BEING EATEN??? I would think a mountain lion would be the apex predator in your area. What else do you have, bear? That is the only other thing I could think of as higher and mightier than a mountain lion... YIKES, no matter what!!! Good thing you got back safe.
here is the photo shot, Nov 12, 2009, in Big Bend National Park waaaay out on "outter mountain basin loop" trail." about 11.5miles i think.
the parks person and the usda person i emailed wrote that either the animal was injured and coyotes were at it or it was a juvenile male and had walked into a mature male's territory. i'm pretty sure it is the second case as a male is found in many photos a few miles away (google maps). plus, a lion is about the only animal out there that could drag another lion. the parks said there had never been an attack in that park (googling it gives a different story). also, farmers/ranchers with land around the border of a canyon here in the panhandle see lions slinking down into the palo duro canyon early in the AM.
get this, we camped ~0.5 miles away. i slept like a baby though under the stars. we'd canoed the rio grande for three days and jumped right on this trail and backpacked 12 miles out (a couple 1,000' up and then back down and out into the desert).
i shouldn't be posting this on your thread. here is a photo of where we camped the next morning. it was 0.5 miles from the confirmed lion carcass.
bad photo i know. but i was plum worn out
good thread!