A mountain lion attacked and killed a California man and injured his teenage brother Saturday, according to authorities.
The attack, which happened while the brothers were antler shed hunting, was the first fatal mountain lion attack in the state in 20 years, according to an El Dorado County Sheriff’s press release. The victim’s 18-year-old brother called authorities and reported that a mountain lion had attacked both he and his 21-year-old brother, the press release stated. (RELATED: Man Uses Snowboard To Fight Off Cougar At Utah Ski Resort)
A weekend outing in the woods took a horrific turn for two brothers when a mountain lion attacked them, killing one and leaving the other with traumatic injuries to the face, according to authorities in California. https://t.co/L12WvBaD8p
— ABC News (@ABC) March 25, 2024
According to the release, the brothers were separated during the attack, with the younger sibling suffering “traumatic injuries” to his face that first responders were able to treat before taking him to the hospital. Other officers searched for the missing brother, eventually locating him on the ground by a crouched mountain lion, the release reported.
Since the mountain lion was situated between the officers and the victim, officers fired their weapons to scare off the big cat so they could provide first aid to the victim, according to the release. When officers finally reached the victim, they found him dead, the release stated.
“A fatality like this is extremely rare,” Kyle Parker, a spokesperson for the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, told KCRA.
The last fatal mountain lion attack occurred in 2004 when a 35-year-old man was killed at a local park, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“According to historical reports, four fatal incidents involving six victims occurred around the turn of the previous century,” the agency noted.
Wardens from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife later found the mountain lion and it “was dispatched, and the body of the mountain lion was collected for further examination,” Parker said.