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It was a Mountain Biker killed by the cougar.
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Crazy. I’ve been seeing news reports about this and one mentioned that two guys were attacked, and the second guy was the one killed.
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This is a very unfortunate event. While this apparently happened in a remote area, encounters with large predators is much more common that many people with ulterior motives (.gov agencies and advocacy groups) would like us to believe. When such predators no longer fear humans, expect problems.
Thoughts and prayers to those involved. Good riddance to the cat.
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Far too many people have written comments about this basically saying this was the mountain bikers fault.
Naturalists are a little mental (picking animals first over humans). Especially in a tragedy like this where a human was killed.
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It was a horrible thing that happened and it was by no means the MTB’s fault. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It was a wild animal, doing wild animal things, in the wild. As a person who does outdoor, off the beaten path, in the country sports there is a certain amount of risks involved, both from the sport and the environment that we have to accept! Swim in the ocean you worry about sharks, camp/hike/bike in the back country worry about bears and other large predators, go to arctic area’s worry about polar bears. I just don’t see the reason to kill a wild animal in it’s environment for doing what it natural does to survive. We are in their domain and need to realize that.
On the other hand if sharks, bears, mountain lions, etc start attacking people in malls or coffee shops I might change my mind!
Just my two cents…
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You hit the nail on the head guy66
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guy66, law enforcement arrived and dispatched the animal anyway. I appreciate wildlife as much as anyone but human life is obviously more important than any animal. Folks need to understand that super predators are just that, predators. Plan accordingly when you are in the wild. It is entirely reasonable and legal to defend human life against attacks such as this.
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Thanks rajflyboy.
Moto Bike Mike, I agree with you for defending human life, but the way I read the article, it said and I quote “Fish and Wildlife has euthanized the cougar they believe to be responsible for killing one man and attacking another earlier today” and that was after “When responders arrived, they found Brooks’ body near what appeared to be the cougar’s den. The cougar was on top of him. A deputy fired his weapon in the direction of the mountain lion and it fled.” Hardly defending human life.
Please don’t get me wrong, I feel terrible for the victim, his family, and the other poor guy.
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Humans are easy targets compared to most prey. We don’t run fast, we have a poor sense of smell, poor eyesight, comparatively poor hearing, and our strength-to-weight is low. If a predator learns that those funny looking two-legged things are an easy meal, they become even more dangerous. Euthanizing it was the right thing to do. Animal attacks on humans are rare, but keeping it that way is sound wildlife management practice, IMO. As far as the deputy “firing in the direction of the animal” I think that was PR speak for “he missed”.
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It seems relatively rare humans are the target for wild animal food. Usually more for protection of cubs, etc. Maybe someone already brought this up, but I did see one article about this incident where they indicated the cougar was undersized for its age, either malnutrition or sick. What is odd to me is the cat didn’t stop at one, as would be normal if it were hunting for food, or standing ground for protection, especially since one of them ran off. Makes me think this cougar was indeed sick. That, mind you, coming from my vast inexperience with wild cats and total lack of wildlife education. If that were the case, maybe taking the animal down was a good decision. If nothing else but to learn more, and hopefully lead to preventing situation such as this again. Either way, no real winners on this day.
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Forest Service always kills any animal who has killed someone. I think it has to do with the animals tasting human blood and possibly wanting more of it.
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