begining almost a year to the day after they banned hunting them, CA has averaged one human fatality a year. several of them have been fed on. that is AR nonsense saying a predator that regularly kills & eats 600-800# elk & 1200# horses isn't going to view a 200# or less biped as food. FEAR is the only rhing that changes that & being hunted is the only thing that inspires fear.
Oh, it
does happen, but attacks on humans is still
very rare. Humans aren't
typical prey. Most of their food is deer, elk, moose, mountain goats, raccoon, rabbits, rodents and such. I'm not saying they're not dangerous. There are those confrontations and deaths you hear about...very scary. They say to act VERY aggressively if you come face to face, don't take your eyes off it and make yourself look larger, don't give up or crouch down. Often they'll take off. Children shouldn't run...no one should run if they see one. What I've heard though is, that if one is going to attack you, you likely won't know it till it's on you. They're so quiet and quick.
I lived in a very wilderness area for ten years and even now, live not at all far from where cougars might be. I'm very close to lots of wilderness country. They're elusive and mostly the females hunt between dusk and dawn. But not always.
I use to hike every day in the middle of nowhere...in fact, lived in the middle of nowhere and I never saw one. There were signs though on trees occasionally and tracks. And they were seen once in a while. I just never saw one.
I'm mainly going off what the guys said from the fish and game dept which was just down the road from me.