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Oneof my most asked questions is "do I have to worry about mountain lions when I hike?" The answer is no and yes. 99.99999% of the time, mountain lions keep their distance from humans and avoid hikers. But it makes sense to be aware of them and their behavior, and be prepared for anything that could occur.

To start, I've never been attacked by a mountain lion. After thousands of hours on the trail, I've never even seen one. That should be your goal too. This article goes over how to understand mountain lion behavior, what to look for to spot their activity, and what to do if you encounter one.

I spent some time interviewing Lauren Serrano and Kelly Andersen at the Orange County Zoo, where they have two adult mountain lions in captivity (orphans rescued at birth). Lauren and Kelly went into detail to answer your questions about mountain lions and how to enjoy the outdoors in mountain lion country. And FYI, mountain lions, cougars, pumas, and Florida panthers are all the same thing.

If a mountain lion attacks you, you probably won't see it coming. Even though they're big, they're also very quiet, and will generally stalk and pounce. But sometimes you will see them when they're curious and maybe sizing you up to determine if you're prey.

If you are lucky enough to see the mountain lion before it's on you, DO NOT RUN AWAY OR TURN YOUR BACK TO IT, as these are signals that you are prey. Mountain lions normally eat things like deer and sheep, but will eat anything from mice to elk. They eat about 10 pounds of meat a day, and only eat meat. You want to show it that you are not prey and you are not scared. And FYI, you cannot outrun a mountain lion, they can run up to 50mph.

In this next video, you can see a hiker who encounters a mountain lion sitting on the trail. He does all the right things and the mountain lion leaves him alone. You can see that once the mountain lion realizes he's not prey, it's quickly lost interest.

And lastly, check out these hikers who are stuck with a mountain lion on a fenced walkway. This one really hits home the point that if the lion knows that you're human, they generally don't want anything to do with you.

Usually the previous steps will do enough to convince the mountain lion that you're not a deer, and scare it off. If it does start to charge you, use any of the tools previously mentioned to start swinging at it. Or shoot at its face with bear spray.

If you're really terrified of getting attacked by a lion, I would highly recommend clipping bear spray and a straight blade knife to your backpack straps, ready to be deployed if you're rolling around on the ground with a mountain lion. Personally, I think this is overkill, but I understand the power of fear (and the power of mountain lions)!

My personal strategy is to avoid attacks and then be vigilant if I see signs of activity (see below). If I do think there are mountain lions active where I'm hiking, I'll clip bear spray and a knife to my pack, and will hike with trekking poles.

While I haven't ever encountered a mountain lion on the trail, I have seen plenty of signs of their presence. Mountain lions live anywhere and everywhere there is prey, with the greatest concentration in the western half of the USA and Canada. They're in the deserts, they're in the mountains. So assume they could be anywhere. Many ranger offices are good about posting notices and signs at trailheads in areas where they are active.

The key to avoiding a mountain lion attack is to be aware of signs that they've been active where you are. If you see a sign that there might be one in your area, take your trekking poles out, get your spray ready, and be extra alert. I like to sing out loud and make a lot of noise too, which is also good at keeping humans away. The average range of a mountain lion is 30 square miles, so even if you see signs, it could be miles away from you.

We talked about mountain lions preferring to attack something that's smaller or easier to kill. When you crouch or sit down, you become a much more attractive target for them, and it triggers their natural instinct to attack. Check out this video of the principle in action at a big cat rescue facility.

I realize it's tough to never crouch or sit down, and that's not what I'm suggesting. When I'm camping, sitting around a campfire, am I constantly thinking that a mountain lion will jump on me? No. But I do try and be extra aware, especially I know that mountain lions are active. And if you're in your tent, you're probably fine.

Keep your kids close to you when hiking, and don't let them wander off at night. If you do see a mountain lion, you want to grab your child and pick them up or keep them close to you. It will help you look bigger.

For dogs, there are two schools of thought. The first is that a dog has more awareness than people and will alert you if a mountain lion is near, and might even scare the mountain lion off. Check out this video of a coyote doing just that.

The other school of thought is that dogs are a lot like coyotes, which mountain lions can eat. If you keep the dog on a leash, it will alert you to danger but you can also pull it in close to protect. A person and a dog close together probably doesn't look like prey to a mountain lion.

I realize mountain lions are scary. Should it stop you from hiking or enjoying the outdoors? Absolutely not. If you read this article, you have the tools to successfully coexist with mountain lions in the wilderness. If you want to get empirical about your chances, it's pretty interesting.

Hi, I'm Cris Hazzard, aka Hiking Guy, a professional outdoors guide, hiking expert, and author based in Southern California. I created this website to share all the great hikes I do with everyone else out there. This site is different because it gives detailed directions that even the beginning hiker can follow. I also share what hiking gear works and doesn't so you don't waste money. I don't do sponsored or promoted content; I share only the gear recommendations, hikes, and tips that I would with my family and friends. If you like the website and YouTube channel, please support these free guides (I couldn't do it without folks like you!). You can stay up to date with my new guides by following me on YouTube, Instagram, or by subscribing to my monthly newsletter.

GLEN WELDON, HOST: Director and animator Henry Selick is best-known for films like "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Coraline." He's now teamed up with co-writer Jordan Peele for a new stop-motion animated movie for Netflix called "Wendell & Wild." Peele also stars in the film alongside Keegan-Michael Key as a pair of demon brothers who cross over to the land of the living with the help of a rebellious teen with a tragic past. I'm Glen Weldon. And today we're talking about "Wendell & Wild" on POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR. Joining me today is iHeartRadio producer and host Joelle Monique. Hey, Joelle.JOELLE MONIQUE: Hi, Glen.WELDON: Also with us is film critic and writer Carlos Aguilar. Hey, Carlos.CARLOS AGUILAR: Thank you for having me.WELDON: Great to have you. And rounding out our panel is writer Kiana Fitzgerald. Welcome back, Kiana.KIANA FITZGERALD: Hey. Thank you so much.WELDON: Of course. So in "Wendell & Wild," Lyric Ross voices the sullen teenager Kat. Her parents died in a car accident years before, and she is now relocated to the Rust Bank Catholic School for Girls. Rust Bank is her hometown, and it's fallen on hard times since the brewery originally owned by her parents burned down, killing much of the population. The evil, rich real estate developers Irmgard and Lane Klaxon, voiced by Maxine Peake and Dave Harewood, probably had something to do with that. And now they're getting help from Kat's school's smarmy headmaster, Father Bests, voiced by the great James Hong. But Kat is going to get some help, too, from her mysterious teacher Sister Helley, voiced by Angela Bassett.She'll also eventually get help from demon brothers Wendell and Wild, who long to escape the underworld and create something special. They are voiced by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. But if they are to make it to the land of the living, they'll need Kat and some necromantic hair cream - it's a long story - but Kat has a request for them, one that will bring them in conflict with their demon father, Buffalo Belzer, who is voiced, unmistakably, by Ving Rhames.The last film that director, producer and co-writer Henry Selick made was "Coraline," back in 2009. Before that, he made "Monkeybone," "The Nightmare Before Christmas," and "James And The Giant Peach." Here, he's teamed up with Jordan Peele, whom we all know from "Nope," "Us," "Get Out," and, of course, "Key & Peele." He's a producer, and he co-wrote the screenplay. "Wendell & Wild" is streaming on Netflix. Oh, there's so much to this movie. Joelle, can I start with you?MONIQUE: OK. What I liked about this movie - alternative Black girl is angry, and it's totally OK. That really rocked with me. I really enjoyed watching her journey. I thought the music was amazing. I think, perhaps, another script pass and a little tighter editing would have helped a lot.WELDON: Yeah.MONIQUE: This movie feels so long. I was like, are we still in this? But I really enjoyed the visuals, and some of the performances are great. Angela Bassett specifically is, like, a demon-hunting nun and is really soul-satisfying. So there's a lot to enjoy. I'll probably revisit later when life is less hectic. And maybe, I hope, I'll enjoy it a little bit more. But it was - felt a little long in the tooth to me.WELDON: OK. What about you, Carlos?AGUILAR: Yeah, I mean, I agree with the fact that it does feel a bit overstuffed in terms of, like, some 0 the many layers of themes that it's trying to cover. But, you know, despite that, I'm a big fan just 'cause I'm a big fan of Henry Selick, and I enjoy him now with his partnership with Jordan Peele. They both seem to really have a great talent for blending horror and comedy - or sort of the otherworldly and comedy. And, you know, stop-motion is a medium that just fascinates me in terms of how it's conceived and the painstaking nature of it all, you know, making these figures move one frame at a time. And so this sort of weird, very strange kind of characters and world that he builds here I think is just fantastic.I also particularly love a small detail that I'm sure, you know, a lot of people will notice is that Selick decided to keep the seams on the faces of the characters for this, which is something that, in stop-motion animation currently, you know, the Laika films and others, they sort of remove digitally. And so he wanted to step back and sort of leave the sort of mark of the artist so people know that this is handcrafted - handmade. And so, you know, just a small thing that really sort of reminds you of what goes behind the scenes to make this happen.WELDON: Absolutely. All right. Kiana, break - it's not really a tie. We're all kind of coming down, I think, in the same place. Where'd you come down?FITZGERALD: Yeah, I'd have to say I'm pretty similar in terms of how I received this movie. I do want to say that I appreciate that it's a story that anybody can relate to. It's not something that is specifically about Black trauma or anything of that nature. It's just, like, a story about trauma in general that isn't specific to the Black experience. There were elements here that I don't - they kind of got to me in terms of understanding that bad things happen to people close to me. I have these bad memories, and I don't know how to reconcile with them. I've had this tragedy in the past, and it's still bothering me years and years later. These are all things that anybody can understand. And I think, as, you know, a movie that could kind of be placed in this bigger picture of, you know, Henry Selick's legacy, I think that it may not be as canonical as the others that he's done, but I do think that it matters, and I really appreciate the effort that was put into it.WELDON: Yeah, let's talk about the effort that was put into it, just technically. I mean, as Carlos said, what an achievement 'cause stop-motion is a labor of love, but there's a hell of a lot of labor in that love. It's so meticulous and time-consuming and precise and - handmade is the word that you used, Carlos. It has a look and a feel that CGI can approach but never get to. So you spend the first few minutes of this movie just goggling at the artistry, the craft, right? The fact that every frame just feels painstakingly wrought, created. And then five minutes in, you forget all about it, and you're just in the world. And it's like - it's exactly what the filmmakers are going for, right? They want you to just get lost in the world. I think you have to be something of a masochist to get involved in stop-motion animation.(LAUGHTER)WELDON: This movie didn't land on me right the first time. Can we just say - to parents, to kids, to anybody - this movie goes hard. You were thinking Henry Selick - you're thinking dark, gothic whimsy. You're thinking "Coraline." You're thinking "Nightmare." And "Nightmare," of course, is, as we mentioned, a Henry Selick film. It is not a Tim Burton film. Tim Burton wrote the story for that and produced it, but "Nightmare" is a Henry Selick film, so don't get that twisted. And this is, you know - you're expecting dark and creepy and funny, light horror for the tweens and the teens and the teens at heart - a visit to Hot Topic, I would say. Nope. You get parent death. You get guilt. We watch some souls getting tortured. There is murder. There is real estate development, perhaps the most evil thing of all. And we meet a character who is punk, who treats everyone like crap, and that's who she is. And that's - as you said, Joelle, that is just part of the deal. We do get, as you all mention, this pileup of lore and subplots. And this movie is not alone in that. Kids movies are doing this a lot more nowadays. I have tilted at this windmill before, but there's just a lot of stuff in here that just saps the narrative momentum. We get Hell maidens. We get hair cream. We get demon hunting. We get town by-laws. We get an artistic kid. And we get a kid with ties to the villains. Now, I love who those villains are. I think this movie really picks the right targets in a lot of rich institutions. You got private prisons. You got exploitative landowners. You got - the Catholic Church doesn't come out looking too rosy here. I love the needle drops, as you mentioned, Joelle, the fishbone, living color, the brat, TV on the radio. I love the trans kid. I love making a movie where your hero is a kid of color. I didn't like her, but I don't think she wanted me to. So...MONIQUE: (Laughter).WELDON: ...Like, mission accomplished there.FITZGERALD: Yeah.WELDON: I don't think the movie particularly wanted me to. So this isn't Goth whimsy. This is punk...MONIQUE: Yeah.WELDON: ...Until we get to the lesson, the importance of family. But you can't get around that. It's a kids' movie.MONIQUE: I liked her a lot, but I think because...WELDON: OK.MONIQUE: ...But because you don't get a lot of nonlikable Black girls.WELDON: Cool.MONIQUE: You know what I mean? Like, a lot of - like, to me, I think if I were much younger, like 13, I think I would have been like, this is my new identity...(LAUGHTER)MONIQUE: ...Because she gets to be, like...WELDON: Yeah.MONIQUE: ...Again, just justifiably angry and upset. She experiences so much trauma. And all of her angst is about, please don't get close to me. She doesn't view herself as heroic, which I think she really wish she had been when her parents passed. You know, the one person who's really nice to her, she's constantly like, we are not friends. Do not talk to me. People around me get hurt.(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "WENDELL & WILD")LYRIC ROSS: (As Kat Elliot) I don't do friends, Raul. Bad things happen to people I'm close to.SAM ZELAYA: (As Raul) Like what?ROSS: (As Kat Elliot) They die.MONIQUE: To see a child character who's built up so many walls around herself, I mean, that's very identifiable. And I think, you know, a lot of teens aren't very nice.WELDON: There is that.MONIQUE: I like that we get to see them sort of in that element and that nobody chastises her for it. There's nobody ever comes in and is like, you need to be nicer or, like, share or anything like that. She's always encouraged to sort of get grounded within herself, which I think is maybe the best lesson. And there's also, like, a whole prison industrial complex slide throughout this. And she's been to jail as a young child. A lot of Black youth have been detained in prison systems. And so, again, to sort of have a space where they can still, as children, engage with that narrative, I value.AGUILAR: Yeah. I was going to add to your point of the sort of themes that are a little darker than what people might expect. You know, this movie's a PG-13 movie, which is so rare for an animated film to sort of get that label and to sort of embrace it, you know?WELDON: It's true.AGUILAR: You know, Henry Selick has said that, you know, they didn't deliberately set out to get that rating. But once they got it, you know, they were OK with it because it allows for a little more freedom in terms of, you know, how dark you can make it, how much you can push. You get even a couple curse words that you can throw in there, you know, and still get a PG-13, which, you know, in the age of streaming, those sort of barriers that - you know, that you might have encountered, you know, 20 years ago going to the theater and not being able to buy a ticket for an R-rated movie or even a PG-13 movie don't really apply. It's sort of left to the parents and whoever is watching. But I do appreciate that, you know, an animated film is given sort of that range to dig deeper and to sort of, like, talk about these harsher things and emotions in a way that doesn't feel preachy or sort of, like, message-driven - but sort of just embraced it within the story. And I feel like a lot of those layers did come from Jordan Peele's, you know, ability to handle those themes in a way that feels authentic and not sort of as someone - you know, an outsider sort of trying to walk in and pretend to know what he's talking about. So I feel like that partnership between, you know, Selick and him and sort of their share ability to let, you know, each one of them do what they do best and sort of, like, collaborate, I think that really makes - made a difference in terms of how some of the topics are handled here.FITZGERALD: Yeah, absolutely. I agree with both of you. And I just want to also add that I'm so glad that this character, Kat, was allowed to just figure herself out without rush, without additional pain. She has a lot of caring people around her, whether she wants it or not. And I think that that really will resonate with folks who have either past or present or maybe even a future of trying to figure out, like, why am I going through this traumatic experience and how do I relate to the people around me as I'm navigating it? Especially for young, Black girls who aren't really given the grace and space to do that all the time - either you're angry, or you're in the way or, you know, anything that isn't considered positive. So for her to be given, like, love and adoration and support, even though she wasn't quite ready for