Woman goes on a solo hike in CO on New Year's Eve, eaten by a mountain lion ⚠️

Your comment is both useless and hilarious to me. You do you, I can’t care. I’d rather carry bear spray in the woods.

Bear spray is for bears because they are usually just mad you are in their space. A bear isn’t going to stealth attack you as prey. Whatever makes you feel better. Your post about all she needed to do was carry bear spray was misinformed at best. It did make me laugh though.

Nature does what nature does. Sorry for loss of human life. Spare the cat please.

Never pause in a dip in trail or a place with dense foliage. Might as well put a target on yourself. That goes for taking a potty break. Don't hide yourself in the brush.

noone need much fear even a mid-size wild cat, as long as they bring their SPEAR with them.

You don't even need stone tool tech. Just sharpen the end of the stick to a point. A 100lb kitty will think twice once it tastes the pointy end.

Professional tiger trainers use simple T-sticks that can't even poke the tiger with anything pointy! And yet the tiger is flumoxxed and aborts any kind of attack behavior. Cats may seem smart (they are certainly smarter than dogs) but they can't fathom a human poking them with a stick.

This is how our australopithecine forebears came down from the trees and took over the vast, fertile African savannah. Spears! And even clubs. If you are holding a sturdy stick, you have the edge over any animal.

Someone should change the heading. She most certainly was not eaten by the mountain lion, just killed by it. I’m sure he would’ve liked to take a couple bites if he wasn’t interrupted by other hikers, but she wasn’t eaten for goodness sake.

Maybe you remember though, Bro? Late nineties a pro mountain biker was mauled while poaching a hiking only trail , IIRC.

It’s hilarious that you seem to think it’s unlikely anything can thwart a mountain lion because it always attacks stealthily and always incapacitates or kills you before you can react, so presumably there’s nothing you would do except to resign yourself to your fate; but with a grizzly you’d take your fighting chances.

Do that, ha ha ha ha hah.

Your posts are like thinking Charlie Kirk would still be around if he had a concealed carry. You victim blame her in your first post saying all she needed was some bear spray. Which she may have even had with her. You sound like someone that has lived their life in a city apartment.

No, they must euthanize it. It now views humans as viable prey. When I lived in Alaska, a bear was put down after it killed a moose in someone's backyard in a relatively high populated area (by Alaskan standards). The reasoning was that the bear would now consider that "good hunting grounds" and would probably return. Who knows what will be in the backyard next time -- a child, perhaps?

Better one mountain lion, or 10, or 20 if that's how many they need to euthanize to find the one that killed this woman, than one human being.

Yes, it appears that this is the first fatal mountain lion attack in the state of Colorado in over a quarter century.

More likely, a tree would fall on her head.

Definitely a sad story for this woman out on what probably was a peaceful hike until the encounter. Most of us in Colorado are aware of the creatures that are out and about (cougars, bears, moose, coyote, etc). Most of us could probably take more precautions such as traveling in groups, making noise, not traveling around dusk or dawn (or at night). The allure of the freedom of the hills is sometimes too much and I've found myself out and about at times that I probably should take more precautions. It was reported that in November, someone from the local area was running early morning (headlamp on) and saw a mountain lion that he eventually fought off with a broken stick. He later reported that to wildlife authorities who posted signs in the area warning others of mountain lions being seen in the area. According to the article (by the AP), those signs were later taken down. I've been in Colorado 30+ years and have seen a bobcat family once at night (not threatening), and saw a mountain lion cross a road (while I was driving) near Grant, CO and pulled off the road to see it along with four other mountain lions just up a hill obscured mostly by pines and grasses perhaps 20 yards away, casually hanging out and unconcerned with me (safely inside my car). They eventually moved up the hill and disappeared through the woods. This was in an area of a handful of homes with roughly one to three acre plots. And not far from the general area where former Denver Bronco Derek Wolfe killed what looked like a massive mountain lion. Elsewhere in the state, near Estes Park and generally where this woman was killed, an acquaintance recorded a pod of mountain lions on their ring camera passing by their driveway this summer (shortly after arriving to the cabin).

Fairly stupid take here. ^

1. You have no clue what "defense" she was carrying. Even with all of the right things on hand, bad outcomes can and do happen. Anyone who spends time outdoors should know that bear spray is no guarantee. (You know that, right?)

2. There is an extremely low risk of mountain lion attacks in this area. A person is at a higher risk driving to the trailhead than hiking.

Because the far most risky thing about a solo hike is the drive to the trailhead or any man she passes. In the continental USA. Short of being in a grizzly area a wild animal is so far down the list of risks it’s not worth considering

No doubt. They are creepy in that regard. They will stalk you.

Sad that this woman was killed and condolences to her family and friends.

I have lived in CO for over 40 years and have run and hiked many thousands of miles in wild natural areas. I have been lucky enough to see 3 lions while out running and 1 while hiking, have seen many lion tracks and have come upon 3 lion kills. I am sure many lions have seen and stalked me.

There are lions just about everywhere in CO and there is always a very slim risk that you will be attacked by one. You can do things to minimize that risk but nothing is going to help you when a healthy adult lion gets a good chance to kill you. They are incredibly agile, strong and smart predators. They normally stalk and attack from behind aiming to jump onto and hit the back of your neck. If that blow does not severe your spine instantly they will clamp down on your neck severing your spine and/or quickly suffocating you. Likely you will never see the lion and will be dead before you know what happened.

Lions put themselves at great risk when attacking big prey like elk, deer or even people. They are really smart and will stalk but avoid attacking unless the conditions are right.

Sometimes inexperienced/juvenile lions will attack people, as will weak/sick/malnourished/desperate lions. And rarely healthy adult lions will misjudge or mess up a little while attacking.When those types of attacks occur you likely will not die instantly and have a chance to fight back and live. Normally you will not have a chance to use things like bear spray, spears, knives or guns when you are fighting for your life with a lion on your neck.

The odds of seeing a lion while you are out in the wild are slim, and it is even rarer to be attacked by a lion and rarer still to be killed by one. You have an exponentially much much greater chance of being injured/killed while traveling to a trailhead or wild area than encountering a lion while there.

The best we can hope for is this woman was truly enjoying her hike and died instantly while doing something she loved.

Dundi,

That was a mountain lion kitten. Most attacks are ambushes from behind.

Runningram,

That was a mother mountain lion scaring off someone that got too close to her cubs. It was absolutely not a mountain lion stalking to attack and kill a human.