The cat dialed back pressure through its crushing jaws, and the friend was able to pull away, fellow cyclists said in an interview one month after the incident east of Seattle.
A group of Seattle-area cyclists who helped one of their own escape the jaws of a cougar recounted their story this weekend, saying they fought the cat and pinned it down.
The woman who was attacked, Keri Bergere, sustained neck and face injuries and was treated at a hospital and released following the Feb. 17 incident on a trail northeast of Fall City, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement.
Bergere said she spent five days at an area hospital and was still recovering.
Fish and Wildlife Lt. Erik Olson called the actions of her fellow cyclists “heroic” in the statement. But the extent of the cyclists’ battle with the 75-pound cat wasn’t immediately clear then.
It’s always wolves and bears in movies, but if either attack a human it’s because the human ignored warnings and the bear or wolves couldn’t retreat anymore…
Big cats tho?
It’s very easy for them to consider humans food.
A Cougar can stalk a human for miles before striking, and you’ll never know it’s there.
If you turn around and see a cougar staring at you, you’re already considered food and running doesn’t help. You need to act like a bear, make a shit ton of noise and pretend you’re not currently shitting your pants. And you’ll likely scare it off. Act like prey and run tho, and it’s going to act like a predator.
Run from a bear and wolves, and they got exactly what they wanted and won’t chase.
As unlikely as it is to ever come up, you shouldn’t run from wolves or bears either. They both have a strong prey drive and might chase to kill even if that wasn’t their objective in the confrontation.
Yeah this guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Bears (brown, not so much black) and wolves don’t see people as prey? Wrong. Humans just cross paths with them less frequently.
Humans may not be the prey of choice for bears and wolves. But that’s the case for mountain lions too.
Wolves almost never see adult humans as prey. Since 1761, only 77 non-fatal attacks and 40 fatal attacks from wolves. However, of those 40, only 9 occurred in the last 100 years and 2 of them were death from rabies. Many of the non-fatal attacks and a few of the fatal attacks were from captive wolves. Most of the attacks involved children and/or pets.
Wolves have been practically extinct in the US for many decades. That’s a major reason why there are so few incidents. However, I agree that viewing adult humans as prey isn’t “typical” wolf behavior.
Would a healthy wolf prefer to hunt a human over other prey? No. But we’re talking about wild animals. If you encounter a wolf in the wild you don’t know if it’s hungry or sick, and the animal may absolutely treat you as prey.
40 since 1791
Yeah, don’t literally “run away”. But even if you did most wolves won’t follow. They’re not around humans enough to consider us food. And they’re not going to attack stuff their unsure of.
Coywolves or a rare Wolfpack that lives close to humans might, but that’s really rare.
They don’t have to consider humans food for the chase reflex to kick in. All predators in general but canines in particular have a set of reflexes that make it very dangerous to turn your back and flee.
It’s why you don’t have to teach puppies to chase a thrown stuffed toy, even if it’s entirely novel to them.
A bear might just be trying to scare you off, but it’ll chase you down solely because you ran.
That is the worst advice I’ve ever seen: a black bear can run 30mph/48kmh and will run you down if you run. Wolfs have a strong predation drive and will also run you down but in a pack. Both of these animals look for weakened prey and weakened prey always run.
With bears the big thing is prevention. Make sure to keep your presence known as not to scare a bear by having little bells on your backpack.
Also knowing what bears are in the area will help. Brown bears are much less likely to attack a human, whereas Grizzlies will have no hesitation. To tell which ones are in the area, look for bear scat. If you come across Brown bear scat, you will notice it has nuts and berry seeds in it. If it’s grizzly bear scat, you will see it filled with little bells.
Black bears are less likely to attack humans (some are brown colored though). Brown bears are grizzlies.
Very good points! Preventing these encounters is the best thing you can do. Number one thing with bears is don’t have any food on you.
My dad was solo backpacking in the California back country and thought he had stashed all his food in a sack hung from a tree, but forgot about a granola bar in his pocket. He had a dream a bear was licking his face and when he woke up, a black bear was licking his face. He felt around his pockets, found the granola bar and threw it, and the bear went after it and then left him alone.
I have no doubt he wouldn’t have survived if it had been a hungry Grizzly.
Wait a minute.
I’m sorry, this is just fearmongering based on a rare event-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fatal_cougar_attacks_in_North_America
Bears, wolves and cougars are, generally, not dangerous to humans.
Even the article linked to calls it rare.
Not sure what you’re talking about; it looked more factmongering to me.
This cannot be a fact:
If this is a fact:
You win time, friend. But I will return!
Although…nah. You win. Until next time!
These animals aren’t dangerous until they are. In the wild, you don’t know if you’re encountering an injured or desperate animal. My main issue with OPs comment is the terrible advice on what to do when encounting one of these predators.
Also, how was the mountain lion population in the US doing until recently? Extermination of wild populations is a major reason why incidents in the past are so rare.
Got it. I will turn my back and run away from any threatening bears I encounter. Should I also make any high pitched squealing sounds? Perhaps I should climb a tree?