Hunter incidents, attacks on animals, non-injury encounters, and accounts not confirmed to be cougar attacks have been moved to this separate Other Incidents Page. Many links expire on the internet, but hopefully they are presented here with enough information for researchers to find the data needed from the original sources.
Deaths are highlighted in red text.
2001 (3 Injury Reports, including Canadian skier's death, 4 Non-injury Reports, 1 Pet Report, 1 False Report)
02 January. Husky sleeping in her doghouse attacked in Banff, Alberta. See this pet report HERE
02 January. Woman walking dog rescued by neighbor in Banff, Alberta. See this non-injury report HERE
02 January. Frances Frost, a 30-year-old
cross-country skier was killed by a mountain lion in Banff National Park,
Alberta, Canada while skiing alone around 1 p.m. on Cascade Fire
Road, part of the Lake Minnewanka Loop. According to Park Chief Warden
Ian Syme, the cougar, which was more than two meters long, stalked Frost
by hiding behind a tree at some distance from the trail. As she passed by,
heading toward the trail head, the animal bounded up behind her, jumped on
her back, bit her neck, and killed her. "I suspect that she may not even
know what hit her." A healthy adult male cougar (8 years old) was later
shot by wardens where it was found standing over her body. Reports did not
say if Frances had been consumed but this may be inferred from her father's
statement, "They asked us later if we wanted to see the body, but when
we heard [the manner of her death] we said, 'No. We'll remember her
the way she was.'"
This is the first death by cougar in the history of the Park, and in Alberta. Park wardens think that elk, the main prey of wolves and cougars, have moved closer to Banff because hunting is not allowed in national parks, and the cougars and wolves have followed. Sources: (Calgary Herald; 01/03/2001; 01/04/2001) (Banff Crag & Canyon News; 01/03/2001) (February 5, 2001 Issue of Wildlife Encounters; A lesson unlearned; Candis McLean)
31 January. Two biology students were stalked by a cougar while hiking in Alum Rock Park, San Jose, California. See this non-injury report HERE
08 February. Seattle resident, Jon Nostdal, 52, was attacked at
about 9:30 p.m. by a cougar as he rode his bicycle from where he had
dinner in Port Alice, British Columbia, on northern Vancouver Island, back
to where his tugboat was moored near the town's pulp mill. Nostdal was less
than 2 miles (about 3 kilometers) from town when he heard clicking sounds.
He thought something was loose in his backpack, but when the clicking sound
gradually became louder, Nostdal sensed that something was approaching from
behind. Before he could turn around, the cougar jumped him and bit the
bunched-up hood of his captain's coat, knocking him to the ground. He
realized the noise had been the cat's paws on the pavement. Nostdal fought
the cat for what seemed like a few minutes before passerby Elliot Cole, 39,
saw the struggle on his way home from the mill. The cougar was behind
Nostdal, chewing on his neck, with its claws gripping his head and chest.
Cole stopped his truck, yelled at the cat, attacked it with a heavy bag,
and then began punching the cougar in the head. But the cougar would not
release Nostdal, so he used Nostdal's bicycle and was able to pin the cat
with it and free him. He told Nostdal to flee to his truck and
"smoked the cougar one more time" with his fist, bouncing the cat's head on
the pavement. Then he also ran to his truck and climbed inside. The cougar
refused to leave. Only when Cole pulled out to take Nostdal to the
hospital, did the cat run out from under the truck and disappear.
Nostdal was hospitalized at Port Alice Hospital, where he was treated for bites
on his head and several lacerations to his face. RCMP Constable Randy Freeborn
said wildlife officials believe the cougar was one injured several days
previously by a car. It may have been the same one that had confronted a
local resident recently and killed several pets. On February 23, a Port Alice
resident shot a cougar suspected of being the cat, which attacked Nostdal.
Sources: (The Globe and Mail;
Canadian Press; 02/09/2001)
(Vancouver Sun; Doug Ward; 02/10/2001)
(Canada NewsWire;
Campbell River Couple Survives Cougar Attack)
21 February. Couple attacked in their makeshift cabin near Rupert Arm, British Columbia. See this non-injury report HERE
05 April. Man reported attacked in his suburban Las Vegas, Nevada, backyard by an albino lion encountered previously by other residents. See this deliberately false report made by The Las Vegas Mercury which later admitted they mix satire with genuine news. HERE
06 May. Man startles cougar with his sneeze on a lone hike in Oklahoma. See this non-injury report HERE
04 August.
David Wood, 19, a resident near Cornwall, Ontario, went
outside around 1 a.m. in response to the barking of his brother's dog.
Noticing the top of a tail in the forest near the family's goat pen, he
approached it from the rear and came within one meter of it before it
suddenly spun and lunged at his head. He protected his face with his
right forearm, which was bitten, and he kicked the animal in the ribs.
The animal made another lunge before he scared it off. Though he didn't
get a good look at it that night, the next day around 7 p.m. he saw a
cougar crouching in roughly the same spot near the goat pen.
"Everybody's terrified," said Christine Wood, David's mother. "You used to see people going for walks in the evening. You don't see that anymore." She said her neighbors rarely see deer, the cougar's favorite food, anymore and she has heard "awful growling" in the forest behind her house.
Michael Sanders, a wildlife biologist in Montana, and Dr. E. Lee Fitzhugh, Wildlife Enhancement Specialist, Dept. of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at the University of CA at Davis, analyzed the position of the teeth from photos of the bite and determined that the bite matched that of a cougar. This is the first confirmed cougar attack in the East since 1751. Sources (Ontario bite; The Ottawa Citizen; August 15, 2001; by Matthew Sekeres); (Cougar warning issued in eastern Ontario: Teen attacked by wild cat in his backyard; The Toronto Star; 08/17/2001;)
2002 (4 Injury Reports, 1 Pet Report, 1 Pet Report + Non-injury Report)
23 June. 8-year-old Rita Hilsabeck of Reno, Nevada, was attacked Sunday
by an adult, 88 pound, male lion on Compton Island, south of Alert Bay about
24 kilometres east of Port Mccall, on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
She was on a kayaking trip with her parents and seven other people including
2 guides. As adults set up camp for the night at about 4.45 p.m., Rita and
11-year-old Charles Eisner went to the beach to collect seashells. A cougar
leapt from the bushes and began to drag Rita toward the woods, with
its jaws locked on her head and neck. Hearing her cries for help, her father
Chuck Hilsabeck charged the cat, yelling and shouting, and he was quickly
followed by the rest of the party. The lion dropped Rita and ran to the woods
and up a tree.
A doctor who was part of the group administered first aid until they could get
her to the hospital at Port Mccall. Expected to make a full recovery, Rita's
most serious wounds were deep gashes around her neck, where the cougar grabbed
her. She also required some stitches on her arm and lower back.
Nearby fishing resort owner, Paul Evans, traveled to the campsite and shot
and killed the still treed cougar. Dan Dwyer, a senior conservation officer
with the ministry of water, land, and air protection, said the girl was lucky
to survive the textbook cougar attack. The cougar was being tested for rabies
in Nanaimo but appeared of normal weight and
health. The cougar's stomach was empty, indicating the lion was hungry.
Sources:
(CH Victoria;
06/24/2002; BCTV News on Global;
Girl survives cougar attack on island)
(The Vancouver Sun;
06/25/2002; Jeremy Sandler;
Girl, 8, saved from cougar attack)
(The Province;
06/26/2002; News; A10; Keith Fraser;
Cougar that bit girl was 'hungry')
(The Official Journal of The Wildnerness Medical Society;
Cougar Attacks on Humans: A Case Report;
Wilderness and Environmental Medicine: Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 169?173; Denise McKee, MD)
01 August. 61-year-old David Parker was attacked by a
100 pound (45 Kg) adult, male cougar at about 7:30 p.m. on his nightly
stroll along a road near his home about two kilometres outside of Port Alice.
Because of a sudden downpour, he took shelter from the rain under a rock
ledge hanging over the remote gravel road. As he leaned against the rock
shelf outcropping, the cougar pounced down beside him, startling him. When
he went for his pocket knife, he left his neck exposed and the cougar lunged.
He had to throw his head in a way to protect his neck, *which is when it bit
his scalp and pulled it down over his eyes. In the struggle, Parker was
hurled into the ditch, where his jaw was shattered against a rock and his
cheekbone broken.
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As the cat clawed and bit into his neck, face, and head, Parker managed
to open his knife's three-inch blade, stab the cougar a few times, and
eventually slit it's throat, leaving the cat to bleed in the middle of
the gravel road.
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With darkness descending and no one nearby on the deserted gravel road, Parker, a retired millworker, managed to walk one kilometre to an industrial log sorting depot, where Jeff Reaume sped him to hospital in a company-owned logging ambulance. Reaume said whether by instinct, knowledge, or luck, Parker was able to slash the throat of the mauling cat -- the surest way to kill it. "He knew how to cut the cat. He knew what he was doing. If it was someone who didn't know how to cut it, we'd have found a body there -- or nothing at all, just blood." A friend of Parker's, Larry Pepper, mayor of the small forestry-dependent town near the north end of Vancouver Island, figures the cougar kept fighting for two or three minutes even after being slashed, but it finally died on the road. "Not that many people get attacked by a cougar and get away."
From the hospital in Port Alice, Parker was transferred to Port Hardy, then air-lifted to Victoria's Royal Jubilee Hospital, where he underwent reconstructive facial surgery the next day after which he was listed in stable but critical condition in the intensive-care unit.
