It had been over 20 years since a mountain lion had killed a human being in the state of California until this weekend.
After heading out into the El Dorado National Forest, a pair of brothers got entangled with an ornery cat. The two men, aged 18 and 21, were shed hunting in the remote area located about 50 miles north of Sacramento when they were attacked.
According to the surviving brother, he had become separated from his brother during the altercation. Placing a 911 call at 1:13 PM on Saturday, officials responded promptly as the teen told them that he had “suffered traumatic injuries to his face,” during the attack.
Upon arriving, sheriff’s deputies and paramedics performed first aid on the younger brother and then set out to locate the missing sibling. As they approached his lifeless body, they noticed that the lion had remained as well. Now located between the first responders and the victim, the sheriff’s deputy fired a couple of shots in the direction of the lion to scare it away.
After a quick examination of the older brother, he was pronounced dead on the scene.
Following the mountain lion attack today, Sat., March 23, 2024, in Georgetown, California, a mountain lion was euthanized near the scene of the attack. The mountain lion has been sent to the CDFW forensics laboratory to obtain DNA information and general health of the lion.
— California Department of Fish and Wildlife (@CaliforniaDFW) March 24, 2024
According to Sgt. Kyle Parker of the Sheriff’s Office, the surviving brother has since undergone multiple surgeries related to his injuries.
Wardens from California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife were dispatched to the scene in an effort to locate the rogue lion. They soon found the offending lion and wasted no time euthanizing the animal to prevent any future attacks.
The cat has since been sent for DNA and health testing to determine what, if anything, prompted the attack. So far all that has come back from the tests was a positive DNA identification, tying the cat to the scene of the attack.
This attack comes a little over a month after a group of cyclists were attacked and had to subdue a mountain lion using their bicycles in Washington state. Fortunately, all of the victims survived in that incident.
It was 2004 when the last recorded mountain lion fatality was recorded in California after an Orange County woman was killed while riding her bicycle. Since 1890, California has experienced fewer than 50 mountain lion attacks and only six of those resulted in fatalities.
