Mountain lions, cougars, lynx, bobcats and rattlesnakes

Mice and rats are more dangerous to humans and have caused many more human deaths than any of their natural predators.

Cats purr and lull humans to sleep at night. Rodents gnaw and keep humans awake all night. Thus it is safest for humans to avoid sleeping in a place to which mice and/or rats have access but large cats do not.

Mountain Lion Safety | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Here are 10 things you can do to stay safe in mountain lion habitat 1. When it comes to personal safety, always be aware of your surroundings, wherever you are; conduct yourself and attend to children and dependents accordingly. 2. If you encounter a cougar, make yourself appear larger, more aggressive. Open your jacket, raise your arms, and throw stones, branches, etc., without turning away. Wave raised arms slowly, and speak slowly, firmly, loudly to disrupt and discourage predatory behavior

FWS.gov

If you encounter a cougar, make yourself appear larger, more aggressive. Open your jacket, raise your arms, and throw stones, branches, etc., without turning away. Wave raised arms slowly, and speak slowly, firmly, loudly to disrupt and discourage predatory behavior

No. Don't throw rocks or attempt to play nanny with a big cat in the wild. Learn to project confidence and not fear or antagonism. Just smile and turn the other cheek to a cat.

You might have a housecat as a pet, and even domestic cats never lose their wild instincts, but wild cats can be just friendly if you do not antagonize them. I have never encountered an unfriendly mountain lion, and I oftentimes wonder what some people do to provoke wild animals and especially carnivores that otherwise do not hunt or fight humans and on the contrary have great respect for them in the wild.

Rattlesnakes are another enemy of mice and rats, and harmless to humans. A rattlesnake will not and cannot take on any prey that it cannot swallow whole. Its fangs point inward toward its throat with no way out for the snake and the worst it can to to a human is nick the skin slightly and slobber a tiny bit of venom.

Staying Safe Around Rattlesnakes – Pajarito Environmental Education Center

Pajarito Environmental Education Center

Go to the hospital or call 911 or Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 and follow their advice.

Myself I say just drink plenty of water, skip the county health clinic, rest in the shade if you don't feel well and don't panic or get dehydrated or do anything you wouldn't ordinarily do in a hot desert climate. If there is no official cause of your possible death, then do not create or permit that opportunity for hostile “local” authorities to get away with murder and fill in the blanks on a death certificate with a free pass from the county medical examiner, “no foul play suspected.”