This Pack of Dogs Chases a Snow-Covered Mountain Lion to the Edge of a Cliff

Dogs are some of the oldest animals that humans have ever domesticated. When they are given a job, they will complete it to the utmost. Even the soft, cuddly dogs that people favor today have a job—to cuddle you! Still, just because cute and non-utilitarian dogs exist doesn’t mean that the usefulness of the species in the wild is gone. In fact, one video is a great reminder of just how important a dog can be for the modern human.

In one of the coolest clips ever released, we get to witness a pack of hunting dogs doing what they do best—hunting. The hounds in the clip are baying and ar hunting some of the most dangerous prey in all the world: a mountain lion.

As most people know, mountain lions are extremely dangerous, powerful, and cunning, all traits that make hunting them rather exhilarating. If it was just a human, hunting a mountain lion is mostly chance as it’s nearly impossible to find them without the help of a dog.

When you do have a dog, however, things change. Dogs can run for hours at a time, pick up a scent, and keep on a trail. Once they’ve found something, they can be relentless. In the case of this video, we are seeing the end of the chase.

The clip shows a mountain lion covered in snow powder, stuck atop a rock ledge. There are about 5-8 dogs, all with trackers on their necks, baying the mountain lion up the side of the rock. Although it’s hard to tell, the mountain lion is pretty massive. It’s puffed up to look larger, but it is still thick and well-muscled.

The process of “baying” is when (usually) dogs bring the animal they are hunting to a position where they can keep it in place. With so many dogs barking in this clip, the mountain lion is cornered on the rock and brought to bay. Generally, mountain lions will head up into a tree to hide from the dogs, but a rock outcropping like this one works just as well.

Although most videos like this end with a loud boom and a dead mountain lion, that isn’t what actually happens. With all the dogs barking and the cameraman filming, the mountain lion sees a break and runs away through the snow.

From what it looks like, the account owner of the TikTok isn’t actually a sport hunter, but a catch-and-release hunter. This could just be a way to try and trick the TikTok algorithm, but if they are telling the truth, they didn’t kill this mountain lion that day. Some people try and scare mountain lions away from livestock, and this might have been an example of someone doing that with dogs.

Although it doesn’t always happen this way, it seems that every creature walked away from this encounter without a scratch. With a mountain lion as big as the one in the clip, it’s a good thing that it didn’t turn and attack. It probably would have made short work of those dogs!

Make sure you check out the clip below to see the mountain lion for yourself!

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