Mountain Lion Is Euthanized After Attacking a Child in Olympic National Park
The child was treated at a hospital in Seattle and released on Monday, officials said.
The child had been walking with family at the national park on Sunday when the mountain lion, which was wearing a tracking collar for research purposes, attacked, according to park officials. The child's identity and extent of their injuries were not released.
Mountain lion attacks on humans are exceedingly rare, according to wildlife experts. There have only been a couple dozen fatal attacks in the U.S. and Canada in the last 150 years, according to data. Mountain lions are mostly solitary cats, tending to keep a low profile among people, which makes sightings of them unusual.
The child was attacked while on a popular trail near the Victoria Overlook area on Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park, officials said.
Rangers were notified of the attack about 3:15 p.m. on Sunday, and paramedics and park staff quickly transferred the child by an air ambulance to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
Rangers, and later a canine team, searched for the animal and found it on Sunday. It was not euthanized until Monday morning, park officials said.
Mountain lions are known by more than 40 common names, including puma, cougar, panther, red tiger and catamount. They are most active at dusk and dawn, and their favorite prey are deer and elk.
No details were released about the animal, or its contribution to research.
In 2022, another collared mountain lion, known as P-22, was euthanized in Los Angeles after wildlife officials determined that he had serious health issues. That one had become a celebrity in the city, after helping to inspire the construction of a wildlife crossing bridge on the 101 Freeway.
P-22 lived most of his life in Griffith Park and gained a social media following, with more than 10,000 followers on Instagram. But despite the crossing bridge, he was hit by a car in 2022. Soon afterward, he attacked two dogs, one of which died.
Olympic National Park, which covers more than 920,000 acres on a thumb of land known as the Olympic Peninsula, is one of the largest, most remote, and least-developed protected areas in the United States.
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