Said the spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, quoted in "How the trail runner attacked by a mountain lion in Larimer County killed the animal/Necropsy: Jogger suffocated mountain lion in life-or-death struggle" (The Denver Post).
The victim was running on West Ridge Trail [west of Fort Collins] when he heard something behind him... As he turned, he saw the mountain lion pounce for his head and neck...The mountain lion bit him on the face and wrist. The victim managed to partially block the attack with his forearms, Ferrell said. He managed to fight and break free from the mountain lion. Once he fended the mountain lion off, he counter-attacked the cat by getting on top of it, she said. There are still a few mysteries, though, including exactly how he suffocated the animal....I'm picturing something like this:
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A deep shoulder rub works on cats.
The article said that it was a juvenile cougar and that these attacks are often done by animals that are emaciated with hunger.
I think once you're fully aware that you are in a life or death situation and are willing to fight and sustain injuries, your chances should be decent against a weakened 80 pound cougar. Still, very impressive that this guy was able to do it after being ambushed.
Hercules killed the unkillable Nemean Lion by strangling it. Which is what the painting is showing (side note--I'd be real nervous about running around all naked when I'm fighting unkillable lions, but that might just be me)
But I doubt I would have the strength to be honest.
--Vance
Another kill and he’ll get his 00 license
Even the best artists can't paint cats worth a damn.
I never did that.
There are still a few mysteries, though, including exactly how he suffocated the animal.
Althouse said... "I'm picturing something like this."
Funny, my mind went to something less gender binary, less biblical.
It might have been a sexual assault.
If you're into interval training, there's no better way to improve your sprint times than the occasional mountain lion attack.
The poor mountain lion never learned to code.
Get the animal on its side and kneel on the side of the chest.
I gonna guess chokehold from behind. It's not like the thing wouldn't try to claw the shit out of him if he had it in a front chokehold. But if so, it's amazing he outmaneuvered the cat.
While the gent survived the Cougar, though a mite scratched up and disheveled, a good .357 Magnum would have ended the affray without any bloodshed from the jogger.
May I suggest a good S&W K frame 2 1/2 inch barrel Combat Magnum (get one of the vintage 19s or 66s, not the new stuff.) Even with good Plus P .38s it will handle any big kitty short of a lion. They are commonly used in South America to dispatch Panthers, which make our Cougar look like a house cat.
He used his balls. Big balls. The guy has big balls.
I immediatly thought of Tarzan's many struggles with lions in the books. He would always get on their back and choke them or break their necks. They were always bad lions though. He had good relations with some lions.
Is that painting about Samson or Heracles and the Nemean Lion? Both heroes killed their lions barehanded (and bare-assed according to the artist).
Meh. Jussie Smollet fought off two crazed MAGA dudes while protecting a sandwich.
Althouse, get your mind out of the gutter. Colorado doesn't have buff naked runners, at least in February.
Does this story remind anyone else of the story of how Daniel Boone "kilt a bar?" http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Be-Ca/Boone-Daniel.html. Does anyone today know who Daniel Boone was or has his legend been sacrificed on the alter of identity grievances?
There are still a few mysteries, though, including exactly how he suffocated the animal....
Maybe he used a plastic bag. ;-)
"I'm picturing something like this."
A 500 pound lion, eh?
I'm picturing perhaps a 50 to 80 pound immature puma, probably injured and/or starving, which are the typical reasons for attacking a human.
Keystone Ranch, Colo., Jan. 14th, 1901 –
“Soon we saw the lion in a treetop, with two of the dogs so high up among the branches that he was striking at them. He was more afraid of us than of the dogs, and as soon as he saw us he took a great flying leap and was off, the pack close behind. In a few hundred yards they had him up another tree. This time, after a couple of hundred yards, the dogs caught him, and a great fight followed. They could have killed him by themselves, but he bit or clawed four of them, and for fear he might kill one I ran in and stabbed him behind the shoulder, thrusting the knife right into his heart. I have always wished to kill a cougar as I did this one, with dogs and the knife.”
~ Vice President Theodore Roosevelt
Shouldn't this man have given his life instead for PETA?
