Cougar Attacks In Washington: Very Rare, Rarely Deadly

NORTH BEND, WA - When you go into the forest in Washington, there's always the slight risk you'll come into contact with another predator. On Saturday, two men encountered a cougar while biking in the Cascades foothills near North Bend. One died, the other was severely wounded.

State wildlife officials killed the cougar they believed perpetuated the attack. The man who died was identified Sunday as S.J. Brooks, 32, of Seattle. His friend Isaac Sederbaum, 31, of Seattle, is being treated at Harborview Medical Center.

The two men were bike riding along a remote road when the attack happened. The men were able to scare the cougar off once, but it came back a second time and attacked. Sederbaum was able to escape while the cougar focused on Brooks.

Cougars (also called mountain lions) rarely attack humans in Washington - and even rarer do cougars kill humans. Cougars have only killed 25 people in the U.S., according to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, since officials began tracking attacks about 100 years ago. Until Saturday, only one of those fatal attacks occurred in Washington.

In Washington, Cougars live in almost every part of the state - from the rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula to the arid mountains near Idaho. Cougars typically steer clear of humans, but have been known to mistake mountain bikers and trail runners for prey.

Here are some notable cougar attacks that have happened in Washington:

December 1924: Jimmie Fehlhaber, age 13, died in Olema (about 20 miles southeast of Twisp) while trying to run away from a cougar.

June 1977: Cherie Lee O'Neal of Seattle was camping with her husband and two children near Enumclaw. While sunbathing near the Greenwater River, a young male cougar attacked. O'Neal fought the cougar off, but it went after he 4-year-old daughter. O'Neal's husband scared the cougar off, and it was later found and killed.

June 1992: A cougar pounced on a young girl walking inside Lake Wenatachee State Park. Her father knocked the cat off his daughter and cornered it in a tree. State wildlife officials captured it, but later euthanized it.

August 1994: A 5-year-old boy was attacked inside the Olympic National Park near the Dungeness River. The boy's father was able to scare the cougar off by yelling at it.

May 1996: A 28-year-old man was hiking in the Olympic National Park in the Elwah Valley when he was attacked. The man was able to use wrestling moves to fight the cougar, and the animal eventually ran away. The hiker suffered gashes and puncture wounds.

August 1998: A cougar carried Carmen Schrock, 5, off into the woods near Metaline Falls north of Spokane, but she was saved by her family. She survived the attack but died along with four siblings in 2005 in a car accident.

August 1999: A 5-year-0ld boy living near Kettle Falls was dragged off by a cougar. An adult was able to scare the cougar into releasing the boy.

September 2002: A woman jogging at Summit Lake near Olympia was stalked by a cougar. The cougar attacked her one time, slashing her arm, but ran off and was never found.

April 2006: A 59-year-old man was attacked in front of his home in Leavenworth. He was playing fetch with his dog when the cougar emerged from bushes and latched on to the man's leg. The cougar let go and fled the scene. Police tried to find it, but never did.

July 2017: A dog and its owner encountered a cougar while hiking near Cle Elum Lake. The dog confronted the cougar and was killed.

(Information about attacks in Washington from Cougar Info, a database of attacks compiled by wildlife researcher Linda Lewis.)

Photo via Getty Images