Boy injured in mountain lion attack released from hospital

SAN MATEO COUNTY >> A 5-year-old boy is recovering at home after being mauled by a mountain lion Tuesday night in an unincorporated part of San Mateo County, authorities said.

The attack was reported about 6:50 p.m. in the 1000 block of Tunitas Creek Road, a rural area roughly 6 miles southeast of Half Moon Bay. The boy was hiking with his mother and grandfather when the animal pounced on him, Capt. Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

“The lion took him to the ground,” Foy said. “It was viciously attacking this little boy and the mom charged at it. When she approached the lion, it released the little boy and she scooped him up and got him to safety.”

Foy said the boy was taken to a hospital in Redwood City and then to Stanford

Medical Center. He was discharged that same night.

San Mateo County sheriff's deputies and wildlife officers searched the area for the lion, but did not find it.

Wednesday, wildlife officers interviewed the family and swabbed the boy's wounds for DNA. The DNA will be compared with that of any mountain lion wildlife officers manage to capture in the area where the attack occurred, Foy said.

Foy said no similar attacks have been reported in the area recently. There have been 21 attacks on people from mountain lions in the state since 1986, according to the California Department

of Fish and Wildlife website. Just three of them were fatal.

Before Tuesday's incident, the most recent lion attack in the Bay Area occurred Feb. 16, 2020, at Rancho San Antonio County Park in Santa Clara County. A 6-year-old girl suffered minor injuries and the animal responsible for the attack was later euthanized.