[thunderhead]

Even more details, good article. Serious fight with that cat.

[timberghost]

https://www.kcra.com/article/el-dorado-county-deadly-mountain-lion-attack/60286108#

[Chief Joseph]

"Statistics from the agency show attacks on humans are rare, occurring perhaps once or twice per year. In many years since the 1980s, there have been no confirmed attacks." Yea, sure, kind of like the "100 year flood" event that is happening about every 5 years.

[Chief Joseph]

Many times with the media we have hyperbole and minimization and the truth falls somewhere in between.

[Ski]

I'm thinkin' maybe the cougars finally decided they've had enough and they're not going to take it any more. Can't blame 'em, really.

[reststep]

Maybe I shouldn’t hike at night anymore.

[thunderhead]

Looking at fatality stats and making some assumptions about usage times i estimate the average WA state outdoor recreationist has a risk of 1 fatal attack by cougars every 1 to 5 billion hiking hours. The sample size of cougar attacks is so small this number is only of medium confidence. Driving has more robust stats and the math is thus most precise: your driving fatality risk is about 1 death every 2.5 million driving hours. You should be 1000 times as concerned by other drivers as you are of cougars. Please dont share these stats on WHC... we want to scare off as many people as possible

[Cyclopath]

[Randito]

The cougar attacks that I've read about -- a common thread I've observed is that the attacking cat tends to be a "teenager" and a bit underweight. My supposition is that that cats that haven't had good success feeding on deer and other wildlife give humans a shot when they are desperately hungry after some time after separting from their mother. I don't know whether bear spray would have been effective in getting the cat to release it's hold on the woman that was attacked. The woman was fortunate to have a team of people brave enough to defend her and keep at it when initial attempts were ineffective. What a horrific experience. Statistics aren't all that helpful in changing the emotions people experience -- but as a comparison 30-50 people per year are killed by dogs in the USA vs < 1 fatal attack per year from cougars. Also around 6000-13,000 people per year are attacked by dogs severely enough to require hospitalization in the USA. Around 20,000 people are murdered each year in the USA another 700,000 people in the USA are victims of aggravated assault per year. So it the other humans that your really need to watch out for...

[Route Loser]

My takeaway from talking to the bored fish cops at WDFW Enforcement is that it would be crazy to go outside without a gun. Since I don't carry, their next best advice would be to lethally remove the attacking vertebrate (feline, canine, or primate)... with my knife! I'm working on my tactical knife skills, but I'm wondering how effective it will be against invertebrates, protists, and bacteria. I was going to get a bigger dog, but now Randito has me worried about that, too.

[James Tiberius Kirk]

^ come on, man. I've been on trails for a long, long, long time and have yet to run into anything where I thought I might have need of a firearm, and that includes some pretty jacked-up lunatics who were threatening to kill me. Your odds of winning the MegaMillions lottery are better than being attacked by a cougar. I had Spock run the calculations for me. Yours truly, Captain Kirk

[RumiDude]

[Randito]

[domaz]

[solohiker]

Especially true if you are a hiker that never buys lottery tickets! 🤪