A woman was killed in a suspected mountain lion attack while she was hiking alone in the mountains of northern Colorado on Thursday, authorities said, in what would be the first fatal attack by a predator in the state in more than 25 years.
Later in the day, wildlife officers found two mountain lions in the area and shot and killed the animals, said Kara Van Hoose of Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
The attack occurred in the mountains south of the small community of Glen Haven, about 7 miles northeast of Estes Park and considered the gateway to the eastern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park.
Shortly before noon, two hikers encountered a mountain lion near the woman’s body along a remote portion of the Crosier Mountain Trail, which is located in a national forest.
Van Hoose said the hikers threw rocks at the animal to scare it away from the immediate area so they could try to help the woman. She said that one of the hikers was a doctor who attended the victim but did not find a pulse.
Details of the woman’s injuries and cause of death were not immediately revealed.
Van Hoose said the search for other mountain lions in the area continues. Circumstances will determine whether any additional lions found will be killed, she said.
Van Hoos said sightings of mountain lions are common in the forested area where the suspected attack occurred, but there have not been any recent documented attacks on humans.
“This is a very popular time of year to record mountain lion sightings and reports, especially in Larimer County, as this is very good mountain lion habitat,” she said. “The trails in this area are in very remote terrain, so it’s wooded and rocky, and there are ups and downs.”
Mountain lion attacks are rare, and the last suspected fatal attack in Colorado was in 1999, when a 3-year-old boy was killed. Two years earlier, a 10-year-old boy was killed by a lion and dragged away while hiking with his family in Rocky Mountain National Park.
last year In Northern California Two brothers were chased and then attacked by a lion and tried to fight them off. One of the brothers was killed.
These animals, also known as cougars, catamounts and other names, can weigh 130 pounds (60 kilograms) and grow to be more than six feet (1.8 meters) long. They eat primarily deer.
Colorado has an estimated 3,800 to 4,400 of these animals, which are classified as the state’s big game species and can be hunted.