Mountain lion kills mountain biker in Washington

[Bear Paw Jack]

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/crews-responding-to-report-of-mountain-lion-attack-near-north-bend/752771730

NORTH BEND, Wash. - Eastside fire officials said emergency crews were responding to the report of a mountain lion attack in the foothills near North Bend around 11:20 a.m. Saturday.

King County Sheriff's officials said two mountain bikers were attacked. One was killed.

Officials with the Department of Fish and Wildlife offer this advice to anyone who encounters a cougar in the wild:

•Stop, stand tall and don't run. Pick up small children. Don't run. A cougar's instinct is to chase.
•Do not approach the animal, especially if it is near a kill or with kittens.
•Try to appear larger than the cougar. Never take your eyes off the animal or turn your back. Do not crouch down or try to hide.
•If the animal displays aggressive behavior, shout, wave your arms and throw rocks. The idea is to convince the cougar that you are not prey, but a potential danger.
•If the cougar attacks, fight back aggressively and try to stay on your feet. Cougars have been driven away by people who have fought back.
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Interestingly. everything except the important item. Being armed. Mountain Lions aren't that hard to kill and doesn't take a big gun. A 38 special or 9mm would handle the job if both people would have stayed to fight.

Media loves to point out that no one has been (killed, attacked, harmed, whatever) for X amount of time. Even if it has happened just one state over. Apparently every animal that attacks a feeble person is "EMACIATED" according to the media experts of everything as that is commonly seen as well. Mountain lions will take down any animal it thinks they can maneuver around enough to kill with minimal risk, and they can be very quiet doing it.

 

[Mobuck]

Unfortunately none of those suggestions include "Don't shoot it in the head as the brain is used to test for rabies".

 

[Doc Holliday]

Surprised they didn't say 'These are a protected species and have more Rights than you. Please don't fight back, you may injure the animal. Just lay down and don't resist.'

 

[vito]

Even for those who do not want to take a firearm with them when biking or hiking, at least a can of bear spray would be a good idea and probably easy to get on target than by shooting. For the past several years I have carried virtually every day in every location so I would not even think about going out into the woods unarmed.

 

[contender]

When you remove any animals fears of humans,,, they can & will cause harm. Animals are very basic. If they encounter any species that can hurt it, or put fear into it,,, they avoid such species if they can. It's their self preservation.
But, stop hunting any species, and they proliferate. And with the increased numbers, they need space & food to live. Combine that with the lack of fear, prey species like the mountain lion (or others,) and they will try & see if they can feed on humans.
I'm not saying all predator species needs to be wiped out. But,, we do need controls on all species to keep their population numbers in check with the carrying capacity of the environment. That's what licensed hunting does, at a very low cost to the public. In fact hunters pay their own way, & tax money isn't needed to MANAGE wildlife.
The tree-hugging do-gooders need to be the ones to live in places where the critters live & hunt. They need to see what goes on & how an animal has to live, hunt & all to survive.
My job is nuisance wildlife control, and I teach Hunter Safety. Ethics, carrying capacity of the land are just 2 of the many things I teach. And in my job,, I get folks who call me with a problem, and say; "I love these animals but I don't want them in my house." Or another common statement; "I want them gone but I don't want to kill them." And lastly,,, one of my favorites,,, which causes me to want to palm slap my forehead; "Why can't these animals stay in the woods, & not come into my house?" (This us usually uttered by folks who put out bird feeders, or feed animals because they are "cute.")

Coyotes have enjoyed a population explosion since the early 1970's to where they are in places now in common numbers, that back then there were NONE. And folks complain about losing Fluffy or Fido. Mountain lions are no different. It's just that they are capable of taking down humans.

Oh, and if that cat was emancipated, It was likely because it was trying to eat a liberal bike rider, and threw up due to the inability of digesting such vile stuff. :D

 

[Doc Holliday]

Just use a laser pointer to distract it and lead it away, like in the Farmers Insurance commercial.

 

[Ugly Hombre]

Few years back a cougar got hit by a car- game warden layed it out on a concrete slab- close by my old job. We all went out to take a close look.