A couple of months after the attack, Mr. Parker spoke to the conservation officer who reviewed the situation. The man said, based on an autopsy of the cat, that it was a healthy three-to-four-year-old with fat that suggested it was in good shape. It had eaten 10 to 12 hours before the attack. "I just wonder why it attacked me," said Parker. Port Alice residents have long been aware of the dangers of cougars and have been warned by officials to walk in groups or carry bats, knives, or pepper spray to protect themselves from aggressive cats. Thursday's attack was the fourth in about two years for the north Island and the second for Port Alice. Sources: (Vancouver Sun; Man kills cougar in fight to survive; Jim Beatty; August 03, 2002) (Vancouver Sun; From the jaws of death; Jim Beatty; August 08, 2002) (Vancouver Sun; Cougar attack a fight to the death; Jim Beatty; August 08, 2002) (Times Colonist (Victoria); Survival Instinct; Emily Bowers; August 08, 2002) (The National Post at Canada.com; The cougar had 'his fangs in me' - B.C. man slit cat's throat: David Parker still lives with the damage -- and the anger; Ian Bailey; October 21, 2002)
11 September. 31-year-old Gwyn Stacey, was attacked by a cougar as she jogged with her dog between 6 and 7 p.m. near Summit Lake, just west of Olympia, Washington. She ran into the cougar, which she estimated to weigh 80 or 90 pounds, at the top of the peak on her routine run. It was on top of a rock outcropping. It disappeared after a short time during which she yelled and waved her arms. After backing away for a short distance, she began running back out, and it stalked her along the way, eventually running ahead of her and waiting for her. She saw it in some bushes just before it attacked her, giving her a chance to dodge it, so that the lion only scratched her arm with a single claw and leaped over her and ran off. It made only one pass at her, and it showed no interest in her medium sized dog at any time during the stalking.
State Fish and Wildlife officials had been warning area residents to be careful regarding mountain lions in the area. A report was made only when the woman happened to mentioned the attack to a forest ranger the next day while picking up maps at a national forest headquarters. Wildlife officers used hounds to track the cougar. As of the following weekend, they had been unable to pick up a scent, but they planned to keep trying. Sources: (The Olympian; Olympia Washington; Cougar that hurt woman still on lam; Olympian staff; 09/15/2002) (E-mailed interview by author, Jerry Stoddard; 09/18/2002)
14 September. 4-Hers pet lamb killed in Healdsburg, California. See this pet attack HERE
18 September.
At dusk, world class kick boxer (over 100 victories) Karina Jackson, 35,
was attacked by a cougar at her home about seven miles east of Newkirk,
Oklahoma, near the Arkansas River. She had gone outside to check on a litter
of American Staffordshire
Terriers in a pen located about 75 feet from her house. Noticing a puppy
was out of the pen, she went into a neighboring hay field to retrieve him.
She heard something rustling in the tall weeds at the edge of the field.
Not seeing anything she continued toward the puppy. Suddenly she felt
something hit her in the upper part of her left arm and she was knocked
down. "It felt like I got kicked by a horse or a cow." Picking herself up,
she saw a large cat running away from her. Frightened and stunned,
she only realized she had been injurred after she quickly returned the puppy
to it's pen, ran to the house, and then noticed her arm felt wet.
Click the above photo to enlarge.
Jackson was treated on the scene by EMT's, then she received 29 stitches to close the 4 gashes at Christi Oklahoma Regional Medical Center at Ponca City. Kay County Investigating Officer, Deputy Michael Kent, met with Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (ODWC) Game Warden Tracy Daniel at the hospital where they observed Jackson's wounds and agreed they were from a medium size cat scratch.
Two weeks previously Jackson saw the same animal running across the road in front of her as she was driving home. "I had to lock it up to keep from hitting him," she said. Earlier that same day, she had noticed the large cat in a nearby field. Those sightings had prompted her to contact Daniel, who in turn contacted some trappers to try to catch the animal. About September 11, 2002, Jackson saw the cougar again in her yard, drinking from a water bucket by an old windmill. During that sighting, the cat ran a short distance, jumped a fence, and then stood and looked at her. She picked up a bunch of apples and threw them at him. September 13, 2002, Kay County Undersheriff Buddy Thomas said that Carl Clapp, of Cedar Vale, Kansas, was called to the scene with his hunting dogs. "We're not going to take any chances if there's an animal out there. If we see any sign of the cat, maybe we can do something about it." Thomas also said that the sheriff's office has received reports of big cats in the same Arkansas River valley east of Newkirk, but the reports have never been substantiated. Despite many previous reports, Thomas said the cougar encounter was an "unusual happening, not common around these parts." Others further speculated that because the cat seemed accustomed to humans, this could be a feral cat--one released or escaped from captivity, now wild.
Despite game warden Daniel's claim that their department hasn't been able to substantiate cougar presence in Oklahoma from numerous sightings, the presence of cougars in Oklahoma has been verified, with two cougar kills in recent years in Cimarron County. One cougar was hit by a vehicle three years ago, and another was shot by a landowner in his yard last spring. Sources: (Rural Newkirk Woman Victim Of Cougar Attack; The Newkirk Herald Journal; Wayne White; 09/26/2002) (K-State Research and Extension News; K-State to Record Kansas Puma Sightings; Kathleen Ward, Communications Specialist; 10/15/2002)
26 September. Man shoots mountain lion about to pounce fleeing wife and border collie. See this pet attack, human non-injury report HERE
2003 (2 Injury Reports, including the death of an Arkansas woman, 1 Non-injury Report)
03 May. Probably at about 5:00 p.m.
41-year-old Leigh Ann Cox was killed by a large cat near Leslie,
Arkansas, in the Chimes area of the Ozarks. Details of this incident
are still unresolved, since a willful coverup by officials
about her death appears to have occurred as noted independently by neighbors, medical workers, other citizens in the
area and across the nation, biologists, lawyers, journalists, and wildlife
authors. From everything I have read about Leigh Ann's wounds and injuries,
I am left with more questions than answers about what really happened, and I truly
wish officials had been more forthcoming. That they acted more adversarial than
with good investigative procedures can be used to caution other researchers (in what
some have called "environmentally correct" times) that they might expect similar
treatment from officials, as lesser coverups and dismissals of predator activities
seem to be quite common in most states and provinces. For this reason, and
because of the evidence I have heard and seen, details of how
Leigh Ann Cox died will be written on this confirmed attacks page for
you to make your own conclusion.
Click photo to read a touching biography of Leigh Ann.
Between about 4:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. neighbor George Morton and his wife, less than 1,500 yards (as the crow flies) from the Davison's rural residence where Leigh Ann was living, heard an agitated voice seeming to retreat from their hearing. They did not recognize this as a distressed sound, thinking it more like the sound a youngster playing tag would make. Upon later reflection, they realized these were probably Leigh Ann's cries as she ran from the cougar.
At 9:57 p.m. Morton, an EMT, responded to the call reporting the discovery of Leigh Ann's body by her brother-in-law and sister, the Davisons, who had just returned after visiting neighbors. He arrived on the scene at about 10:10 p.m., and the ambulance and other rescue people arrived about 10:30 p.m. When Morton got to the remote Davison residence, Ken Davison, an ex-police officer, had shot two of his five dogs, believing they were the only possible explanation for her death, as wildlife officials had insisted over and over to many individuals in the Chimes area, that despite numerous reports of sightings, no cougars were in Arkansas.
Morton, intensively trained for 6 months in jungle warfare by the military, including graphic education regarding tiger, water buffalo, and snake attacks, recognized what he believed were the signs of cat involvement within seconds of examining Leigh Ann's body. Leigh Ann's scalp had been ripped off, apparently from the front to the back, almost in one piece from her forehead to the nape of her neck. She had slash marks that Morton and expert dog witness Darren Huff both identified as typical of a large cat but impossible for a dog or dogs to make. From a cell phone conversation with Huff, I understood him to say her neck was broken but her throat not torn. From EMT experience, Morton also thought her neck was broken and her trachea probably crushed both from the angulation of the neck and from the fact that she bled very little, indicating a sudden death. Both Morton's observations and later forensic photos revealed almost no blood loss by Leigh Ann, mercifully indicating that she had died almost instantly--again, typical of a cougar attack while dog victims usually bleed to death, according to Huff. Morton's training and my research have shown breaking the neck to be a common big cat method, while attacking dogs tend to tear the throat. Morton convinced Davison to cease shooting his dogs and to examine them for blood or injuries. Davison did this and found neither blood nor injuries on his dogs (including the two he shot) or in their mouths, and he left the remaining two old black labs and a younger mix alone.
Though Morton pointed out the evidence, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) official, Jay Hagans, rationalized every point and continued to implicate the dogs. Later it was revealed that the majority of sheriff's deputies agreed with Morton. Still, the sheriff sided with Game and Fish to try to prove that the Davisons' dogs were responsible. Perhaps because of national attention that they were made aware of, the sheriff's office conducted enough investigation (teeth impressions from the three living dogs and forensic examinations of the two dead dogs) to clear the dogs. In addition to having to deal with officials ignoring evidence not pointing to a dog attack and even apparently "losing" crucial photos of probable cougar tracks, the newspaper in nearby Clinton, (The The Van Buren County Democrat), did not hesitate to run negative articles about the bereaved Davisons that reflected Game and Fish's biases, apparently without examining the data in the case independently. By contrast, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (This link may crash older browsers) in Little Rock reported much more objectively.
