Boy Attacked By Mountain Lion Was Bit in Neck, Dragged

By Bay City News Service:

A 6-year-old boy seriously hurt when a mountain lion bit him on the head and neck and dragged him into some brush Sunday near Cupertino was released from a hospital Monday in good condition, authorities said.

The boy was discharged Monday morning from Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, a day after he was admitted in serious condition to the center’s pediatric trauma unit. He quickly improved to fair and then good condition, hospital spokeswoman Joy Alexiou said.

The boy was hiking about 10 feet in front of his family at the Picchetti Ranch Zinfandel Trail in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District when the mountain lion jumped and attacked him from a hidden position, according to Lt. Patrick Foy of the law enforcement division of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The lion bit down firmly on the boy’s neck and head and started to drag him away into some brush, Foy said.

Two men ran toward the lion while shouting aggressively and the cat let the boy go and ran away, according to Foy.

The boy’s family members carried him back down the trail to their vehicles, where they phoned for help and he was eventually transported to the hospital with serious puncture wounds and scratches that were not life-threatening, Foy said.

The lion ended up following the group back toward their vehicles after the attack, according to searchers who found its tracks, Foy said.

The district’s park rangers closed the area of the park where the attack happened until further notice and state and federal wildlife officials started searching for the lion, according to Foy. The lion will be killed in the interest of public safety, tested for rabies and examined for forensic evidence, he said.

The search for the large cat continued Monday morning, Foy said.

The clothing the child was wearing at the time of the attack was recovered for an examination in a forensic laboratory in Sacramento so scientists can extract and isolate DNA to identify the animal responsible for the attack, Foy said.

Mountain lion attacks rare in California

While mountain lions are present all over California, attacks against humans are rare, with only 13 recorded since 1986, according to state wildlife officials.

Rebecca Dmytryk, president of the Moss Landing-based Wildlife Emergency Services organization that offers medical treatment to injured wild animals, said that drought conditions are making animals like mountain lions travel farther to find food and become desperate enough to contact humans encroaching on their habitats.

“This is the leanest time of year for all wildlife,” Dmytryk said. “There is less out there to eat and this is the driest season we have had in decades.”

“We should expect more and more of these encounters just the way the cards are stacked,” she said.

Hikers in lion territory should always go with a partner, wear protective gear, carry a rescue whistle, air horn or a large “scary” stick and keep children at their side and not allow them to run free, Dmytryk said.

“There is only so much of (lion habitat) left,” she said. “It would be wonderful if we could have nature preserves where people are not allowed. (Lions) just don’t have anywhere to go when they are pushed to the limit environmentally,” she said.

Dmytryk said she doubted that the lion that attacked the child stalked the group afterward and the tracks found by searchers may have been from the lion’s own trail there.

(Image via Shutterstock)