Dogs track down lion

Animal bit 7-year-old boy walking with dad just west of Boulder

Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, April 17, 2006

Two hounds tracked down a young female mountain lion west of Boulder early Sunday, hours after it had chomped on the jaw of a 7-year-old boy who was walking hand-in-hand with his father.

A wildlife officer shot and killed the 80- to 90-pound cat in a Ponderosa pine just after midnight about a half-mile from the site of the attack on Artist Point near the summit of Flagstaff Mountain, said Tyler Baskfield, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.

Baskfield said it was the first serious attack on a human by a mountain lion in Boulder County that anyone could recall.

The boy was initially treated for his serious, but not life-threatening, injuries at Boulder Community Hospital. He then was transported to Children's Hospital in Denver.

His family declined to have his condition released Sunday or to make any comment.

"It's not typical mountain lion behavior to attack a person like that," Baskfield said. "All of west Boulder is mountain lion habitat. Very rarely do they come into contact with people. They tend to be elusive."

Baskfield said it took the dogs about an hour and a half to track the cat. As expected, the lion wasn't far away. She was perched high up in a tree on the edge of a cliff.

"It's typical mountain lion behavior after an attack like that," Baskfield said. "They're pretty curious to come back and see if they killed their prey."

Baskfield estimated the cat was between 1 and 2 years old.

Baskfield said the boy and his father were walking on a trail with six other people - mostly family members - just after 6 p.m. when the attack occurred. Some of the family members may have been visiting from out of town for the Easter holiday, Baskfield said.

One neighbor told the Daily Camera in Boulder that a family member told him they live in Washington, D.C., but were in Boulder visiting their son, who is a freshman at the University of Colorado.

When the lion attacked the boy, members of his family battered the lion with sticks and rocks. The animal quickly dropped the boy and fled, Baskfield said. The boy also suffered some scratches on his legs.

"The family did everything right in terms of defending the child," Baskfield said. "They used rocks and sticks and screamed at the cat."

Baskfield said the animal did bite down on the boy's jaw and was "probably going for the back of the neck."

Mountain lions are most active and do much of their hunting at dawn and dusk, he said.

A necropsy on the lion is scheduled for later this week to determine whether the animal had a disease or illness that might have played a role in the attack, Baskfield said.

There have been only two confirmed fatal mountain lion attacks in Colorado.

In January 1991, 18-year-old Scott Lancaster was attacked and killed while jogging in Idaho Springs. In July 1997, 10-year-old Mark Miedema, of Lakewood, was attacked and killed in Rocky Mountain National Park as he ran ahead of his family.

In October 1999, 3-year-old Jaryd Atadero disappeared west of Fort Collins while on a hike. Officials investigating the case suspect that he was killed by a mountain lion.