According to the Davisons, an employee within the State Medical Examiner's office said (let it slip?) on the phone (06/02/2003) that the final medical examination of Leigh Ann concluded that she died from "blunt force trauma." Though officials claimed unwaivering certainty about the cause of death from the outset, 10 months later the Davisons still got nothing written about the "official" cause of death, even though a coroner's report is required to be released to them by law. Concerned people in the area who heard about the failure of the Medical Examiner's office to release the required report to the family in a timely manner had more reason to doubt Arkansas officials and suspect a coverup. After this "finding" of blunt force trauma from the Medical Examiner's office was revealed to the family, the Van Buren County Democrat again ran an article 07/23/2003 harshly critical of all those questioning the dog attack theory. Still, apparently with no independent, inclusive investigation, the Democrat insisted the "official finding" remained that Leigh Ann "was killed by dogs." Everything else reporter Roger Smith broadly branded rumor, including the "blunt force trauma" stated by the Medical Examiner's office and the "broken neck" suspected by two trained individuals. Without questioning why Huff had been called multiple times to testify in other cases (probably at the prosecutor's behest?) Smith also reported that Deputy Prosecutor Stephen James said the expert dog witness Darren Huff was less than "expert."
From notes she has written throughout each day since the attack, apparently Game and Fish biologist Eddie Linebarger told Leigh Ann Cox's sister "Even if you prove that a big cat was present at the scene, at the time that your sister was killed, it is irrelevant. The report is going to say that it was a dog attack" Then he added, "Do you understand what I am saying?" When she persisted, he said, "It is much easier for us to deal with a domestic animal attack than a wild animal attack." And he again added, "Do you understand what I am saying?" Combined with earlier Game and Fish officials' denials such as "there are no cougars in Arkansas" and their failure to investigate the evidence, at this time, Linebarger's words left her with little to believe but that G&F was deliberately covering up the cat attack. She had first thought, as would any trusting citizen, that G&F was merely ignorant of lion signs and sightings in her area and of what the tracks around Leigh Ann's body were that she had photos of and that experts had assured her were cougar tracks. She was left to think that she had been naively trying to "educate" people who, instead, had an agenda.
Morton urged everyone to use care to preserve evidence at the scene, but most trampled heedlessly around as they gathered the body, scalp, etc. After the investigators and rescue people had left, another neighbor, Brent Muse (retired military intelligence and security officer) looked around the scene with a flashlight and found several very large cat tracks. These were found about eight feet from where the body had lain near the small brush pile Leigh Ann had made that day and where they had found her scalp with sticks and leaves raked over it.
Now about 3:00 a.m., again Morton was called over with his 35 mm camera. Using a spotlight and tape measure, they took photos of the tracks. Turned in to Sheriff Scott Bradley's office the next day, they mysteriously disappeared there. Either from photos of these prints or others found nearby and casted by the Davisons, the assistant curator at the Memphis Zoo identified these tracks as a cougar's. In the daylight the next day the Davisons noted signs the body had been dragged about 30 feet. Both dragging the body and caching parts under such as sticks and leaves are typical of cougar behavior, not dog behavior.
George Morton believed the sheriff would investigate the scene the next day in the daylight and examine the empirical evidence gathered, and that the medical examiner could be relied upon to examine the DNA as promised. None of this happened, so he now feels that the sheriff and Game and Fish have lost all credibility. In addition, after visiting the grieving Davisons two days after Leigh Ann's death (May 5), he personally saw a large cougar about 300 yards from where Leigh Ann was found. Locals report that lions often return about every other day to feed on a kill. He returned to the Davisons and they immediately reported this to officials. Nobody came out that day, and nobody returned their calls. When a resident Janet Orange about 4 miles away called to report sighting a lion the morning of July 10 outside her home, a Game and Fish official asked rhetorically, "What do you want me to do about it?" Within days, at midday, the mail lady saw a lion run across the highway. Again, no response from officials.
For the safety of everyone in the area, it is very regrettable that officials seemed to conduct such a sloppy investigation. One thing they certainly must have been aware of is truly astounding to anyone not living in Arkansas, something that complicates the issue further. A biologist who is an expert on cougars (contacted through the Davisons' efforts, not by any officials) felt some of the bite marks on Leigh Ann's body were too large to have been made by a cougar. Before concluding that dogs were the likely killers of Leigh Ann or even a bear or a human, one must consider the very alarming facts surrounding escaped African lions in the area. Just a little more than 7 months previous to Leigh Ann's death, at least 4 African lions were found to be on the loose in the area of Quitman, Arkansas, less than 45 miles from the Davisons. The news articles about this left great uncertainty that only the 4 lions that had to be shot were all that had been released or escaped late in September of 2002. In addition, the property from which they were suspected of escaping was said to be poorly fenced, so no assumptions can be made that other escapes have not occurred. The news articles indicated no charges had been filed against anyone regarding the escaped African lions, and no indication was given that officials had required more secure fencing at the "lion and tiger farm." This is but one more sign that lax, negligent, and/or biased procedures may be the rule, rather than the exception, in the area.
More official actions occurred that continue to raise doubts to those examining them. Soon after Leigh Ann's death in early May, concerned for their safety from a large cougar seen in the area, as well as for their neighbors' safety, the Davisons applied for a depredation permit which was denied. One has to wonder why they were denied when others report getting such fairly easily. As a further frustration, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission did not reply with their denial until September 17, 2003. Two months after Leigh Ann's death, with controversy swirling and national attention focused upon her case, the AGFC issued a Position Statement covering their former repeated denials of cougars in the area. Apparently, they reversed their position, now admitting that through known (to the AGFC!?!) releases of captive mountain lions, breeding populations of cougars might exist in Arkansas. Since cougars are known to be in adjoining Oklahoma, Texas, and Missouri, one wonders why the possibility of their migration from any of these states to Arkansas was overlooked/omitted. See a humorous take regarding the suspiciously timed Position Statement by Arkansas resident, Dave Foley, that addresses it's (purposely?) confusing/misleading wording but asks questions raised here in a light-hearted but direct manner. Of course, Foley never received an answer to his questions from anyone at AGFC. Why the silence? Was the timing of the Position Statement release coincidence or just another means of covering for AGFC's errors/complicity in Leigh Ann's death?
In August, 2003, I sent a letter listing concerns brought to my attention about the Leigh Ann Cox investigation with copies to Arkansas state and local officials, including involved and responsible AGFC officials; the governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general of Arkansas; the two senators and the representative for the state of Arkansas; Sheriff Scott Bradley; and the State Medical Examiners Office. I made it clear that I planned to detail these concerns online where they could be read nationally and internationally. I hoped to hear from recipients presenting their side, including AGFC's Eddie Linebarger and Corporal Jay Hagans, and the Van Buren County Sheriff, Scott Bradley. I got no responses from AGFC or Van Buren County officials. In fact, out of over 50 letters sent, I received only three responses--one from the governor's office, one from the office of Senator Blanche Lambert Lincoln, and one from Representative John Boozman. Each suggested I contact AGFC! The silence from AGFC and others directly involved was deafening. Arkansas officials' own statements, actions, and inactions, taken together, were what began people questioning their investigation of Leigh Ann Cox's death. The absence of any response from them to concerns about how they conducted their investigation can only produce more mistrust. The most extreme doubters wonder if wildlife officials actually introduced cougars to Arkansas while denying to vulnerable lay residents that any big cats roamed freely in the state. Officials fostering this kind of doubt is not healthy if there is any way they could respond reassuringly regarding their honesty and/or allegiance to public welfare. Their refusal to respond at all is justifiably disturbing.
Sources: (phone calls and/or e-mails from George Morton, Carl Felland, Jane Williams, Barbara & Ken Davison, and neighbors preferring to remain anonymous) (Renowned biologist E. Lee Fitzhugh, cougar expert) (The Online Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (This link may crash older browsers); Excerpts here: They say mountain lion to blame, want review of evidence; by Cathy Frye; 05/08/2003 and Researcher sees signs of cougars, Wildlife officials skeptical of theories about big cats? return by Rodney Bowers; 07/05/2003) (Scans of The Van Buren County Democrat's first two articles demonstrating bias and third article with unprofesionally harsh--judgmental--bias) (Memphis Zoo Assistant Curator, Houston Winbigler's statement regarding cougar tracks at the death scene ) (Expert dog attack witness Darren Huff's statement regarding forensic photos from the sheriff) (Associated Press; FOUR LIONS KILLED IN ARKANSAS--Ark. Town on Edge After Lions Killed; By Douglas Pils; September) (AP-NY-09-23-02 1712EDT KFOX 14 El Paso, TX; The Log Cabin Democrat of Conway, Arkansas; Lions put Quitman into turmoil--Four animals on loose shot to death ; Monday, September 23, 2002) (AGFC Mountain Lion Position Statement; Nancy S. Ledbetter, Director of Communications, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission; 07/18/2003) (Gilbert, Arkansas resident's comments regarding the AGFC Position Statement; Dave Foley; 08/06/2003 6:10 a.m.)
13 May. 30-year-old Chris Kerzman, an information analyst for
the city of Fort Worth, Texas, was attacked by a mountain lion around
8:30 a.m. on the Chisos Basin Loop Trailin Big Bend National Park about 100 miles south of Alpine, Texas.
He saw the back end of a mountain lion go across the path and was "really excited because most people never see one." But he stopped and waited a few minutes to let it move on before he started walking cautiously, more slowly, and more attuned to sounds. After a short distance, he saw the lion again, crouched in some bushes, watching him. (Click on above image to see full photo including minor leg wounds.)
She didn't make any aggressive moves, so he hoped if he didn't move too fast, he'd be OK. He felt safer after getting out of her sight, but just as his comfort level rose, so did his pulse, as the mountain lion was charging at him. Kerzman yelled and raised his arms to make himself look bigger which stopped the lion about 25 feet from him. She looked at him "kind of curiously" then moved back up the hill. Kerzman picked up a rock, weighing 3 or 4 pounds, and a large stick and decided to back-track the mile long trail to the ranger station. He next saw the lion lying under a mesquite tree, but she didn't look interested anymore. She proved to be, however, as she charged again and again, coming closer to Kerzman each time. She got so close that he could see her drawing up her lips, and he could even smell her.
