A woman was killed in a suspected mountain lion attack while hiking alone in the mountains of northern Colorado on Thursday, in what would be the first fatal attack by one of the predators in the state in more than 25 years, authorities said.
Wildlife officials later in the day found two mountain lions in the area and fatally shot the animals, said Kara Van Hoose with 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 of the Rocky Mountain National Park.
Shortly before noon, two hikers encountered a mountain lion near the woman’s body along a remote section of the Crosier Mountain trail, which is located on national forest.
Hikers threw rocks at the animal to scare it from the immediate area so they could try to help the woman, Van Hoose said. One of the walkers was a doctor who attended the victim and did not find a pulse, she said.
Details of the woman’s injuries and cause of death were not immediately released.
Van Hoose said the search for other mountain lions in the area is ongoing. She said circumstances would dictate whether any additional lions found would be killed.
Sightings of mountain lions are common in the forested area where the suspected attack occurred, but there have been no recent documented attacks on humans, Van Hoose said.
“This is a very common time of year for mountain lion sightings and reports to be taken and especially in Larimer County, where this is very good mountain lion habitat,” she said. “The trails in this area are in pretty remote terrain, so it’s wooded, it’s rocky, there’s elevation gain and it’s downhill.”
Mountain lion attacks are rare and the last suspected fatal Colorado attack was in 1999, when a 3-year-old boy was killed. Two years earlier, a 10-year-old boy was mauled by a lion and dragged away while hiking with family members in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Last year in Northern California two brothers were caught and then attacked by a lion they tried to fight. One of the brothers was killed.
The animals, also known as cougars, catamounts and other names, can weigh 130 pounds (60 kilograms) and grow to more than six feet (1.8 meters) tall1. They eat primarily deer.
Colorado has about 3,800-4,400 of the animals, which are classified as big game species in the state and can be hunted.