There was a local story here a couple years ago about a guy trapped under and ATV attacked by a rabid fox that he managed to choke to death.
https://tinyurl.com/yac5ahnk
There was a story a few years back about a guy strangling a cougar to protect his kids. I always figured the parental instinct gave him the extra push he needed, but I guess self preservation is enough.
This is what the ecological preserve down the road from us says to do. Off the top of my head it seems most of our attacks are joggers and bikers.
What To Do If You Meet a Mountain Lion
Do not approach a mountain lion, and never approach cubs even if they appear “abandoned”. Mother mountain lions are extremely protective of their young.
Stay calm and upright. Talk firmly to it. Appear to be in command. Move slowly away while facing the mountain lion. (Running may stimulate a lion’s instinct to chase and attack. Teach children not to run if they see a lion).
Raise your arms. Try to make yourself look big - open your jacket if you are wearing one. If you have small children with you, protect them by picking them up.
If the lion behaves aggressively, throw what you can get yours hand on without crouching down or turning your back. You want to convince the lion you are not prey and that you may, in fact, be a danger to the lion. A lion that is about to attack may have ears held back, snarl or growl, or twitch its tail.
FIGHT BACK if a lion attacks you. Remain standing! Mountain lions have been known to stop attacking when people fight back.
It'd be a big disappointment if this "Mountain Lion" turns out to be a Bobcat.
I was in the Sierra's once and they closed down the trail because of M. Lion sighting. Later we were told it was a Bobcat. The Rangers had a good laugh.
Can we assume that his wallet is the one that says Bad Motherf*cker?
I used to live in Fort Collins. One spring I broke my arm in a climbing accident, and determined to stay in shape for the eight weeks I'd be in a cast, I took to speed hiking the trails on Horsetooth Mountain where that guy was attacked. I've never been much of a runner, so I just walked, miles and miles every day as hard and fast as I could go. Back then it was kind of remote, and I never saw another hiker. Sure glad a cougar didn't try to take me, as I'm not sure how I would have done. I guess I could have used the cast as a club, but my radius and ulna were freshly pinned back together and trying to bash a lion over the head with my cast probably wouldn't have been all that much fun.
@Larry - lived in Ft Collins from 1982-1990. Had an office mate there who had grown up there, then became a Navy pilot. Between one leave and the next, town had grown several miles down College. It had probably doubled by the time we shared that office, and may have done it again by the time I next went back a decade or so later. Had a condo, then a house, right by Rocky Mountain HS, between Horsetooth and Shields, a mile or so west of College, and worked as a consultant as a software engineer at the USDA data center at Mulberry and I-25. Back then, much of the drive to and from work was through less well developed areas. Very peaceful, esp at night, on the way home, late at night, when I would often, it seems, solve the programming problem that had been stumping me.
I had been working in DC. Actually had spent most of 5 years in Suitland, MD, and only the last couple months in Georgetown. My boss asked me if I wanted to consider a transfer to Ft Collins. I told him that I could be ready to move within the week. He said, no, that I should go out and visit. I knew better - I had grown up 70 miles south of there in Golden. I shipped everything I wanted to keep to my parents, drove my new RX-7 out for Christmas, flew back, and rented a car for a month or two until the transfer came through. I was pleasantly surprised living there. It had a tiny downtown surrounded by miles and miles of new suburban growth. Plus the CO land grant university, which included the vet school, and a decent engineering school (mother of my kid got their first two CS degrees there).
"May I suggest a good S&W K frame 2 1/2 inch barrel Combat Magnum (get one of the vintage 19s or 66s, not the new stuff.) Even with good Plus P .38s it will handle any big kitty short of a lion. They are commonly used in South America to dispatch Panthers, which make our Cougar look like a house cat."
Each to his own. When we had a small kid living in the mountains west of Denver in the mountains, and had Mtn Lions in the neighborhood, sat out on the porch with the kid in the afternoons and walked with the mother and kid in the evenings with a 12 guage loaded with buckshot. Nice thing about that was that it also worked well as a big club, should the buckshot not be effective (or the cat got too close). Turns out that the one that had been coming up a small ravine on the property every evening, had been hunting dogs several miles east of there. It took a couple 50 pounders, without much of a trace, but a 70 pounder was too much to carry, so was tracked back to its lair, which turned out to have been maybe 1/4 mile north (downhill towards Clear Creek 2,000 feet below), with only two houses between us and its lair. And, no, cats that are fearless enough around humans to take their dogs can't be relocated. I should add that maybe a year earlier, a Mtn Lion had taken an adult male jogger by Idaho Springs, maybe 15 miles west, after I-70 drops down to run alongside Clear Creek.
