Being chased by a mountain lion could only be the worst nightmare for joggers, but for this man, it, unfortunately, turned out to be a reality.?
An unidentified man who was running on Horsetooth Mountain Open Space¡¯s West Ridge Trail near Fort Collins, Colorado had a nasty encounter on with a juvenile cougar.?
Reuters
The man was running on a trail when the juvenile cougar attacked him from behind, biting and clawing at his face, back, legs and arms, states Reuters.? But before the cougar could overpower him completely, the man fought back and with his bare hands, strangled the?animal to death.?
¡°There was some wrestling going on and the cat did latch onto his arm but he was able to choke it,¡± the Reuters quoted?Wildlife spokeswoman Rebecca Ferrell.?
The size of the cougar was unclear, Ferrell said, because other animals fed on the carcass before wildlife officers arrived. But it is believed it was a male.
The runner went to a hospital, officials said, with injuries that were serious but not life-threatening.
The remainder of the animal¡¯s body was recovered near the trail, where the jogger had dropped some possessions, and taken to a Colorado Parks and Wildlife lab for a necropsy, officials said.
¡°The runner did everything he could to save his life,¡± said Mark Leslie, CPW Northeast Regional Manager. ¡°In the event of a lion attack, you need to do anything in your power to fight back, just as this gentleman did.¡±
Mountain lion attacks have caused fewer than 20 fatalities in the United States in the past 100 years. Sixteen known attacks have occurred in Colorado since 1990, officials said.
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Inputs: Reuters