Photo: VICTORIA RAZO / Getty Images
By: The opinion Posted Mar 21, 2023, 18:27 pm EDT
A puma surprised and attacked a man who was enjoying a moment of relaxation sitting in a hot tub Colorado.
As reported by Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) in a press release, a man sitting in a hot tub on the ground was scratched on the head by a mountain lion on Saturday nightprompting Colorado Parks and Wildlife to start a search for the animal.
“CPW officers were alerted to the incident around 10 p.m. and four wildlife officers responded to the scene – a rental home in a heavily wooded subdivision about five miles west of Nathrop along Chalk Creek in Chaffee County,” CPW reported.
The Cougar attack victim had four superficial scratches on top of head and near the right ear. By the time CPW was alerted and responded, the victim had cleaned the wounds and declined any medical assistance. The agents determined that the wounds were compatible with the claws of a puma.
The victim of the feline attack told agents that he and his wife were sitting in a hot tublocated on the ground and away from the house, around 8:00 p.m. when he felt something grab his head. he and his wife they began to yell and splash the animal with water. The victim’s wife took a flashlight and shined it on the animal, which they identified as a puma.
The light and the commotion made the puma will move about 6 meters away from the couple that was in the jacuzzi. They kept shouting at the puma and, after a short time, it climbed to the top of a hillnear some rocks, where he crouched down and continued to watch the couple.
In search of the offending cougar
As reported by CPW, his first two officers to arrive on the scene immediately began searching for the lion, following a steep ridge along the creek. No puma tracks could be found due to low temperatures and frozen snow on the ground.
CPW agents decided that bloodhound tracking would likely be unsuccessful given the sprawl of homes in the subdivision and the scene’s proximity to the nearby Mount Princeton Hot Springs Resort complex one mile to the east. SA trap was set nearby in the hope of catching the lion.
“We believe that the puma probably saw the man’s head move in the darkness at ground level, but did not recognize the people they were in the hot tub,” said Salida-based area wildlife manager Sean Shepherd.
The Saturday night incident It is the first reported attack by a mountain lion on a human in Colorado since February 27, 2022.. This is the 24th known attack by a mountain lion causing injury to a human in Colorado since 1990. Three other attacks in Colorado since 1990 have resulted in human deaths.
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