Kerzman maintained as much eye contact as possible with the lion during his 20 minute ordeal, as this slowed her approaches. The stalking lion kept trying to get above him, and she would move a lot farther each time he would go around a switchback and lose sight of her, trying to get position on him. Finally, the lion struck Kerzman's right calf and knocked him down. As she moved in, Kerzman hit her in the head several times with the rock. Again she retreated, stopping a short distance away, licking Kerzman's blood on her lips. She followed him 50 yards, and then she disappeared.
With blood pooling in his sneaker, Kerzman walked back to the lodge. He told the rangers and a park biologist what happened. He was treated by a Park medic for his leg and hand wounds, given a tetanus shot, and released.
The rangers closed the hiking trails and campsites and used dogs to find the mountain lion. They came the same night and got him to identify the animal that they tracked and shot. It was an old and emaciated female, missing two canine teeth essential for successful hunting. When trails reopened new restrictions were in effect: No hiking alone and no children under 12 allowed. Some remote campsites remained closed until further notice.
Sources: (The Fort Worth Texas Star-Telegram; Hiker recalls mountain lion fray; Chris Vaughn; 05/16/2003) (Houston Chronical; Mountain lion at Big Bend Nation Park killed; Associated Press; 05/15/2003) (San Antonio Express-News; Park trails reopen after lion is killed; From staff and wire reports; (830) 905-7387; 05/16/2003) (National Park Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Ranger Activities Division; The Morning Report; Mark Spier, Chief Ranger; 05/15/2003)
12 November. Neighbor of Leigh Ann Cox (above) stalked by large cougar. See this non-injury report HERE
2004 (4 Injury Reports, including the death of an adult, male, California cyclist)
08 January.
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Approximately between noon and 2:00 p.m. 35-year-old Mark Jeffrey Reynolds, of adjoining Foothill Ranch, California, a 5' 9" 135 pound competitive mountain bike racer, was killed by a mountain lion while biking on a section of trail known as Cactus Ridge Run at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in southern Orange County. His bicycle was later found with the chain broken (off). Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, speculated that Reynolds was attacked as he was fixing his bike. | 
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For informed speculation regarding Mark Reynolds' attack, which was aided by an anonymous but resourceful man who contributed insights after examining the trail where Mark was killed, together with area news accounts, see my coauthor Tom Chester's report of this incident by clicking HERE.
When another cyclist, Nils Magnuson, first found Reynolds's bicycle, he was about to look for Reynolds but was interrupted by the women's outcries on the trail ahead. (Mountain bikers crash fairly frequently, so finding a crashed bicycle is not an unusual occurrence. It is customary to stop and render aid to crashees.) After the attack on Anne Hjelle (below), Reynolds' body was spotted by the rescue helicopter crew higher on the trail than where Hjelle was attacked. Reynolds had apparently been dead for a few hours, and his body had been half-eaten and partially buried, typical of a mountain lion kill.
Read what friends, co-workers, and employers said about well liked and respected Mark Reynolds HERE.
08 January. Anne Hjelle - BEFORE Click photo for AFTER views |
About 4:15 p.m. Anne Hjelle, 30, of Santa Ana, California, a former Tustin Marine who works as a fitness instructor, was jumped by the same mountain lion! Hjelle was attacked a short distance down the trail from Reynold's body, which was not visible to her, while she was riding her mountain bicycle. The lion quickly had the left side of Hjelle's face in its mouth, despite the presence of Anne's helmet. The animal kept moving its grip from Hjelle's face to her helmet and then her neck, said her riding companion, 47-year-old Deborah Nicholls. Nicholls credits the helmet for helping to save her friend's life, but Nicholls heroism in grabbing and holding onto her friend was certainly a crucial factor. |
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Hjelle reports, "My first words were 'Jesus, help me,'" As both women were dragged deeper into the brush, Hjelle began to think that the battle was almost over. Once he started clamping down, Hjelle remembered thinking, "This is it. I'm going to die." She says she didn't feel pain at the time. She felt just the strength of the cougar (by her description, equal to 10 men). When the cougar tore away at the flesh on her face and neck, ripping her left ear from her skull and folding the left side of her cheek over her broken nose, Anne recalls briefly thinking "I want to die."
Nicholls was about 30 feet behind Hjelle and witnessed the attack. She jumped from her bike, and threw it at the lion. Then becomming bloody and breathless, she literally wrestled it to save Hjelle, kicking its flanks and screaming at it. She chased after the cat as it dragged Hjelle into the ravine. She just kept screaming and finally caught up with it. She grabbed Anne's left leg, vowing, "I'm not going to let you die," as the lion dragged both of them 30 feet down the slope into the brush.
Further up the trail, Diego Lopez, 35, of Aliso Viejo, Dwayne Jenkins, Nils Magnuson, 33, of Long Beach, and Mike Castellano, 41, of Dana Point heard the cries. When he heard a scream from one of the two women riding ahead of him, Magnuson had already stopped to investigate Mark Reynolds' abandoned bike alongside the trail. When he reached the scene, he saw Hjelle's head in the mountain lion's mouth. "All I could see was her body," he said. "I couldn't see her head at all. It was a big one; I'm freaked." Mike Castellano commented, "I have never seen anything like this -- it was a tug of war between the mountain lion trying to drag her down the ravine by her face and another cyclist who had her by the legs." Running into the shrubs after the two women, the men began throwing softball-sized rocks and yelling at the lion. Lopez said, "I hit him square in the face, he let go and took off."
The men carried Hjelle out of the ditch and onto the trail as she murmured for someone to call her husband, James. "She kept saying, 'This is unbelievable,'" said Castellano. Another biker, Jeremy Collins, 32, of Huntington Beach finally got through on his cell phone to 911. Hjelle was airlifted to Mission Hospital. Her condition was upgraded from critical to serious as of early January 9th and then upgraded to fair as of the morning of January 11. A fund to help with her recovery costs was set up.
Later that night, Sheriff's deputies shot and killed a healthy (not rabid?) 2-year-old, 110-pound male lion, which was spotted 50 yards from the man's body. Also that night, a second 80 pound female mountain lion in the area was hit by a car and killed. Both lions were tested for general health and to see if either participated in the attacks. Results of these tests were that the lion at the scene attacked both humans within mere hours. Nieither the age nor health of the second lion was reported in any of the accounts that I saw. That two lions would be killed within hours of each others is another exceptional and unusual occurrence. All of these events have experts speculating.
Sources: (The Orange County Register; Cougar attack kills man / Bicyclists rescue woman mauled by the mountain lion. Authorities track and shoot the cat.; Bill Rams, Jum Radcliffe, Jim Finkle, and Tony Saavedra; Page 1 and Page 4; 01/09/2004) (Los Angeles Times CALIFORNIA Orange County Edition; Tests Link Slain Lion to Fatal O.C. Attack /Human tissue found in the stomach. A woman's rescue site is called 'a battle scene.'; David Reyes; Page B1 and Page B9; 01/11/2004) (SignOnSanDiego.com 01/09/2004, 10:30 pm) (L.A. Times 01/09/2004, A1) (CBS News / AP, 01/09/2004) (KNBC-TV News Report, 11 pm, 01/08/2004) (L.A. Times 01/09/2004) (NBC News, 01/08/2004) (The Houston Chronicle; Cougar victim recalls "unreal" attack By Greg Hardesty; Copyright 2004, The Orange County Register; Santa Ana, California; 05/04/2004, 8:37PM)
Credit: I thank Rick Richardson from the Carlinville, Illinois, area for first informing me of these two Orange County, California, attacks as well as for sending information about other incidents including his own.
26 June. 27-year-old Shannon Parker of Santa Monica,
California, was attacked by a 2-year-old male cougar at about
6:15 p.m. near the Tulare County mountain community of Johnsondale,
California, about 15 to 20 miles north of Kernville. Shannon lost
her right eye and suffered injuries to her other eye and deep
lacerations to her right thigh.
Shannon was hiking with her boyfriend, 28-year-old Mathias Maciejewski of Los Angeles, and two other friends, Jason Quirino, 30, and Ben Aaron Marsh, 15, both of Los Angeles, on a trail near the Johnsondale Bridge, which crosses the north fork of the Kern River. The trail follows a steep, rocky area up the west side of the river. Shannon left the group to walk back toward the parking area. She was attacked at a narrow area in the trail by a perilous 100 foot precipice.
When she began to scream, the others rushed to her assistance. "They heard her scream, 'Get it off me. Get it off me,'" said Brian Naslund, acting lieutenant for Kern County with the DFG. Maciejewski used a knife to stab the mountain lion twice in the shoulder, but it had little effect, Naslund said. Quirino or Marsh went to get help while Maciejewski and the remaining hiker threw rocks at the animal. "They hit it in the head a couple of times with the rocks, it let her go," Naslund said.
The hiker who went to get help found a person in the parking area who rushed toward Johnsondale, flagging down a Forest Service ranger, said Margie Clack, a spokeswoman for Sequoia National Forest. She said Parker was fortunate help came so fast: "There's no cell phone service in that area. Sometimes we can't even get through on the Forest Service radios." There are cabins in Johnsondale used as weekend homes, but there are almost no permanent residents, stores or businesses in the area. "It's surrounded by national forest land," Clack said.
