AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: If you were to go deep into the Santa Cruz Mountains in California, you might hear the wind rustling in the leaves and maybe a mountain lion chewing on a deer carcass.</s>KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: But occasionally, that scene has been interrupted by something like this.</s>RUSH LIMBAUGH: This is not good for the country, what's happening here, because it isn't, I don't think, full-fledged legitimate.</s>KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: For seven months, researchers from UC Santa Cruz gathered the reactions of mountain lions at their kill sites to the voices of political talk show hosts - Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Amy Goodman and Rachel Maddow.</s>RACHEL MADDOW: Last Tuesday, when Bobby Jindal quit the presidential race.</s>JUSTINE SMITH: We wanted to know if mountain lions directly perceived humans as a threat to them.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: That's Justine Smith, lead author of the study.</s>JUSTINE SMITH: We found a more dramatic response than even we anticipated. Pumas completely fled from the sound of humans talking on almost every occasion. And they reduced their feeding after being exposed to people.</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: But when researchers played the sounds of frogs for the predators...</s>AUDIE CORNISH, HOST: ...They were mostly ambivalent.</s>KELLY MCEVERS, HOST: So if you ever come across a mountain lion when you're out on a hike, don't croak - try airing your political grievances.
Scientists at the University of California, Santa Cruz were trying to understand the nature of fear for mountain lions. By playing a series of audio clips of political talk show hosts, including Rachel Maddow and Rush Limbaugh, researchers discovered that mountain lions fear people.