Cougar kills mountain biker
The two mountain bikers did what they were supposed to do when they noticed a mountain lion tailing them on a trail east of Seattle.
They got off their bikes. They faced the beast, shouted and tried to spook it. After it charged, one even smacked the cougar with his bike, and it ran off.
It wasn’t enough, authorities said.
When they got on their bikes again, the cougar returned, biting one of them on the head and shaking him. The second cyclist ran, and the animal dropped the first victim and pounced on him, killing him and dragging him back to what appeared to be its den, King County sheriff’s Sergeant Ryan Abbott said.
‘‘They did everything they were supposed to do,’’ Abbott said yesterday. ‘‘But something was wrong with this cougar.’’
The attack on Sunday near North Bend, in the Cascade Mountain foothills 50km east of Seattle, was the first fatal cougar attack in the state in 94 years.
The 31-year-old Seattle man who was bitten first survived. Rescuers flew him to a hospital, where he was in satisfactory condition yesterday, Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Gregg said.
Authorities would not confirm the names of the cyclists until the deceased victim, a 32-year-old Seattle resident, was formally identified. That was expected today.
After the cougar attacked the second man, the first managed to get on his bike and ride off, looking back to see his friend being dragged into the trees, Abbott said. He rode for 3km before he could get a cellphone signal to call 911.
When rescuers arrived, it took about half an hour to find the second victim, who was dead with the cougar on top of him in what appeared to be a den-like area. An officer shot at it, and it ran off. Several hours later, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife agents used dogs to track it to a nearby tree. They shot and killed it.
Authorities plan to match DNA taken from the animal with DNA from the victims to be certain they killed the right cougar. They also plan to examine the cougar to see what might have been wrong with it.
There are an estimated 2000 cougars in Washington. Until the 1960s, the state paid hunters a bounty for killing them. Now, it allows 250 to be hunted in 50 designated zones.
They are sometimes known to kill livestock or pets, and one even found its way into a park in Seattle in 2009, but encounters with people are rare.