Teens Film Mountain Lion Killing Elk In Middle Of Road

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation / Facebook

18-year-old Sophia Benjamin and a few other teenagers were driving down a snowy winter road at night when they pulled up on a rare sighting of a mountain lion hunting an elk.

The encounter took place on a highway in Colorado’s Routt County on Wednesday, February 9, 2022. The teenagers said they first saw “something” coming down off the hill next to the road and Sophia, who was driving the car, slowed down once they all recognized what was happening.

Her friend in the car, 15-year-old Tanner Cole-Wheeler pulled out his phone and started filming the intense encounter. For 15 minutes, the mountain lion went on a brutal attack doing its best to kill the elk, which appeared to be a young adult.

The footage showed the big cat clamping its jaws down on the elk’s head and wrapping its paws with sharp claws around its neck as the two stumbled around on the road.

The elk tried its best to shake the cougar off, but it didn’t appear to have any luck. The video clip ends up cutting off and we can only imagine what happened next, but the teenagers said they watched the attack until it appeared the elf was dead and they drove on home.

What a night for those teenagers! Cole-Wheeler’s friend Hoyt Raffay shared the video to Instagram where it was picked up and reshared by the nonprofit organization, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Watch The Animal Encounter Below