Cougars are elusive creatures. It’s often said that if you see one, it’s been watching you for quite some time. Cougars, or mountain lions depending on where you live, are adept hunters that can take down prey far larger than they are. And Charles Zelenka, a man who lives in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, recently had a first-hand glimpse of that.
In the middle of the night on January 4, 2022, Zelenka awoke to sounds on his porch. When he went outside to investigate, he found something surprising: a dying elk and a cougar that likely took it down.
“I thought it must have been hit by a car or something and made it up to my porch to die,” Zelenka told the GJ Sentinel. “I was just about ready to walk out there and all of a sudden a mountain lion popped up from underneath the elk, so apparently it had a death grip on the elk and was underneath it.”
When he saw the cougar, he immediately began filming. But the cougar wasn’t too pleased with his presence and ran off into the tree-line, leaving its meal behind. But it did leave Zelenka with some pretty amazing footage.
