Runner kills mountain lion after getting attacked while running

HahaRiiiiiiight wrote:

joho wrote:

More importantly, did he pause his stopwatch before the attack?

Where's the Strava data for this outing?

Based upon the trail he was on, he would have had to run a couple miles back to his car. He was bit on the face and on the hand, so the stopwatch might have gotten broken by the cougar depending upon which hand got bitten. When he got back to his car he drove himself to the hospital. His time probably sucked though.

Peta Griffin wrote:

appreciate dudes like this wrote:

The dude saved his own life, made nature less dangerous to others and also more moral by his actions.

The moral thing to do would have been to let that majestic feline eat his stupid ass. But instead he had to kill yet another endangered animal. Congratulations mankind, you win again. This world was made for you and no one else.

The animal he defended himself against is a vicious dangerous killer with no sense of the pain and suffering that it inflicts upon other animals. Imagine a person going around biting out the throats of other people and scratching out their guts with sharp knives like the claws of a big cat. That is what these animals do to others throughout nature and in no way can that be seen as a good thing.

The dude just defended himself against a savage merciless killer that would have gone on killing other animals in the most painful way possible. It is not a bad thing to civilize nature a little now and then and hopefully the trails he runs on are now just a little safer.

furthermore wrote:

Did he? wrote:

But did he finish his run?

And did he look relaxed?

Coffee spewed.

Here comes PETA

Banana Bread wrote:

Most distance runners wouldn't be able to do this. I hate to admit it but we are weaklings. I bet Bekele could destroy a mountain lion if he came across one. If I was attacked I would probably look for a long stick to poke it and throw rocks at it. The biggest thing I've ever killed was a swan though. Luckily there are no mountain lions anywhere near Tulsa.

You killed a swan? ? That is creature of Benign grace and beauty. Did this happen to you? I know it is scary. Almost like a mountain lion attack.

DeBron Lames wrote:

A t-shirt is excellent for defense.

With dogs, hold the t-shirt on the ends, and offer the dog the middle. When it latches on, circle the ends around its neck. Pull up sharply (may not be possible with a very large dog). Usually you can snap their neck.

Usually? You mean you have done this multiple times?

Sheesh the excuses people use for slow easy runs on Strava never ceases to amaze me...

From his feed; "Miles 1-8 steady, mile 9 was slow as had to stop and fight a lion, miles 10-12 recovery jog. Held back a little as doing mile repeats at track tomorrow". Yawn.

Reports say the cat was a juvenile. I assume it was significantly smaller than full size to be identified as such.

Hundreds of thousands of people are bitten by dogs each year in the USA. How many by cougars, a handful.

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Reports say the cat was a juvenile. I assume it was significantly smaller than full size to be identified as such.

Hundreds of thousands of people are bitten by dogs each year in the USA. How many by cougars, a handful.

Yes it's rare. But your point?

An attacking cougar aims to kill you. Most dogs attack based on a fear response. Attacks to kill from dogs are not common either, but they do happen every year.

Average weight of a juvenile male cougar (10 or 11 months) is about 80 lb., enough to inflict a fair amount of damage. (& would be very large for a dog).

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Reports say the cat was a juvenile. I assume it was significantly smaller than full size to be identified as such.

Hundreds of thousands of people are bitten by dogs each year in the USA. How many by cougars, a handful.

Ya, a juvenile could still be a 100 lb cat there guy - a 100lb cat that's trying to rip your head off by the way......

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Reports say the cat was a juvenile. I assume it was significantly smaller than full size to be identified as such.

Hundreds of thousands of people are bitten by dogs each year in the USA. How many by cougars, a handful.

A few years back a cougar in my neck of the woods attacked a family walking back to their car. Grabbed the little boy by the head and started dragging him off. The father had the presence of mind to grab his son by the feet. The cougar finally tired and let go of the boy, minus the scalp. Yeah, not the same thing as a big dog. I take it you haven’t had the pleasure of seeing a cougar on your back deck. Trust me, it’s an intimidating 80 lbs.

Slow Bro wrote:

UFC's newest star wrote:

All joking aside, this is incredible. I don't care if that cat was juvenile or not, they're an apex predator vs a human.

An apex predator vs. the greatest apex predator on the planet. Don't sleep on humans, even though some of our numbers are weak.

