Mountain biking comes with its fair share of built in risks, but I doubt anyone that ever saddles up thinks they’d really need to worry about encountering a wild animal.
However, some cyclists riding in a wilderness area in Snoqualmie, Washington got quite the scare when a mountain lion launched an attack on their mountain biking group. It’s reported that a 6 month old mountain lion came rushing out of the wooded area and confronted one of the five bikers that were traveling along side a creek.
The big cat honed in on one woman in particular, forcing the other four mountain bikers to act fast in order to save her life. They somehow managed to pin down the mountain lion, and held it there until authorities could arrive to help.
A Washington Fish and Wildlife official had this to say about the heroics of the others in the mountain biking group:
“They did struggle with this animal. They did fight back, and if it wasn’t for these people, the lady that was attacked would be in much worse shape.”
When wildlife officials appeared at the scene, they shot and killed the young mountain lion. It is believed that another big cat was in the area as well at the time of the attack, but it was able to run away.
As to why the random attack happened in the first place, the Washington F&W official guessed that it was a combination of the animal’s youth and the setting that the encounter took place in:
“It is likely the younger ones that cause the most trouble because it’s still figuring things out. They’re still figuring out how to take down prey and what’s good…
Where this happened was close to a creek, which is a mountain lion’s natural place to follow because that’s where prey goes. These bicyclists just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Though it was a rather scary incident, mountain lion attacks are incredibly rare. In the video below, 9News reports that in the last 100 years, there have been 2 deadly attacks and just short of two dozen that left people injuries.
You can view the local news story about the incident here:
