Watch As A Mountain Lion Stalks A Young Female Hunter Before Being Shot

During a hunting trip, a scary encounter occurred when a young woman was forced to shoot a mountain lion in self-defense.

The trip took place in Gunnison, Colorado and the footage, which the woman recorded on her cell phone, shows the mountain lion slowly approaching her, Daily Mail reported.

The female hunter named McKenzie strayed away from her father before running into the lion. As the mountain lion came closer, the footage shows McKenzie shouting and waving her arms at the cougar in an attempt to intimidate the animal. McKenzie even pretended to charge the animal but the lion only responded with growls and hisses.

While deciding what to do, she threw her phone down as the mountain lion drew near and grabbed her gun. McKenzie continued to try to scare the lion off, but as the big cat seemed ready to attack she fired her weapon prompting the animal to scurry off.

“I had to shoot him,” she said. “I was afraid he was going to pounce on me... I'm shaking so bad. He ran away. I don't know if he's going to die or not. I'm not going to look for him. That was the craziest moment of my life.”

Watch below:

“The mountain lion did ultimately die and I'm very sad about that,” McKenzie added.

McKenzie never intended to hurt the animal but did not regret her decision.

“I wanted it to keep living, that's why I tried so hard to scare it away. I didn't want to shoot it… It was the most beautiful creature I have ever seen up close like that, so I was very sad that it ended up dying,” McKenzie said.

“But I'm also just very, very grateful that I was able to get through that situation,” she added.

After the encounter, McKenzie found her father and reported the incident to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife office, who saw the video and said she took the correct action.

This isn't the first time a life-threatening incident involving wild animals was caught on camera. A Utah hiker previously encountered a cougar that trailed him for about six minutes. The predator eventually ran off after the hiker threw a rock at it.