Parker was taken by ambulance that Saturday night to an airport near Lake Isabella in northeastern Kern County, where a helicopter was waiting to fly her to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield. Doctors there stabilized her condition before sending her on to UCLA Medical Center. By the following Tuesday her condition was stable after treatment and reconstructive surgery.
The mountain lion left a trail of blood from the stabbings that had failed to discourage the attack on Shannon. From the bloody trail, Fish and Game officials and U.S. Forest Service rangers tracked the mountain lion and found him in the area several hours after the attack. "It appeared that it was still dazed from being hit in the head with rocks," Naslund said. The authorities shot and killed the lion because it was deemed a threat to public safety. The cougar's body was taken to a DFG lab near Sacramento where it tested negative for rabies but was found to weigh only 58 pounds, severely underweight for a 2-year-old which should normally weigh about 80 to 100 pounds.
Apparently not believing that humans may simply be fair game for hungry cougars, Martarano said it's unclear what prompted the mountain lion to attack. He noted that the area where the attack happened was devastated in July 2002 by the McNally wildfire, which burned more than 150,000 acres in the Sequoia and Inyo national forests and the Giant Sequoia National Monument. Although the fire greatly reduced the amount of vegetation in the steep, rocky terrain near the river where the attack took place, new growth has sprouted and attracted deer and other animals back to the burned areas, said spokeswoman Clack.
Sources: (The Fresno Bee; Tim Bragg; Hiker loses eye to big cat in Sierra Mountain lion is later killed in Tulare County; 06/28/2004) (SignOnSanDiego.com, the San Diego Union-Tribune; *Mountain lion that attacked hiker was undernourished; By Greg Risling, Associated Press; 06/28/2004)
14 August. In the broad morning daylight, 5-year-old Chance Stepanick of Vermilion, Alberta, was jumped by a cougar just a few kilometers east of Jasper National Park near Hinton, Alberta, but no alert was issued until 3 days later, causing criticism. Also causing controversy, the Park was not closed because the attack was just outside Park boundaries!
Provincial wildlife officer Chris Watson says his office was not called until some 90 minutes after the attack, hampering efforts to track the cougar. Watson admitted, though, that the cougar was headed westerly toward Jasper National Park's gate when tracked initially by two hounds. The dogs lost the scent, and two more dogs were brought in later in the evening. Their failure to pick up the scent made Watson and others confident the cougar had fled. As a result, no public alert was issued, and the area stayed open. Still Wes Bradford, Parks Canada wildlife conflict specialist, states, "If the attack had occurred a few kilometres west, inside the park boundary, a public alert would have been immediately issued and the area closed. We'd certainly close that area to the public immediately. Then there'd be bulletins going out to our communications group saying there's this cat in the area. Had it happened in the park, a release would likely have gone out within four hours." In their defense, immediately following the attack, officials started going door to door, advising neighbouring residents, lodges, and campers in the areas closest to the incident. Notices were also aired on a local radio station. Watson said he was satisfied that safety concerns had been met.
The Stepanicks and a group of friends had just pulled into a
campsite Saturday morning a few kilometres east of the Jasper National
Park boundary for a weekend of wilderness adventure on the area's
designated ATV trails. As the adults set up camp and prepared to head out,
the three boys circled the site impatiently, the younger boys on pedal bikes
and 8-year-old Bryce, on a motorized dirt bike. Suddenly, the younger boys came
pedalling back furiously to the adults, saying
they'd seen a tiger chasing Bryce. At first the father of Bryce and Chance, Rod
Stepanick, thought they were joking. But he said that it was probably only 10
seconds after that when the cougar came into the campsite and jumped on Chance.
Mr. Stepanick heard Chance scream and just turned his head in time to see the
silent, slinking cat make its leap. He and his friend Aaron Shaw didn't hesitate
to use the only weapons they had -- the boots on their feet.
"It took about eight times before it backed off. I remember kicking him about four times," Aaron says, "About four or five. Then it was up against the trailer, and we gave it a few more. Then it took off." The men were yelling, but the cat remained silent. "It never made a sound," said Mr. Stepanick.
As the cougar slunk back into the bush, Mr. Stepanick realized his third son had taken off on his motorbike. With no idea where the boy was, the men grabbed axes and followed the cougar into the bush, only breaking off when they were relieved to see the boy riding back up a road.
Aaron Shaw then went to notify Alberta Fish and Wildlife officials while Mr. Stepanick took Chance to the hospital, where he was treated for scratches and a couple bite marks on his back that didn't require stitches. The cougar was said to be approximately the size of a German Shepherd. Perhaps because this was a young, inexperienced cougar, but certainly because the two fathers were willing and able to come to the child's rescue immediately, the boy received only minor wounds. At the time of this report (8/19/2004) the cougar had not been found to test it for rabies and other factors. Because of this, I assume the boy will have to undergo rabies shots.
Watson estimated that there are three to four cougar sightings in the Hinton area each year. Four years ago (2000) a cougar attacked a Hinton resident's dogs as he was walking them on a golf course. In March of 1962 a six-year-old boy was attacked in a residential area in Hinton. The boy survived his injuries, while the cougar was eventually killed. So far this year, there have been 30 reported sightings in Alberta. A cougar was sighted in Banff on Saturday. In March of this year (2004) 8-year-old Maggie Heilig, who lives in Bragg Creek, west of Calgary, was stalked by a cougar as she played in her back yard.
Sources: (The Globe and Mail; Cougar's attack on five-year-old foiled; Canadian Press; 08/17/2004) (The Edmonton Journal with files from the Calgary Herald and The Canadian Press; Boy, 5, survives cougar attack - Alberta youngster lucky to be alive, wildlife official says; Dana Borcea; 08/18/2004) (The Calgary Sun; Cat-quick on her feet - Bragg Creek family relives cougar scare; By Nadia Moharib; 08/19/2004)
2005 (5 Injury Reports, 6 Non-injury Reports)
April. Oklahoma man has probable second cougar encounter alone at night. See this non-injury report HERE
09 April. Peter Bysterveld, a 23-year-old, 210 pound, 6' 3" tall student at
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) in Calgary, was attacked at about 4:30 p.m. MDT
by one cougar of a pair he and his friend Sarah McKay encountered while on the last leg of a
long hike. It was about 12-15 degrees C (54-59 degrees F) and sunny.
Sarah and Peter had been carrying on a conversation but perhaps not loudly enough for the cougars
to hear them before they approached where the 2 cougars were sitting among trees some 7 meters
(about 22-25 feet) ahead on Windy Point Trail in the Sheep River Wildlife
Sanctuary in Kananaskis Country (20 km west of Turner Valley which, in turn,
is about 30 km southwest of Calgary).
Once I noticed the cougars off to the side of the trail I began to yell and make some noise. [One of them] then proceeded to run at me. I looked for a rock or stick to defend myself but there was none to be found. So then I proceeded to run down the trail [to] get the cougar away from Sarah.As Sarah watched in horror from behind a tree, Bysterveld ran down the hill and lost his footing in a muddy patch at the bottom of the hill.
After I had fallen on my chest, the cougar pounced on the back of my left leg. I had covered up my neck because I thought it would have gone for it instead of my leg. I wrestled with it for awhile, approximately 1 - 2 minutes. When I felt it start to bite into my left calf, I somehow managed to get it off before it sunk its teeth in too far. The cat then looked a little stunned that it had been knocked off.Reunited with Sarah, the injured Bysterveld, covered in scratches on his arms and the bite to his leg, walked the last 5km back to the car and drove to the ranger station where he called in the attack. Then he drove to the hospital to get checked out. Treatment included a tetanus booster and subsequent rabies shots, as the cougars were not found.
At this time I got onto my back, with the cougar on it's side, and took the opportunity to grab its back 2 hind legs and then its front legs and toss it like a hay bale for about 15-20 feet. I then proceeded to pick up a stick I found and started yelling at the cougar again and waving the stick to make myself look big. The cougar looked at me with what I thought was a surprised look on its face and took a couple of steps towards me. I kept swinging the stick and yelling, and it then backed off and disappeared down in the gully on the side of the trail.
I am not 100% sure how I got a hold of all the cougar's legs. I do have some big hands, and I did grab up a little ways on the leg so it was not right on the paw. I am sure that my hand was not interlocked around the other side. It was just basically enough to get a decent hold that it could not squirm out of and which I could use to toss it away from me quickly. That's about all I really remember because it happened so fast that it just seemed like the best thing to do at the time. I didn't have much time to be scared. I was just trying to survive. I didn't want to be taken down by a cat. I think being bigger helped, and I think he was shocked that I picked him up and threw him.
I then proceeded to walk backwards down the trail for awhile until I was convinced that the cougar was not stalking me. I then ran to catch up to Sarah.
I am still not sure why the cougar attacked, the only reasons I can come up with are that it might have been startled as we came up on it along the path. It could have smelt the lunch meat I had in my backpack, but it was in a sealed plastic bag in the backpack. The last reason I can think of is it might have been really hungry because it had not been able to kill anything lately but, I am not to sure on that one. But I am very sure the cougars were not stalking us at all.
Bysterveld estimated the cougar weighed about 70 pounds, about the size of a small golden retriever. The other cougar was not seen again but seemed about the same weight and age. Wildlife officers closed the area where the attack occurred to track the animals, but as of 04/12/2005 Bysterveld believed the search had been called off.
