Authorities in Washington State’s Olympic National Park have killed a mountain lion after it attacked a 4-year-old child, and there is also a report of another cougar encounter about an hour after the park incident, near Toledo in central Lewis County, several miles to the south.
According to the Tacoma News Tribune, the attacked child was injured and transported to a hospital for treatment. The incident occurred Sunday near the Victoria Overlook area on Hurricane Ridge
A news release from the National Park Service said initial reports indicated the big cat was collared. The park service said park staff “located and dispatched the animal” on Monday.
The Toledo incident is still being investigated. Details about that encounter are sketchy, but apparently the animal chased a man and may have injured his ankle.
While cougar attacks are rare, they have happened in recent years in the Evergreen State, where hound hunting for the big cats was banned by citizen initiative in 1996. Since then, it appears the cougar population has increased.
In May 2018, a cougar attacked two people riding bicycles on a gravel mountain road north of North Bend, Wash., killing one and injuring the other, as reported at the time by KING News. The victim was identified as S.J. Brooks, 32. The injured companion was identified as Isaac Sederbaum, 31. He was treated at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center.
Fish & Wildlife officers tracked down that cougar and killed it.
Almost six years later, and not far from the 2018 attack, another mountain lion attacked a group of five women who were also bicycling along a trail northwest of North Bend and north of nearby Snoqualmie. In that incident, according to the account reported by KUOW, 60-year-old Keri Bergere was seriously injured and her companions managed to pin the young cat to the ground with a bicycle. A Fish & Wildlife officer arrived about 30-40 minutes later and shot the cougar.
While the state Department of Fish and Wildlife reminds the public that mountain lion attacks are rare, KUOW noted last year that there have been at least 20 reported cougar attacks in the Evergreen State, including two that were fatal.
Mountain lions are classified as game animals in Washington, and hunting is still allowed, but not with hounds.
While it is legal to carry firearms for personal protection in national parks, provided individuals comply with state law, the National Park Service says “Visitors should not consider firearms as protection from wildlife.”
