Incidents like this seem to be happening more often, maybe because development is encroaching on animal's natural habitat.
Cougar attack

I am not much of an outdoorsman so I am wondering what preparation everyone does for potential wild animal attacks.

I figure guns and bear spray, ...will bear spray work on a cougar?

thanks

It depends a bit on where I am going.
If it is just for a hike on a wilderness trail a can of bearspray is good to have.
If it is for working in an area which is pretty sure to have bears or big cats, then a rifle or shotgun in the hands of somebody who knows what they are doing is better.

So If I was going to be working around a dump or in the middle of a seasonal food source I would consider firearms.

Cougars are still very rare and the odds of getting attacked are very low. Cats do tend to be attracted more to children because they see them as easy prey.
With cats the young males are driven to locate a new territory and establish themselves. Since a cat covers so much area this often drives them into contact with humans.
These young males are not familiar with humans and don't fear contact quite as much as they should
That also makes their attacks kind of random.

All good reasons to never let kids out of your site in wilderness areas, but even in developed areas cats have been known to appear and attack.

This post is timely because in 2005 a man was killed by wolves in Saskatchetewan, the coroner recently ruled that wolves were the cause of death. First confirmed human death due to wolf attack in 100 years.

Read about it here.

I often carry bear spray or a firearm when in areas where bears are common. I once got too close to a pair of black bear cubs and was charged by the sow, by the time I got the bear spray out of my vest pocket, took off the holster and removed the double safety the bear could of mauled me for sure. She stopped short and then just escorted me out of the area as I backed away down the trail.

The biggest thing with bears is to keep a clean camp or yard with nothing to attract the bears to you.

Mike

We often see signs posted on the trails around here warning of cougars. Every now and then, offtrail I'll see a big deer skeleton stripped of meat. Deer is one of cougars favorite prey. A big cougar can reach almost 200 pounds. I'm a fairly big guy, but it impresses me to realize that a big cougar can sneak up on a big deer and have lunch. Several years ago, a homeowner out here shot a video (shown on the news) of a cougar chomping down on his full-grown german shepherd and jumping over the backyard fence with it. I guess I don't know if bear spray would work on a cougar. For starters, I guess you'd have to have enough warning to use it, and a person may not. That being said, when I'm on the trail I carry a very stiff walking stick with a sharp metal chisel tip.

If I were hiking in an area with occurence of dangerous animals I would take with me a small lightweight torch in addition to a bear spray. (By torch I don´t mean flashlight.) Plus some lighter that can be quickly used with one hand to light up the torch. I haven´t tested if it would be sufficient deterrent but I would rather have even a small fire in between me and the animal than nothing.

If you haven´t come across this yet this is interesting story: http://ngadventure.typepad.com/blog/2008/02/avalanches-esca.html - first comment (at the bottom).

I'd be surprised if bear spray doesn't work on cougars. It seems to work on pretty much everything with two or four legs. I've actually used pepper spray (not bear spray proper) on a big, aggressive cat that possibly had rabies. A very brief burst sent it jumping about 6 feet in the air and it settled the situation right there and then.

Luckily I have only had to deal with hostile wildlife on a few occasions but I can share some advice I got from a friend with a lot more hands-on experience, plus some scars and war stories to go with it. A lot of people are afraid of wild predators and panic if they're attacked. He said you should treat any four-legged animal, dog, cougar, even a bear just like a human assailant. The main targets are the same, head/eyes/snout, neck, belly, testicles (in males) so if it gets to hand-to-hand, that's what you should be aiming at. With bare hands, knife, rock, whatever. Rifle or shotgun, bear spray and stout stick are all very useful if you have the time and distance. Depending on your options, you should carry at least one of them out in the bush. But he emphasized you should still mentally prepare yourself for the eventuality of having to fight back at close quarters if the predator surprises you. Supposedly anything you do to fight back will improve your odds greatly because most predators only look for weak prey and will retreat if the victim resists.

Can't say much else except that it made sense to me at the time. While the odds of being attacked by a cougar or bear are small, you just never know. Besides, even in a city you could run into a berserker pitbull any time.

Look up mountain lion attacks... I forget what % but a VERY HIGH % of them are on woman, young people, someone alone hiking along their "housing track" which is NOT in mountain lion territory but a cat somehow found their way down the mountain into this area.

I think it was <5% if even that of people who were attacked by mountain lions were actually in their habitat in the woods.

Another thing to consider is to paint or glue something that looks like eyes on the back of your hat. I recall reading that this was very effective in reducing tiger attacks in National Parks in India.

For me its so statically unlikely, I don't even worry about it. Animal attacks are very, very uncommon, even in the wild.

Just run with someone who is slower than you

*Joking*