it at all times, really spoke volumes to me.WELDON: Yeah. That's a key part of the film. And I think it's actually a Peele part of the film because Jordan Peele came in, and I think Henry Selick, in some of our production notes, noted that originally this was a Sister Helly story. Now, I'd be down for that - Angela Bassett fighting demons. Yeah. But it's so important, and Jordan Peele keyed into it, to have a young, Black kid character...FITZGERALD: Yes.WELDON: ...As the center of your movie. And it gives it this resonance. I mean, I think the Angela Bassett demon hunting movie would be awesome, but it wouldn't vibrate on this frequency, which I think is a very important one. That said, there's a review that calls the world of this particular film - you know, you'll want to explore it and savor and live in it.FITZGERALD: Yeah, no.WELDON: That's nuts. This is not - like, Halloweentown in - from "Nightmare" would be fun to live in. The Other Mother's house is creepy and scary fun. This is just the real world, stylized into a kind of brutalist, ugly - it's expressionist, I suppose. But the world of this film is kind of intentionally beautifully ugly.MONIQUE: Yeah.FITZGERALD: Yeah.MONIQUE: Yeah. It's interesting to place a movie in what feels like modern times, right? She has her dad's, like, old, giant stereo, which sort of, to me, plays like, you know, her closer to our time. To be set in a company town, which is not something we see a lot anymore, and I think it is missing a layer of character of setting, right? Like, it's not that strong decisions weren't made, but if you had placed this in another time period, I think that level of whimsy gets amped. And to me, that's what I really like about a Selick project - is, like, it's whimsical in parts, and it kind of carries you, and you are fascinated, and you do want to lurk in these spaces a little longer.We kind of get there in these very quiet dream sequences or maybe memory palace spaces that are all green, where she's revisiting these moments of her life or where she's kind of, like, looking back and looking over things. I think that works really well there. But I'm, like, trying to put my finger on, like, what I'm not enjoying because I love the entire creative team, and I really like the idea behind the story. But for whatever reason - and I think it is that layer of whimsy - it doesn't quite connect as much as, like, a "Coraline" or a "Nightmare Before Christmas" for me.AGUILAR: I agree that it doesn't feel sort of whimsical. I think it works for this. I really did like the - Selick hired this Argentine designer, Pablo Lobato, to - who makes sort of these caricatures of famous people that look like Picasso paintings. And so I feel like you can see that in how he designed the characters. You know, he wanted to make caricatures of Jordan Peele and Key that look like them but that didn't so feel like the ones that you get at the pier at - you know, that someone makes of you for, like, 20 bucks somewhere. And so I feel like there were some interesting decisions there in the character design. And also, you could see some of, you know, Selick's fascinations or interests around. Like, for example, the Buffalo devil character reminds me so much of Oogie Boogie from "Nightmare Before Christmas".WELDON: Yeah.AGUILAR: You know, they're somewhat...WELDON: Sure.AGUILAR: They exist in the same sort of, like, wavelength. He's talked about how amusement parks have always been sort of like, you know, one of his fascinations. I think there's one in, like, "Monkeybone." And so there are things that make it feel, you know, part of the legacy of Henry Selick. But at the same time, it is less whimsical. It is less sort of, like, colorful. Like, it is a world that feels, sort of, like, drab and not a place where you want to spend a lot of time. Maybe their depiction of hell is a little - it's fun. But, you know, you also see, like, tortured souls, you know, in the opening sequence, so...WELDON: Yeah.AGUILAR: Yeah. I mean, I think even if I don't find that, you know, visually beautiful, I think it is compelling, and it does work with the story that they're trying to tell.FITZGERALD: I feel like the lack of whimsy and prettiness and fun nature kind of reflects where we're at right now.AGUILAR: Right.WELDON: (Laughter).FITZGERALD: Nothing is pretty. Nothing is wrapped up in a pretty, little bow, tightly assessed. Like, that's just not life. So I feel like that kind of might be a reflection of what's going on there. But I really appreciate the world that was set up. And, you know, it's dark. It's creepy. I grew up in a factory town, so there are a lot of parallels that I saw between this movie and the things that I experienced growing up. So yeah, there are a lot of connections here that I made. And, you know, as much as I appreciate the darkness