Sources: (Phone interview with Peter Bysterveld, 04/11/2005 and 2 emails, 04/12/2005 / 4/13/2005) (The Edmunton Sun; Student fights off cougar attack; Nadia Moharib, Sun Media; 04/11/2005) (CBC Edmunton; Hiker fends off cougar; 04/11/2005)
23 June. New York couple have a close encounter with a cougar in Utah. See this non-injury report HERE
24 June.
A 54-year-old female tourist from Berlin, Germany, was attacked by a cougar at the
Spruce Bay campground on Victoria Lake near Port Alice on Victoria Island, BC, Canada,
on Friday afternoon (about 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
according to Nanaimo area Conservation officer Gerry Brunham). The female tourist
attacked had been sitting at a bench in front of her RV, drinking coffee, and her
friends were inside the vehicle. The friends saw the cougar from inside the camper.
They began to shout a warning to her. As she stood up, the cougar came up slowly from
behind and jumped on her back. She fell down and the cougar grabbed her head with its
claws but did not bite her. Her husband, who was close by, hit the cougar with a stick
until it left his wife and hid under the trailer. Because of her husband's quick
action to defend her, she escaped with
minor injuries. She was treated at the Port Alice hospital and released the same
afternoon. Dr. Keith Symon of the Port Alice Health Center said she had a few stitches
to her finger, ear, and eye. This was the third time he has treated victims of a cougar
attack in the Port Alice area. Unfortunately for researchers, Local RCMP would not
release the names of any of the four tourists involved in the incident, including the
victim's.
Local eyewitnesses Ted Harris and Bill Williamson described the cougar as a probable female, approximately three years old, 80 to 100 pounds, with a tawny coat and fluffy tail. These two commercial fisherman had been out on the water and had just checked Harris's cabin in the area. When they landed at the beach at Spruce Bay, Harris reported that they initially thought they were being greeted by the friendly campers. The victim's husband was yelling "lion, lion." When the fishermen didn't immediately understand, he began pointing to his RV calling out "puma." They then understood that he meant a cougar. In limited English he told the men his wife had just been attacked and was now in the RV. What they didn't immediately realize was that the cougar was still under the RV while they talked. When Williamson walked behind the RV towards the dock to view the underside of the vehicle, he saw that the cougar was still there under the back axle. He called out to Harris who started to pelt the cat with rocks. They threw five or six rocks. At first it didn't move, then it took off into the bush.
As an explanation for the attack, Officer Gerry Brunham said that they currently had low prey populations, with deer populations at their all time low, so it was a struggle for predators to find prey. From it's track size, Brunham surmised the attacking cougar was a juvenile cougar rather than about 3-years-old as reported by eyewitnesses Harris and Williamson. Revealing a probable lack of objectivity, he went on to sympathize with such a juvenile in search of food. Possibly because none of the German tourists spoke English fluently, more discrepancies in the report from Brunham's were apparent. He said the victim had just read pamphlets on what to do if encountering a cougar, but says she didn't have time to react with any aggression, since the cougar attacked her so swiftly after she first spotted it about 30 meters away as it started to walk toward her. Brunham said she did try backing away slowly, but it swiftly jumped on her, sinking it's claws into her head and shoulders and slamming her to the ground. Conservation Officer Greg Kruger was called out with the cougar hounds and searched for the cougar Friday night. Brunham searched the next day. Since the cougar was not found, it is probable that the victim had to undergo rabies treatments. Signs were posted in the area warning other tourists.
Sources: (CBC News; Cougar attack triggers warning plus a recorded interview of Gerry Brunham by Susan Elrington; updated 07/05/2005) (The North Island Gazette; Cougar attacks tourist; Laura Goatham; With files from Christine vanReeuwyk? and Digital photos by Richard Hovde of Port Alice?; 06/30/2005)
22 July. Colorado Ranger menaced by 4 cougars. See this non-injury report HERE
27 July. Four days after the attack, described as alert
but uncomfortable, four-year-old Hayley Bazille from Coquitlam,
B.C., continued recovering in the hospital from serious head injuries
suffered when a cougar pounced on her out of the trees in the middle
of a sunny afternoon with lots of people around. She was with her
family for an outing near the coastal village of Zeballos about 300
kilometres northwest of Victoria, B.C., Canada. The pre-schooler was
perhaps running alone after her older sister, Carlyn,
who had jumped out of the car first and headed down the short trail
(approximately a minute's walk) to the river far ahead of her sister.
Or perhaps Hayley was walking with her younger sister, as most
accounts said she was with her sister. Hayley had jumped out of the
car after Carlyn, but her father grabbed her because he was afraid
the "stubborn, independent, and free-spirited" girl would not wait for
her parents to bring her life jacket before jumping into the water.
The father, mother, and 3 sisters had planned 4 days of camping and swimming in a remote stretch along the Kaouk River. At about 2:00 p.m., with the girls ahead of her, their mother followed. People at the river began shouting about a cougar, and then Ms. Bazille heard Hayley crying. Rushing down toward the cries, Bazille passed two girls coming up, their eyes wide. She rounded a bend and caught sight of her daughter about 10 metres away, lying between some rocks. She didn't see the cougar at first because it blended so well into the rocks. When she focused better, Monique Bazille was horrified to see a cougar over Hayley, her little girl's blood on its muzzle. The cat was clawing at her face and neck, preparing to crush her head. Hayley was fighting it, saying, "Get off me, Get off me." The 40-year-old, 115-pound Ms. Bazille flew at the cat and clubbed the animal with a drink cooler she was carrying. "I grazed it on its shoulder, and it wasn't fazed. It kept its ground, and it snarled and growled at me," she said. Ms. Bazille also stood her ground "I was angry, and I said 'you get off of her.'" She was screaming the whole time. When she launched a kick at the cougar, it shied away and took off into the bush. Ms. Bazille said the attack lasted between 30 seconds and a minute.
Her daughter was covered in blood, her scalp torn open right to the skull. Not only had the cougar flayed her scalp, but it had raked her skull with it's teeth. An emergency room nurse at Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver, Ms. Bazille knew immediately what to look for. Though basically Hayley's scalp was gone, thankfully her neck wasn't touched. She was bleeding badly and in shock. The mother expertly wrapped her daughter's mutilated scalp, and the parents drove to a nearby marina where a helicopter ferried mother and daughter, first to a hospital in Campbell River, then to Vancouver.
"Without a doubt, her actions saved her daughter's life," conservation officer Peter Pauwels said the following day. The mother credited the girl's padded life-jacket, which her father Troy had insisted she put on at their vehicle, with initially saving her life. It was heavily scratched and had bite marks on it. In addition to her torso, doctors said the jacket protected Hayley's neck and lower scalp.
Pauwels guessed the cougar might be younger, because it was described as being smaller than a normal adult. "It was probably waiting by the trail for something to come along," said Pauwels. Though approximately one attack resulting in injury occurs per year in the area and deer populations were well known to be "at their all time low" (see report above) Pauwels continued to believe, "It's not normal behavior for cougars. They shouldn't be doing that. There could be something wrong with this animal." Though Paul Beier's table of cougar accounts and my further listings show most attacks on humans occur in daylight hours, Pauwels appeared baffled by the timing of the attack saying, "It is highly unusual. Cougars normally hunt between dusk and dawn, so this incident is very strange."
Conservation officers say it is difficult to track cougar figures in the area because there are so many that sightings go unreported by local residents very used to seeing the animals. Zeballos resident Cheryl Brooks said she doesn't hike alone and is wary of the animals, especially at night. "The danger is in the back of everyone's mind." Officers with dogs were sent to track the big cat, but the search crews attempting to track the animal said they were unable to find it in the rough terrain. Perhaps revealing the searchers' lack of motivation to hunt for the cougar scrupulously, Pauwels said it is unlikely the cat poses a special threat to humans because its attack was unsuccessful. "We may never see this cat again," he said.
When Hayley arrived at B.C. Children's Hospital in Vancouver, she underwent surgery the same night for scalp and neck injuries. Her plastic surgeon described putting the girl's scalp back together like a puzzle. Dr. Cindy Verchere said the girl had hundreds of connected lacerations on her scalp, but it looked as if she would have minimal visible scarring there once surgery healed if they could get most of the tissue to survive and heal well as the scars on her scalp would be covered by hair eventually. Verchere said Hayley had a long recovery ahead of her, but, save for one scratch to her forehead, her face was mostly unscathed in the attack. Hayley also suffered puncture wounds on her legs and remained hospitalized in stable condition as of 07/31/2005. Her mother issued a statement from the hospital warning other parents to keep young children close by their side in remote or rural areas, even if there are other people around. As soon as Hayley ran ahead of her parents that day, some older children emerged from the trail whom she overheard saying they had seen a cougar. Ms. Bazille said she didn't believe them.
Sources: (Yahoo! Canada News; Reuters; Cougar attacks girl on Canadian Pacific Coast; 07/28/2005) (Yahoo! Canada News; Canadian Press; 4-year-old girl in serious condition after Vancouver Island cougar attack; 07/28/2005) (Canadian Press - Nanaimo; Child 'doing well' after cougar attack; 07/28/2005) (Canada.com - Vancouver; Times Colonist; Cougar attack considered highly unusual - Daytime mauling seen as a sign food is scarce; Chris Mason; 07/29/2005) (Yahoo! Canada News; Mother describes the horror of seeing a cougar attack four-year-old daughter; Terri Theodore; 07/29/2005) (The Globe and Mail; Cougar no match for cooler of silver bullets; Jane Armstrong; 07/30/2005) (Victoria Times Colonist; Mom watched daughter try to fend off cat; Doris Sun; CanWest News Service with files from Canadian Press; 07/30/2005) (Canada.com - Vancouver; 'Bad kitty bit me': Tot - COUGAR MAULING: Four-year-old recovering and in stable condition; Ethan Baron, The Province; 07/31/2005)
02 August. Hunter and his brother stalked 2 hours near Merced, CA. See this non-injury report HERE
08 August. At 8:45 p.m. 50-year-old Annette Hayes, a
nurse and nursing instructor at Pueblo Community College, was
bitten and scratched by a cougar as she sat on her deck with her
husband and dog at her home near Florida Mesa in the Durango
area in Southwest Colorado. The Hayeses moved to La Plata County
from Pennsylvania only about a year ago. Hayes and husband,
59-year-old David, were in identical high-back wicker chairs on
their hillside deck that overlooks the Animas River. They were
both looking west, watching the light fade over the hills across
the river. Jesse, their 13-year-old shepherd/husky mix who is deaf
and losing her sight, was at rest between them. Without warning,
Hayes felt weight on her shoulders and pain. "I jumped up and
screamed, 'Something got me' and I ran into the house," Hayes
said. "I could feel blood."