Damn those critters got long teeth!

 

[Rancher Will]

Mountain Lion attacks on humans are rare. There is not enough information in the current report, but I have a theory from my own observations.

There have been a few such Mountain Lion Attacks here in Colorado over the years. Two happened in my county during the 23 years when I was County Undersheriff. Another happened on a mountain trail just above Idaho Springs, Colorado. Another happened in Larimer County, Colorado. I have investigated these, personally on the scene for the first two and discussions with LEOs and Wildlife Officers about all of them.

All of the ones in Colorado, known to me have common characteristic. All of the victims were fatally attacked from behind, killed by a bite to the base of the skull/upper back of the neck. All were moving away from the lion, two jogging and two riding their bikes. It appeared that none of the victims were aware of the lion until attacked, and even then may not have realized what was happening.

Over the years, in my job on horseback working cattle and hunting, etc., plus observation of Lions near each of my two ranches, I notice that Lions normally watch anyone moving within their vision. Numerous times I have noticed Lions calmly watching me as I move through their location, usually spotted by my horse before I see the Lion. Rarely have I seen Lions on the move before I see them, usually laying down watching me before I spot them. When I see them and they realize I see them, they always get up, then usually slowly run away. Once, with my son on Douglas Pass, we stopped for a lunch for nearly a half hour. While we were eating and talking we happened to notice a Lion laying partly hidden watching us from about 150 feet away. Although the Lion must have been watchin us for some time, as soon as we saw it, both turned to look at it, the Lion got up and calmly trotted away.

Lions' normal prey are Deer. They ambush deer, by stalking or laying quiet in a location where Deer move close to them. When they attack a Deer the Deer runs at the attack and the Lion is either on the Deer, biting the back of its head and neck, or the Lion chases the Deer a short distance before either catching the deer or giving up the chase. I have watched two Lions catch and kill a Deer in my life.

Since it seems that humans killed by Mountain Lions are killed the same way a Lion kills a Deer it may be that the Lion happened to be near the trail where a person is jogging or riding a bike. The person does not notice the Lion laying close by. As the person jogs or rides past, the Lion my be inspired by instinct to chase what inspires its brain, looks like prey running away. The predator instinct in the Lion's brain my be triggered by the human victim without the victim even realizing what is happening.

In none of the cases that I know about did the lion attempt to eat any part of the human victim. I can't prove it but I doubt that the Lions in these cases actually started out to kill a human. I believe they may have been cases of a predator attacking what to a Lion's instinct seems to be an escaping prey, running away. In these cases, when the Lion discovered that the prey was a dead human, the Lions left without further reaction against the victims.

I also know that often other predators are apt to chase something running away. Even domestic dogs and wolves are known to chase people or animals that are running away although they do not chase people not running away.

It is my theory, and agreement to some extent with others involved in the investigations, that a Mountain Lion may kill a person from instinct if that person is moving away from the Lion without realizing what is happening..

 

[bogus bill]

I worked several seasons for the NPS, 1960 Yosemite and 1961 The Grand Tetons. We sometimes worked just by ourselves far off the road. I was a blister rust checker and at that time we weren't armed and didn't even carry a radio. I only got concerned one time. In Yosemite I was by myself and fighting my way through some of thickest manzanita brush I ever encountered. I came up on a fresh mountain lion killed big buck. That gave me pause.
My folks told me a story. Before I was born in 1939 or 40, they worked on a ranch on the Rouge River in Oregon. They were out doing something and I guess stopped in the woods. My mother was attending to my older sister a potty break and dad looked over and saw a Mountain lion stalking them. He didn't have a gun handy, just a large hunting knife. He was able to scare it off.

 

[blume357]

I was in the woods about 40 miles south of there three weeks ago....

 

[Jeepnik]

Unfortunately none of those suggestions include "Don't shoot it in the head as the brain is used to test for rabies".

It's not necessary to test the brain these days. There are blood tests that can do the same thing.

 

[SAJohn]

From what I read about this attack it was not quite the classic encounters that Rancher Will described.