and the reality of it, I feel like if I was younger, I'd be like, oh, I wish there was more color, or I wish there was X, Y or Z. But you know, the story itself, I think, is the most potent part of this. And I think that that's what's going to keep people watching.WELDON: Absolutely.MONIQUE: Before we started rolling, you mentioned your sister had, like, a really deep connection to the story.FITZGERALD: Yeah.MONIQUE: Can you talk about, like, what her connection was?FITZGERALD: Absolutely. So our mother, our single mother, passed away in 2009, and my sister always felt a level of guilt about that. And it took her a long time to let that go. And so at the end of the movie, you know, she kind of shed some tears and was like, well, like, I understand what this young Kat character is going through because, you know, I was really young when our mom passed. And I never really was able to establish myself through those feelings right away. And to see how far she's come was really beautiful. And to see her see herself in this movie was really beautiful. And it made me think about this movie in a different lens because it may not be for me, may not be for you, but it could be for someone else.WELDON: Absolutely.MONIQUE: Yeah. I would say it's a much more adult or a much deeper exploration of sort of child trauma. Yeah. It's heavy.WELDON: Yeah, it's heavy.AGUILAR: I wanted to say that I'm very happy that Henry Selick is back. But, you know, to think about the fact that such a accomplished and highly regarded artist had to wait more than a decade to make a new project and that it really - as he has said multiple times, it really did happen because of Jordan Peele and, you know, his interest and sort of, like, the success that he found after "Get Out" that gave him, sort of, like, the leverage to be able to position this film, you know, at Netflix and sort of, like, make it happen. And so, you know, I think that's incredible that Jordan Peele, you know, uses sort of, his - you know, his success to sort of help artists that he admires and whatnot. But, you know, I wish that it wouldn't be so difficult for someone like Selick to continue to make movies because, you know, it's - I don't want to say he lost a decade, but I feel like there were other projects he could have made before this. It speaks about where the industry is at in terms of, like, what's financed, what's seen as profitable or not, even in this streaming era, where we might think that's the place for more challenging work to exist. I still think that it's not really the case, particularly in the animation world - that it's so driven by, you know, movies that have to make millions and millions of dollars at the box office to be considered a success.WELDON: Agreed.MONIQUE: Agreed. Seeing Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key back together, even in this format...WELDON: Yeah.MONIQUE: Carlos had mentioned earlier the characterization of these guys in here. And if you are familiar with the "Key & Peele" sketches, it definitely feels like maybe some of those characters got pulled up. There's one they do with, like, a very funky beard that Wild definitely sports throughout the film. It was delightful. I sort of miss a little bit the improvisation they're able to do, which is obviously not really - lends itself to this medium. But it's still delightful and a lot of fun. And if you missed them, you know, you can get a dose of it here.WELDON: Yeah, yeah. And it's funny - you know, the second time through, I was much more on this film's wavelength. I think this film has a wavelength that it wants you to come to, right? It's you doing the work, and that's fine, and that's good. And that actually makes it somehow more satisfying. Tell us what you think about "Wendell & Wild". Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/pchh. Or tweet us at @pchh. Up next, what's making us happy this week.Now it is time for our favorite segment of this week and every week, what is making us happy this week. Joelle, what is making you happy this week?MONIQUE: Well, Glen, I don't have to tell you that I'm a "Star Wars" stan. We have had many a conversation.WELDON: Given.MONIQUE: "Andor" is out right now. And not everyone is watching it, and it's making me a little bit crazy. It is absolutely the thing "Star Wars" fans have been pleading for for a very long time. It's what I had expected to get out of the prequel movies. It's what I finally experienced in "Rogue One," what I think is maybe one of the best "Star Wars" movies of all time. You get Stellan Skarsgard in a performance that if he doesn't get at least a nomination for an Emmy, I will riot and personally burn Hollywood to the ground.WELDON: (Laughter).MONIQUE: I tweeted the other day that the show was able to make politics just intriguing and engaging in a way that Ge