Now, we spend half the year in rural NW MT. We live in the valley floor, right by town, so don't see that many large predators - black bear and coyote. But we have long had mountain lions higher up, and more recently, both brown bear and wolves have returned. Wolves, in particular, make a revolver problematic. So, I carry a 10 mm G20 when I get outside city limits, loaded with 16 rounds alternating solid cast and hollow point. Solid cast works better for bears, esp brown bears, while the hollow point is probably better for mountain lions and esp wolves. One nice thing about the G20, is that I have a 9 mm G17 that I have probably run 5,000 rounds through, and they don't shoot that differently. The G20 is a little bigger, a little heavier, and has a little bit more recoil. Not that much more though, thanks to the added weight. But not differently enough to screw up my shooting, which a revolver would definitely do. Most of us can't move that well between semiautomatics and revolvers. I know that I can't.
That said, I agree that your .38 is probably more than sufficient for mountain lions alone. I doubt that in a confrontation with such that you would empty the weapon. I expect that things would move very quickly, if attacked, and by the time you could empty it, one of you would have won, or it would have run away gravely injured.
Bad MotherFu**er
It was a kitten. Under a year old. https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2019/02/05/it-was-a-kitten-so-the-mountain-lion-the-guy-in-colorado-killed-without-a-weapon-it-was-less-than-a-year-old/?utm_content=bufferff079&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&fbclid=IwAR3UaNNB0d_Va8QYwU7lkLRrVft5aTVEyZ1ybylyyjKndPdF5VRXkclBGho
"So, I carry a 10 mm G20 when I get outside city limits, loaded with 16 rounds alternating solid cast and hollow point."
Considering where you live Bruce, the 10mm would be a wise option (mine is a Delta Elite Colt..) Since I've been a gun nut since I was 16 (long long time ago) I shoot lots with both wheel guns and self shuckers.
Beats using fist and feet on those cats and black bears by a big margin.
Montana is a great place! I live in Texas.
Nice glutes, Samson.
I suspect that a ball of string and/or a can of tuna would have been better tools with which to defeat his foe, along with leaving the cat in good stead.
jvb
The pic shows how you do it. Grapple with the 4 footer using your hands to control its head that has its fangs in it . Whoever gets on top can then pin down and choke the one underneath him.
This is why people call wrestling Man's oldest sport. One wins and lives while the other one dies. Survival of the strongest one.
My dad owned two adult cougars. We bred four pairs of kittens. We would regularly interact with them in their cages, hand feed them, and occasionally take them out on leashes. The cougars would even ride to the veterinarian in the back seat of my car. Eventually however, the Vet would not treat the cougars without sedation so we started to administer annual shots ourselves.
We had a procedure for administering shots. The cougar was isolated in the small cage, 10' X 10', and two leashes affixed to the cougar's collar. My brother would hold one leash and I the other. As long as each person holds his leash tight, the cougar could reach neither of us. We would then attach the two leashes to opposite sides of the small cage, my brother would hold the Cougar's tail and I would administer the shots.
But one Christmas Eve the male, Paco, was due his shots. While following the described procedure, my brother dropped his leash. As my brother tried to retrieve the leash Paco attacked him. Paco was unable to get to my brother's throat but did fasten his fangs in my brother's chest. I was able to get Paco off my brother by tightening his collar and pounding on his ears. My brother then fled the cage as I slowly fought my way out by backing up to the door, sacrificing my arms to keep Paco away from my face and neck. As I slipped out the cracked cage door, Paco was able to grab my lower leg in his jaws and keep me from escaping. I eventually got loose by gouging Paco's eyes. I never went in the cage again.
My injuries were relatively minor because it was very cold and I was wearing long johns, a quilted shirt, lined jeans, and a coat. I ended up with fang holes all over my forearms and in my right lower leg. My brother needed twenty-five stitches in his chest. I cannot imagine what it's like fighting a wild cougar with no where to escape.
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