When the bikers noticed that they were being stalked by the lion they faced him and did some yelling to drive him off. The lion continued to advance so one of the guys moved in on the lion and bashed him with the bike. The lion then ran off. As the two fellows were catching their breaths the lion returned and pounced on one of them with a grab to the back of the head followed by shaking. The second man should have gabbed something and started beating on the lion, instead he started running away. The lion dropped his first prey, took after the running man, killed him, and then dragging the body away to the lion's den.

The badly injured man was able to ride for several miles until he got a cell phone signal and called 911. It took the local LEO's only about 30 minutes to get there and track the lion to the kill which the lion was on top off. (I took that to mean eating the dead man.) One officer shot at the lion but missed and the lion escaped.

Trackers with dogs then arrived. The dogs found the lion, treed him, and then the trackers killed the lion.

Two important lessons to be learned are that even if you have driven off a cougar, do not let your guard down and always carry a firearm in mountain lion country.

As I recently mentioned, my next door lady (we are on five acre lots directly adjacent to BLM land) shot and killed a lion who was in a tree in her front yard directly above her 6 year old child. I always carry even in my front yard.

 

[Heliman]

Since the state of Washington, in their infinite wisdom, outlawed hound hunting for bear and cougar there have been many more sightings and encounters with bear and cougar. I myself have seen more bear and cougar in the last 5 years than the 50 years prior. Also, this is why I carry adequate bear/cougar firearm protection at all times when in the woods.

Dave

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

I'm thinking if they had had virtually any kind of gun, and the other guy hadn't taken off, his buddies chance of survival would have increased substantially.

 

[dougader]

Since the state of Washington, in their infinite wisdom, outlawed hound hunting for bear and cougar there have been many more sightings and encounters with bear and cougar. I myself have seen more bear and cougar in the last 5 years than the 50 years prior. Also, this is why I carry adequate bear/cougar firearm protection at all times when in the woods.

Dave

Oregon did the same thing, and now they have cougar watching elementary school kids from the top of trees and the playground fence.

Previously, the dogs and hunters kept the cougar and bear afraid of humans and out in the woods. All of this management was paid for by hunters. Now there are hardly any hunters and all the hunting dogs and their owners have moved to other states.

Now if there's a problem, the state has to pay a tracker to bring their dogs in from another state, costing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars. Or, as in the the school yard case cited above, the local police came and killed the cougar in front of the mortified school children.

 

[Jeepnik]

Can't even hunt them here. And you better have several sets of teeth marks if you do kill one.

 

[mistermills357]

 

[AJGUNNER]

If they could transplant a few into Portland proper, maybe they could thin the herd of bikers taking over the roads.

 

[kmoore]

There on many government hunters in Oregon I worked with 2 who were each assigned a county, I never asked how many hunt them in Oregon.
In training we had CA and AZ officers show and tell about 3 human killings, those 3 victims were all killed and eaten. The pictures were worse than many homicides I have seen. Bottom line is what Will posted, they attack from behind. You may never hear them approach as they do it quietly. If you think the teeth are big check out the front claws including the dew.

 

[caryc]

Hmmm...Mountain biker and mountain lion = dinner & diner.

 

[dougader]

Was on a family campout in an area not far from North Bend a few years ago. Before I drove up, I reviewed reports of the area and read of cougar sightings in the area and complaints of missing pets.

Sister went to town for a few things and left her son, my nephew, in my care. He was supposed to listen to me and wouldn't; insisted on going off on his own to look for his mother. I had to physically restrain the little stinker. He screamed so loud I got a headache and now have tinnitus in that ear.

Some adults don't listen to warnings about wildlife, either, and get eaten. I don't understand how anyone can just walk out into the woods and expect to come out unscathed. I blame Walt Disney for some of this, but part of the blame rests on the people who put cartoon, humanized animal characters above reality.

 

[roashooter]

the way bike riders abuse the traffic laws....stop signs do not apply to them....blocking traffic riding abreast.....with a bike lane next to them.....I wish we had some cougars attacking them.....rant over....