Getty Images©Jerry & Barb Jividen
Mountain lion attacks on humans are exceedingly rare—as the Mountain Lion Foundation notes, you’re more likely to drown in your bathtub than face off with one of the big cats, which tend to avoid people rather than confront them.
But that was not the case for a Colorado jogger on Monday, who was reportedly attacked from behind by a mountain lion and was forced to defend himself, killing the lion and managing to escape with his life.
According to the Colorado Parks & Wildlife department, the unnamed runner encountered the lion on the West Ridge Trail at the Horsetooth Mountain Open Space on Monday.
Per a CPW press release:
The victim of the attack described hearing something behind him on the trail and was attacked by a mountain lion as he turned around to investigate. The lion lunged at the runner, biting his face and wrist. He was able to fight and break free from the lion, killing the lion in self-defense. The runner sustained serious, but non-life threatening injuries as a result of the attack.
As wildlife officers searched the trail area provided by the runner, the body of a juvenile mountain lion was found within feet of several possessions that the victim asked the officers to look for on the trail. The lion has been taken to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife animal health lab for a necropsy.
CPW is currently investigating the incident, according to the department.
“The runner did everything he could to save his life,” Mark Leslie, CPW Northeast Region manager, said in the release. “In the event of a lion attack you need to do anything in your power to fight back just as this gentleman did.”
The CPW emphasized that such confrontations are rare, with just 16 mountain lion-related injuries to humans in the state since 1990 and fewer than 20 fatalities total in all of North America in the last 100 years.
Still, the CPW cautioned in its release against approaching mountain lions, particularly those that are feeding or are with their kittens. If one does encounter a mountain lion, the CPW recommends staying calm, trying to appear larger, and backing away slowly. In the event that a mountain lion behaves aggressively or attacks, the CPW recommends fighting back, as “lions have been driven away by prey that fights back.”
That’s what this solo jogger did when he encountered the 80 pound cat Monday, and it may have saved his life.
“Mountain lion attacks are not common in Colorado and it is unfortunate that the lion’s hunting instincts were triggered by the runner,” said Ty Petersburg, the area wildlife manager for CPW. “This could have had a very different outcome.”