Cougar kills U.S. mountain biker, mauls another, later shot

originally posted by: DAVID64

A mountain lion killed one mountain biker and mauled another in Washington state on Saturday when they rode into ITS territory

So the natural thing to do was hunt it down and kill it.
smh. f***ing humans.

As horrible as it is, once a predator gets the idea that humans are on the menu, you don't want it walking around.

But as you are so concerned, we can relocate the next one to your backyard.

a reply to: seattlerat

I guess I have issues.

I feel if you want to venture where the wild things are, you are subject to those rules. If the mountain lion gets you, well, our ancestors dealt with those chances every day. The ones who made it, made it for reasons.

Call me a POS for thinking the mountain lions and bears and what-not's should have a equal shot at making it too.

Seems logical to at least carry a blade or high voltage taser? Bear Spray?

No way i'm going down because of a cat..

a reply to: JAGStorm

Yes! See my post above, about a mountain lion roaming around at my sisters' place a few miles outside of town in northeast Oklahoma. When she told me about it I dug around online and found quite a few articles in recent years of big cat sightings (and photos and videos) all over Oklahoma.

Mountain lions are on a come back here in Michigan, have been for decades. However, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources completely denied sightings and evidence until people started to get hard evidence verified by experts. When they were confronted with verified cougar scat (poop) and trail cam photos, they claimed they were just a small number that wandered in to Michigan from surrounding states, not an established breeding size population. It was easier to deny they were a problem then having to deal with dead or mauled livestock and other damage they are capable of. Well now they are pretty much accepted by the experts (minus the DNR) that they are breeding here.

They can travel very long distances in a short time, so a sighting that seems far away doesn't mean they aren't in your neck of the woods too. They are ambush predators that wait up in the trees over game trails and are active during the day. They leap down on their victims, knocking them down and biting them in the throat to choke and bleed them out.

Once you're down and out, they drag you off the trail, even up into the trees, to eat you at their leisure. They are silent and patient killers that are used to taking down big prey, if they are going to attack, you have little chance to avoid them much less fight them off. Like other big predators, including bears and wolves, you will rarely see them or find evidence of their presence in your area. There have been bear in my woods since I moved here 20 years ago. It's only been the last few years I've seen some tracks, and that was only twice.

I have been trying to develop a habit of looking up in the trees when I walk around outside, be it on the road or out in the woods. It's a hard habit to develop when you are not used to doing it. Not many people pay attention to what's going on above them no matter where they go.

What a very unfortunate situation. Updates are saying that the assumed cougar was 40 pounds underweight. Now they are going to have to look into why this is going on, unassumingly low deer populace, etc. population for the cougars to feed on, disease, etc?

These big cats can travel 15 miles or so in a day hunting, more. One of the local cougars was within 1,000 feet of me this year tracking deer. As it's a positive there's prey for them here, and hoping they do not come too close to residences, as that seemed very brave of it to be out in the open, sadly neighbors have dealt with shooting them when one stuck around too long posing a threat or assumed so to them.

RIP and regards to the loss of an influential person in our Western Wash. community and hopes the situation is dealt with accordingly.