If humans decided that we wanted to eradicate mountain lions, it would be comically easy for us to do so. We actually have to work really hard to make sure we aren't killing ALL of the other apex predators, like sharks, crocs/gators, hippos, etc...

This is true. Total apex over here, right-hand dominate with left handed skills. Past generations of humans who were left were wiped out during encounters like this with mountain lions and beasts. This runner was lucky to have killed the lion with his bare hands. Most humans would need a clean piercing stab through the heart - right hand to left side of mountain lion. The neck muscles are and were even stronger on he lion during the early days and humans were attacked quite a bit at a young age. You needed a jagged long tipped spear and a good right arm aim to live a long time.

After squaring off with a 130-ish lb male lion 18 years ago, I now carry a knife when running in cat country. This last summer I encountered another at 30 yards while descending from a rock climb. Fortunately it was as surprised as I was. I wasn't carrying a knife as it was within a quarter mile of a development, but still it was definitely cat country.

As far as WA v. CO is concerned, a biker on the Olympic peninsula fought off an adult lion about 20 years ago. He credited his horseplay practice wrestling his German Shepherd at home with saving his hide. So a point for WA.

https://patch.com/washington/across-wa/cougar-attacks-washington-very-rare-rarely-deadly

Interesting map (with spreadsheet of all reported attacks since 2000):

http://tchester.org/sgm/lists/lion_attacks_mcginnis.html

If your knife is under 8 inches long you won't be able to reach the lion's heart, and if you did it wouldn't kill it it would just tickle it. You wouldn't be able to slash the jugular either as it's muscles are too tight. You might be able to pierce the jugular if you were a surgeon or had an unusually thin knife. But the length of the blade is what is needed to reach through the heart. A woman survived an attack using a 12 inch butter knife. Otherwise your thumb is the best right above the collarbone in the soft spot of their neck.

"Once he fended the mountain lion off, he counter-attacked the cat by getting on top of it, she said. There are still a few mysteries, though, including exactly how he suffocated the animal."

This, my fellow scrawny running friends, is a true alpha male.

Cat dispatch wrote:

If your knife is under 8 inches long you won't be able to reach the lion's heart, and if you did it wouldn't kill it it would just tickle it. You wouldn't be able to slash the jugular either as it's muscles are too tight. You might be able to pierce the jugular if you were a surgeon or had an unusually thin knife. But the length of the blade is what is needed to reach through the heart. A woman survived an attack using a 12 inch butter knife. Otherwise your thumb is the best right above the collarbone in the soft spot of their neck.

The knife I carry is a 12", lightweight kitchen knife. I discussed this with a wildlife agent after my confrontation and his opinion was that cats are extremely averse to puncture wounds of any kind (unlike bears, who would likely just get madder) and would flee with a stabbing defense of any forcefulness. I have also carried pepper spray in the past, but the first notice of an attack is often that the cat is already upon you (usually from behind, as was the case in my face-off).

In any case, the #1 survival tip is if confronted, don't break eye contact or you are toast. I managed to stare it down for 10+ minutes before backing off slowly with a rock in hand as it was getting dark. This occured about 15 miles from the fatal Snoqualmie attack last summer. Heads up to anyone who frequents the Tiger/Cougar Mt. trails!

YMMV wrote:

I managed to stare it down for 10+ minutes before backing off slowly with a rock in hand as it was getting dark. This occured about 15 miles from the fatal Snoqualmie attack last summer. Heads up to anyone who frequents the Tiger/Cougar Mt. trails!

When? Was it on the same trail?

ukathleticscoach wrote:

Reports say the cat was a juvenile. I assume it was significantly smaller than full size to be identified as such.

Hundreds of thousands of people are bitten by dogs each year in the USA. How many by cougars, a handful.

Those millennial cats are gonna be a real problem

DeBron Lames wrote:

A t-shirt is excellent for defense.

With dogs, hold the t-shirt on the ends, and offer the dog the middle. When it latches on, circle the ends around its neck. Pull up sharply (may not be possible with a very large dog). Usually you can snap their neck.

With the mountain lion, I'd wrap the shirt around my fist, and feed it into the lion's mouth. Shove it as far down as you can, cutting off its airway.

Uh, yeah, right! I'm sure you have done this several dozen times to allow you to conclude that "usually you can snap their neck."

LMAO