David Hayes, director of teacher education at Fort Lewis College, caught a glimpse of something behind his wife, heard a thud and saw the blood as Annette dashed by him. She went inside to stop the bleeding, and David Hayes reported, "I didn't see anything on the deck, so I looked over the edge and saw a mountain lion sauntering down the steep embankment. I'd never seen a mountain lion, except in photos, but this definitely was a mountain lion."
David Hayes said the entire incident lasted 30 to 40 seconds. The couple then drove to Mercy Medical Center. Annette Hayes suffered a puncture wound on her right cheek, a tear in her right ear and two puncture wounds on her upper shoulder on the left side. Hayes took antibiotics after the attack and began rabies treatment - an injection of immune globulin and four vaccine injections within 30 days--because the lion was not found. After two rabies shots, she had to stop the regimen because she developed an adverse reaction to them. "I'm thinking positive because the incidence of rabies is low in the state," Hayes said. "I'm hopeful that I have enough antibodies to fight off the virus."
Alerted by the hospital, Division of Wildlife rangers took two packs of hounds to look for the mountain lion that night, said Patt Dorsey, the agency's regional manager in Durango. The area is hot, dry and rocky, not the best place to pick up a scent. "We were there until 3 a.m.," Dorsey said. "We never found a thing." District wildlife ranger Melody Miller visited the area the next day and also could find no tracks or other signs of the mountain lion.
"The incident is very unusual," Dorsey said. "If this cat had meant to do harm, it could have and would have." Dorsey theorized the mountain lion at the Hayes house could have had its eye on Jesse or mistaken the movement of Annette Hayes' hair above the chair back for a rabbit.
To avoid further incidents, the Hayeses have made sure that the motion sensor lights around the house are working, and cut the grass short so there is no place for a mountain lion to lurk. Hayes said she also is more careful while taking her dogs for walks. She keeps Lucy, a 14-week-old boxer puppy, on a leash whenever she goes out. "The wounds inside are still healing," Hayes said. "I'm nervous because I still have to walk the dog at night and let the puppy out at 6 a.m. when it's dark." But she said she's not letting fear get to her. "It took a while before I could go outside on the deck or go into the yard, but it was a freak thing that happened. I don't let it hem me in and not go on with life."
Sources: (The Durango Herald Online; Local woman encounters a mountain lion - close up; By Dale Rodebaugh, Herald Staff Writer; 08/21/2005) (The Daily Sentinel - Grand Junction, CO; Survivor of cougar attack appreciates life more now; Tillie Fong, The Rocky Mountain News; 08/24/2005)
31 August. Lisa Nicholson of Port Hardy suffered a
minor puncture wound to her left leg at approximately 7:05 p.m.
when a cougar attacked her and her small "pug" dog in her front
yard on Beaver Harbour Road, Port Hardy, BC. Nicholson was
walking Mylo on his leash when she felt something at her left
leg. She turned to see what it was and found herself face to
face with a cougar. The young cougar had taken only one swat,
scratching both the woman and her dog, apparently with Mylo
being it's main target. Mylo's blog reporting
The Story of What Happened
states that Mylo is about 13" tall at the top of his
shoulders and weighs 20 pounds. Lisa Nicholson is 5' 4" and
weighs 120 pounds. The cougar was a malnourished, female
yearling and weighed around 50 pounds.
With the cougar now standing between she and her home, Nicholson tried to sort out her options. She remembered advice to try to look big, not to run, and not to turn her back on the cougar. She made noise by calling for her father inside the house, but he couldn't hear her. She considered trying to get into a vehicle, but thought they might be locked. A basement entry into the house also might be locked. Therefore, the pair moved slowly back from the cougar that had her head lowered and was clearly eyeing Mylo. They took a backward stepping path toward the boat shed at the end of the driveway close to the house. After descending a couple of steps to the driveway, and keeping eye contact with the cougar the whole time, they reached the open wall of the boat shed and began moving back toward the house along it. When the cougar began to follow them down into the shed, they broke the no running "rule" and dashed the short distance from an opening back to the front stairs, up them, and into the house without further incident.
It seemed to Lisa that going up towards her house was a bit daunting for the cougar which might be why she didn't give chase. Experts say running triggers the chase instinct, but it is important to remember that each situation is different, and one must use one's own wits and evaluations. The cougar then ran under a table in the boat shed and laid down. Lisa felt the cougar did this waiting for them to reappear.
Port Hardy RCMP and Port Hardy Conservation Officers attended the scene, and the Conservation Officer shot the waiting cougar, wounding it in the right shoulder. The cougar then ran from the boat shed into the thick brush (350' wide greenbelt) in the back of the house facing onto Storey?s Beach. The Conservation Officer called a hunter with a tracking dog, and they started searching for the cougar until after 11:00 p.m., but it was raining, and the dog lost the cougar's scent. It was thought the dog was thrown off the scent not only by the rain but by two domestic cat carcasses the cougar had in her den behind Nicholson's house. They continued their search in the morning, and at about 10:30 a.m. they found the fatally injured cougar under a log in the back woods, and they put her down.
Neighbours in the area stated they had seen the cougar days earlier, and a few residents were noticing small pets such as cats were going missing. Nicholson had heard about this, and that is why she was limiting Mylo's dog walks to their front yard. She never imagined she would run into it in her own front yard! After the attack, Nicholson realized the racket the crows had been making was probably due to the cougar's presence.
Nicholson received a tetanus shot at the Port Hardy Hospital the evening of the attack and was given antibiotics for about a week. Mylo was treated at the veterinarian's for 4 minor scratches, one of which barely missed his eye.
Sources: (Castanet.net--Homepage for Kelowna, BC, Canada; Cougar Attacks Woman & Dog; Posted: September 01, 2005; 7:55 am; Story# 11884; Contributed) (The North Island Gazette; Cougar call ignored; Teresa Bird, Gazette staff; 09/08/2005) (emails from Lisa Nicholson; 09/09/2005 and 09/10/2005) (Mylo's Blog; Read The Story of What Happened (Crime Scene Investigation) and view interesting photos that illustrate the escape route; Milo the Brave; 09/07/2005)
16 September. PA man hunting deer in CO, while mountain lion hunting him. See this non-injury report HERE
21 October. Idaho hunter charged. Cougar shot. See this non-injury report HERE
2006 (4 Injury Reports, 3 Non-injury Reports)
27 January. Texas camper surprises cougar which returns to stalk him. See this non injury report HERE
15 April. 7-year-old Shir Feldman of Rockville, Maryland, was attacked by a 1- to 2-year-old, 80 pound, female cougar on the Flagstaff Mountain Trail west of Boulder, Colorado at about 6:00 pm. The group, including Shir's mother, father, twin brother and older brother had been hiking in the Artist Point area near the top of Flagstaff Mountain and were returning to the parking lot 50 yards from where the boy was attacked. The child was with this group of seven adults and was walking hand in hand with his father when the cat grabbed the boy.
"The dad was actually holding hands with his son at the time of the attack, walking along the trail," said Tyler Baskfield with the Division of Wildlife.The other members of the group yelled and screamed at the cat and beat it with rocks and sticks. At this point the cat released the victim.
The child received bites to the head and legs, and his jaw was broken,
but he was expected to make a full recovery. Shortly after the attack,
the child was taken from Boulder Community hospital to Children's Hospital
in Denver. The cat was captured and killed on the following morning (Sunday)
near the site of the attack. A necropsy was planned to determine if the
cat was healthy. Sources:
(WLTX-TV, Columbia, SC;
Mountain Lion Attacks Boy;
04/17/2006)
(Fox News 31; April 16, 9:00 pm MDT broadcast)
(ABC 7 news;
Md. Boy Attacked By Mountain Lion; Tuesday April 18, 2006 )
17 April. 6-year-old saves 5-year-old brother and self from possible attack. See this non-injury report
HERE
18 April. 59-year-old Pastor Alexander Schmidt, of Leavenworth,
Washington, was attacked by a
cougar while he and his wife were playing with their dog. Though I could
find nothing that made it to the internet, an author in the area informed
me that a Wildlife contact sent him this message, "Attached
is what happened. It's been all over the local news and King 5. They
have a video from the interview with the landowner.
Additionally, we enter the cougar reports as quickly as they come in
(within the 10 days). If we don't get 'em from the field, they're not
entered." I later found the abbreviated report from KPQ AM radio in
Wenatchee, Washington
published here.
On Tuesday evening, a Leavenworth homeowner and his wife were playing with their dog at their residence. Alexander Schmidt (the injured party) said that he was throwing a stick for his dog in their driveway when a cougar came out of some nearby brush and grabbed him by his right leg, mid-calf. Mr. Schmidt's dog became agitated and Mr. Schmidt grabbed the cougar as the cougar held onto his leg.Sources: (Reported on King5; Seattle, Washington) (KPQ Radio; 560 AM; Wenatchee, Washington; Man recounts cougar attack; 04/20/2006)
After four or five seconds the cougar released Mr. Schmidt and the cougar ran across the driveway, towards the Leavenworth golf course. Officer Graham Grant and I responded and were on scene within 90 minutes or the incident, with a hound hunter and his dogs. A search of the area that lasted two hours failed to locate the cougar, we did locate more than a dozen raccoons, and several domestic house cats. We were assisted by a Chelan County deputy.
