Video Shows Mountain Lion on a Ski Slope—Sort Of

Imagine you’re on a ski vacation with friends and family, casually making your way down the slopes, when something in the middle of a run, crouched under a tree, catches your eye. You think, “That can’t be a mountain lion…”

But it is.

Earlier this month, YouTube user sobersociety shared a brief helmet-camera clip where the skier glides past a mountain lion just casually observing activity on the hill. No, the clip hasn’t been altered, like the fake bear attack footage that went viral in December 2014. But the lion isn’t real either.

It would be odd for a typically reclusive and alert animal to be surrounded by people and not even flinch when a skier flies past. And commenters have pointed out that the lion appears to be sitting on a white blanket, motionless, at the 7-second mark of the clip. “It’s on Success at Deer Valley, Utah,” writes one. “It’s a taxidermy mountain lion [from] one of the private houses on the mountain. Some people put it out on the slope (a green circle) and watch as people freak out as they ski past.”

No doubt a video from the pranksters will soon surface, showing frightened skiers sliding down the hill, looking to get away at any cost.