California Woman Fights Off Mountain Lion With Bare Hands To Save Her 5-Year-Old Son

Mountain lion
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One of the most important laws of nature is that you should never get between a mama animal and her babies.

A good majority of the conflicts between people and aggressive wildlife is because someone gets too close to the offspring and the mother animal perceives it as a threat. It triggers the animal’s fierce instincts to defend its young.

This concept is most commonly displayed with bears, since both black bears and grizzlies are popular tourist draws  people seem to perceive them as cute, cuddly, and approachable thanks to views about nature have been shaped by teddy bears and cartoons.

Even much smaller species that have no chance of causing harm to humans will still harass people that get too close to their babies. For example, geese are particularly fierce when defending their nests.

That’s a two way street though, and this mountain lion in California learned that the hard way when it messed with the wrong lady’s little dude.

According to The Guardian, a 5-year-old boy was attacked by a mountain lion while playing near his house at the end of last week. He suffered significant injuries to his head and upper torso as the cat drug him roughly 45-yards across the front law until the boys mother went into beast mode and fought the cat off with her bare hands like some kind of real life wonder woman.

“The true hero of this story is his mom because she absolutely saved her son’s life.” 

The mother was inside when she heard a commotion in the yard and her motherly intuition kicked in. When she saw the predatory cat heading for the hills with her kid she tore outside like a bat out of hell with no inhibition for her own personal safety and started yelling and punching the lion with all of her might.

The onslaught of maternal fisticuffs startled the cat enough that it dropped the boy and ran off. The parents immediately drove the boy to the hospital and notified law enforcement officials that there was an aggressive animal in the area. Once at the house, a wildlife officer with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife found attacking lion crouched in the bushes behind the house with its ears pinned back and hissing.

For the sake of public safety the officer made the decision to dispatch the animal with his firearm.

“Due to its behavior and proximity to the attack, the warden believed it was likely the attacking lion and to protect public safety shot and killed it on sight.”

DNA taken from the boys wounds matched samples taken from the dead cats claws and confirmed it was the lion responsible for the attack. Another mountain lion spotted in the area was also tranquilized but once it was confirmed that it was not responsible for the incident it was release back into the wild.

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