At 0600 on Wed. I provided a live update for KPQ radio and I focused on the fact that this was a juvenile cougar, it wasn't a focused or dedicated "attack", but more like an event where the cougar was watching the dog running, and barking, and became "interested" and broke from cover without a real action plan. Much like a domestic cat will chase a ball of yarn, the juvenile cougar didn't have the social skills to process the stimulus.
Mr. Schmidt's injuries consist of some puncture wounds and minor lacerations. He was treated and release at the Leavenworth medical center.
We've chased and caught cougars before at the Leavenworth golf course, and we've noted in the past that the cougars seem to come into town in the winter, following the deer, but they stay to feed on the abundant raccoons. We're continuing to monitor this, this is an area that is very urbanized, and is not conducive to hunting by an extended hound hunting permit. I'm planning on calling Commissioner Goehner this morning, and I'll do a press release with the Wenatchee World. T hanks.
Sgt. D. Ward
06 May. University of Wyoming student attacked by a stalking cougar while bird-watching in Medicine Bow.
See this non injury attack HERE
02 August. 78-year-old Ray Ferguson of Pima, Arizona, in Graham County
was at his farm west of town when he was attacked by a young, starving female
cougar, according to Diane Saunders' report in the Eastern Arizona Courier.
He was feeding a domestic cat and kittens who live there when he was attacked by another cat -- a mountain lion -- who tried to make a meal out of him. "She came out from the salt cedar trees and latched onto my hand," Ferguson said of the incident. At first, Ferguson thought the animal was a big dog. Then he realized the animal he was trying to shake off was a mountain lion.One has to wonder if Ms Freeman meant no OTHER confirmed accounts in Graham County.
"I used the old tried and true method -- I screamed as loud as I could," Ferguson said. The big cat ran off, and Ray drove back home, his hand bleeding.
He described the lion as "young, beautiful and starving to death." Ferguson estimated she weighed about 60 pounds.
After an unsuccessful attempt to contact his doctor, he went to the emergency room at Mt. Graham Regional Medical Center for treatment of the bite. The wound required no stitches, but Ferguson learned he had to get rabies shots because of the possibility that the lion was rabid.
Ferguson will not have to undergo a series of painful rabies shots in the stomach. Today's shots are less painful and are given in the shoulder. "They're not bad. They're like a flu shot in the shoulder," he said of the six shots he must endure.
While Ferguson was being treated at the hospital, officials from the Arizona Game and Fish Department searched for the mountain lion without success. The following day, a neighbor shot and killed a young female mountain lion. Tests show the animal did not have rabies. While Ferguson believes this is the cat that bit him, there is no way to be certain, so he will complete the series of rabies shots.
Ferguson said he has never seen a mountain lion at his farm, but others in the area have seen them. Debbie Freeman, spokeswoman for Arizona Game and Fish, said there have been no confirmed accounts of mountain lion sightings or encounters by humans in Graham County within the last year.
Source: Eastern Arizona Courier; Pima man recovering from lion bite; By Diane Saunders; 08/22/2006
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"In my view, he saved his own life ... he hunched over and tucked his head in, and that likely saved him," his dad told the media during a press conference held adjacent to the playground in Comox Marina Park.
But the father played a major role. He heard a cracking sound behind him in the brush. Looking back, he saw a cougar kind of in mid leap toward Paul Daniel. He ran down the length of the log he had been fishing from yelling "Cougar!" When he reached the end of the log his son was on the ground beneath him with the cougar's jaw over his head. The cougar's body was laid out on its side. Explaining he had a height advantage from the log when he came to his son's rescue, Krismer leapt down and landed squarely on the animal's chest with both feet. The 175 pound Krismer said he believes that blow did some "pretty significant damage" to the cougar that he described as not fully grown and around 100 pounds. He kicked the animal twice more before it retreated back into the wilderness.
Krismer felt he acted out of instinct and on adrenalin when he saw his boy being attacked. Mom Rosemary Abram also sprinted across the beach barefooted to help her son, but her husband had already thwarted the attack.
The parents assessed Paul Daniel's wounds. He had a puncture wound from an incisor at the back of his head and raked cuts over the his head and back. They took the boy to the Campbell River's Hospital the following day where they first reported the incident, and the boy recieved treatment, including antibiotics to prevent infection.
Despite the delayed report by the Krismers, wilflife officials did an "extensive" search for the cougar. Though other campers reported seeing it the following morning at 9 and 11, officials failed to capture the animal for the safety of other campers and/or disease testing.
Sources: (The Parksville Qualicum Beach News; Dad fights off cougar attacking his son; Jules S. Xavier, Black Press; 08/25/2006) (United Press International; Boy saved from cougar attack by father; 08/25/2006) (Canada.com; Four-year-old okay after cougar attack at campground; Gerry Bellett, CanWest News Service; 08/24/2006) (CTV Television Network; Instinct saved boy in cougar attack: B.C. father; CTV.ca News Staff; 08/24/2006)
Special thanks and credit to Roxanne who maintains a site in New York, Trackincats. She first reported this story HERE
2007 (2 Injury Reports, 1 Pet Injury Report)
24 January. Hiking in Prairie Creek Redwoods
State Park sometime before 3:00 p.m. Wednesday afternoon
in Humbolt County 50 miles north of Eureka in Orick,
California, 70-year-old Jim Hamm was attacked by a
two- to three-year-old, 68 pound, female cougar as it
crept up from behind. The lion pounced on him near the
end of a 10-mile hike. Jim was trailing his wife when
the big cat attacked. He heard a strange crunch behind
him. When he turned to look over his shoulder, he saw a
mountain lion right behind him. The cat pounced from
a run. Jim dropped his shoulder and twisted, and the
cat shot past him. But in a flash, the cat charged
again and jumped toward Jim Hamm's raised arm, knocking
him down and pinning him face down on the trail.
The Fortuna, California, man was accompanied by his 65-year-old wife Nell. Nell Hamm says the attack happened on what seemed at the time, "a perfect day." She says the two talked about how fortunate they were and how nice the weather was. "And then all of a sudden, just like that, life changes and Jim's life was in jeopardy," she said. "All of a sudden we're spending our days in a hospital."
Jim Hamm recounted, "I stuck my hand inside its mouth so it would chew on my hand instead of elsewhere, because it would try to get my neck and stuff. It didn't care, it just wanted to eat." Hamm got his fingers in the cat's nose and twisted "to give him pain to make it so he can call off the attack." Nell Hamm said she first saw the lion when it had her husband's head in its jaws. He didn't scream, Nell said. "It was a different, horrible plea for help, and I turned around, and by then the cat had wrestled Jim to the ground."
Nell Hamm did all the right things. She approached and screamed at the lion. According to Jim Hamm, his wife grabbed a rain-soaked 3 inch diameter, 8 foot long log and began beating it on its back. "She's good and strong: She's a tennis player, so she can club away," he said. "It wouldn't let go, no matter how hard I hit it," she said.
While Jim was trying to tear at the face of the cat, Nell says, "Jim was talking to me all through this. At one point I was crying and screaming, and I said, 'Honey, it's not working. It's not working, and I don't know what to do,' and he said, 'I've got a pen in my pocket. Get the pen and jab him in the eye.' So I got the pen and tried to put it in his eye, but it didn't want to go in as easy as I thought it would." When the pen bent and became useless, Nell Hamm went back to using the log. "That lion never flinched," she said. "I just knew it was going to kill him."
Finally, Nell slammed the log butt-end into the cat's head. The lion had ignored her until then. "I thought the risk of hitting Jim in the head had to be put aside. I thought if I went this way, right into the head of the lion that maybe, just maybe it might work, and it did," Nell said. At last, she had its attention. With Jim's blood on it's snout, the lion let go, stepped back, an stood glaring at her with its ears pinned back. "I thought he was going to attack me," she said. "He's going to get me," Nell remembered telling her stricken husband. And so she began shouting some more, at the top of her lungs, waving the log at the cat. "And like a miracle, it went off into the ferns and disappeared."
The Hamms are healthy, athletic people. They play sports, scuba dive and run. Since they moved to Fortuna from Camarillo two years ago, they have hiked the trails in Humboldt County, clocking 6 to 12 miles, two to three times a week. Neither of them is large; both are under 5 feet 6 inches. But they had talked about what to do in case of a mountain lion attack: Scream, look big, fight back. "We fought harder than we ever have to save his life," she said. Nell said she didn't have to think twice about fighting for her husband. "You hear remarks of hero," she said. "It wasn't that. We love each other very much, and we've been together for 50 years now, and it's was just a matter his life was in jeopardy, and we were fighting for his life, and we just fought together like we've done with everything. We do things together."
Terrified that it might come back, Nell told her husband that he had to get up and try to walk to the Newton B. Drury Parkway to find help. He was dazed and continuing to lose blood quickly. She yelled at her husband to keep him conscious as they staggered about a quarter-mile to the trail head. "Somehow we made it out of there," she said. Nell gathered more branches to use as weapons if the cougar followed them, and they waited for help. Nell eventually flagged down a truck with a trail crew--after one motorist refused to stop and help. The Eureka Reporter newspaper reported this crew found the man bleeding around 4 p.m. The four man inmate crew for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection went for help. As a result,