.
“I thought it was the noisiest thing on my phone that would probably scare it, that was also the messaged I wanted to convey to the cougar,” she joked to Kelowna Now.
Luckily, it worked.
“As soon as the first notes blared out it ran into the bush,” Gallant said.
The cougar is the largest of the three wild cats in Canada and is a formidable hunter, according to British Columbia Conservation Foundation’s Wild Safe BC. They are considered “spot and stalk” hunters and have extremely good vision.
Wild Safe BC advises hikers to stay calm when encountering a cougar. “Make yourself look as large as possible and back away slowly, keeping the cougar in view, and allowing a clear exit for the cougar,” the organization posted on its website. “Pick up children and small pets immediately. Never run or turn your back — sudden movements may provoke an attack.”
More on Geek.com:
- Skrillex’s Music Could Help Protect Against Mosquito Bites, Study Finds
- Watch: Firefighters Rescue 80-Pound Cougar From Tree
- Child Escapes ‘Serious Injuries’ After Cougar Attack in Washington Park
