5 Cyclist Attacked By Cougar Near Fall City, Washington

 @blackthorne: it’s not senseless retaliation. Land managers will kill an animal with a history of attacking humans because it’s reasonable to assume the animal attack isn’t isolated.

 @mr-epic-3: I can tell you have not ever been in a situation where you were no longer at the top of the food chain. You have zero clue what you are talking about. “Normal daily business” for a predator who is not afraid of humans includes… hunting humans. It’s not a moral issue, it’s a survival issue and a predator who sees humans as a food source, once they have that embedded in their personality, will continue with that habit. It’s too bad because at 75lbs, it’s a juvenile cat who probably doesn’t know better, but the land managers can’t assume somebody will teach it better.

 75 pounds is not a healthy adult cougar. Chance are this one was either desperate for a meal and perhaps sick, or young and inexperienced. In any case, the animal was not long for the planet. Sick ones don't last, young ones that don't fear humans get shot. Healthy cougars don't attack humans very often. Anyone that wants to get up on a pulpit and judge those involved may was well sell their bike, and lock themselves indoors. Animals that naturally fear and avoid humans that lose that fear, are not functioning in their natural state.

 @cerealkilla: It was classified as a kitten at 75lbs. Not an adult.

 @mr-epic-3: how normal is it for a couger to attack humans? I'm from the UK but from nature shows, youtube etc etc my knowledge is that they're weary of humans unless absolutely starving? Maybe that's what meant by erratic behaviour?

 @cerealkilla: It was a 6 month old cub. Attacked the gravel riders along with the mother who ran off. Cougar family was living in a zone that got logged a week ago.

 @bcatt: Yup, so inexperienced juvenile. Hadn't figured out that humans are bad news yet. Crappy outcome.

 @naptime: they don’t seem to be “common”, but I hear of probably one a year it seems.

I’m on the outskirts of Bellingham, WA, up against the mountains. My neighbor had two cougars in his yard last week, and the mountain near my place seems to have a few sightings a year (that I hear of) as well. There’s also a lot of bear activity up there. I’ve never personally seen a cougar, but my wife thinks she has seen one in our field a couple years ago.

Idk that I’ve ever heard of an attack that wasn’t related to protecting young or involving a sick cougar. Shit, I never want to wind up in that situation. What a terrifying thought. I don’t even want to see one while on a ride.

 I so thought this was the start of an amateur porn flick

 @Compositepro: I’m happy to be attacked by a cougar.

 sad it wasnt a milf... unlucky guys

 @naptime: "The website states that cougar attacks on humans are extremely rare and in Washington state, there have only been two fatal cougar attacks and approximately 20 other recorded encounters that resulted in human injury in the last 100 years."

 @proxient: ..but Mr Epic says they have been doing this for decades! DECADES!

 @naptime: Cougar attacks on humans are very rare and most documented cases are against children. Cougars are not taught that humans are prey so unless they are provoked by humans or starving for food with no other options, they will leave humans alone.

 They weren't trapped out there with a cougar. The cougar was trapped out there with them

 @naptime: Wild animal are unpredictable (Adult or Juvenile) if they are hungry and see an easy meal they will attack. The female cyclist look like easy prey to the mountain lion, so it did it thing.

 @mr-epic-3: I believe humans are very rarely seen as an easy meal in the animal kingdom. We are a relatively big species. Very few animals choose humans as a meal. The woman is likely twice the size and weight of this Cougar, on a bike we present as even larger beings. I've had a couple of Cougar encounters myself, and from what I could see the Cougars were easily larger than myself. In both cases I noticed them as they were running away from me. Even in very dense populations of Cougars (i.e where I live the most dense population of Cougars in the world), attacks on humans are incredibly rare.

 @likeittacky: Правительство России called. You're hired. Report immediately

 @ceecee:AHHHH, now you like what and i write, I knew we'd see eye to eye at some point.

 @gnarnaimo: Agreed attacks on humans is rare and maybe the cougar attack her for some other reason. There was a guy attacked & killed by a black bear in Prescott, Az about 6 months ago and Fish & Game had no answer for why it attack this guy. The bear was health and had a full stomach. Like I said wild animals are unpredictable. Most people never think about it, but when they go into the wildness they better pay attention to their surroundings.

 @likeittacky: first we round up Mexicans, then Canadian/s

 @ceecee: How many cats do you own? Pun Intended

 @likeittacky: how many incels does it take to screw in a light bulb?--none; an incel can't screw in a light bulb

 excuse to buy hydra hubs?

 What kind of cougars are we talking about here?

 I was thinking best to avoid pubs that play any music from the 90s or prior.

 So 90 year old grandpa will be OK?

 And avoid the North Scottsdale, AZ bar scene.

 @southshorepirate: when in cougar country always carry a can of Coors light that you can toss a fair distance away as a distraction.

 men under 30 will have it live on instagram, whereas men over 30 will have only a tale to tell

 @Dtwillow: yes

 @mior: Great idea, I will use this 'safety' idea to sell my wife on why I need some special new wheels!

 @jeffrocx: One should never carry a can of Coors Lite. And if one happens to be in the presence of said can, tossing it a fair distance is always the best course of action.

 @Dtwillow: The kind that pounce and dig their nails in duh

 @mior: and if you're looking to trap a cougar under your bike i'd recommend one of those 900wh norco ranges

 @Dtwillow: Definitely a Gravel Lion

 Phew, I'm 36 so I guess I'm safe to keep riding alone.

 @axleworthington: depends on his net worth

 @Dtwillow: That hot soccer mom down the road?

 @jeffrocx: Was at my local pub tonight and I swear TF one walked in, sat at the end of the bar and ordered a Coors Light. I was howling inside!

 @southshorepirate: genuine question, I thought a pub was an English thing and that it’s normally a bar. Have I got that totally wrong? I’m not well travelled lol!

 @kipvr: In the US at least, a bar, pub, or tavern are all the same thing--an establishment whose main function is serving alcohol.

 @kipvr: There are some technical distinctions when it comes to allowable operating hours here in Canada, but essentially it comes down to styling and how the location markets itself. To me a pub or tavern is a watering hole, typically just a wet bar that likely also serves some sort of food, has sit down tables, is open from lunch onward. No stage, no cover charge, you can talk over the music and a good assortment of pints on tap.

But there's a wide array of bars, pubs, cabarets, taverns, clubs, etc over here.

Molson Coors has a cool location in Toronto where they train customers on different beers. The place is set up in 3 zones with an American "bar", English and Belgian pub section. Only the American section has bottles for sale in a fridge with a pool table, the English (or Belgian?) pub has glasses over the bar and dartboards. I dunno if if it's a sham or true but it was a neat night out as they showed the steps to pour various pints "properly", i.e. which beers to overpour, cut the foam, etc. I don't remember much though!

 There was a die off of deer and elk populations in the 2022/2023 winter in much of the PNW due to a hard winter. That has really pushed cougars into populated areas. There is also less hunting (and it is probably being severely restricted).

Same thing is happening in Idaho, especially Ketchum. Young cougars are going into town searching for food.

 @HB208: Cougar hunting in WA isn’t any more restrictive than hunting other species like Elk.

 @burt-reynolds: Its going to be: biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/washington-commission-oks-hunting-reforms-for-cougars-bears-2023-12-18

 Not in the Midwest "mountains"

 @edventure: Midwest rider here. We have two or three of them at least in Kansas “hills”.

 Only happens to other people, right?

 North Minnesota has a few cougars not to many but they are here. Charismatic Megafauna.

 come to the uk, our most dangerous animal is a fekin hedgehog

 @theflatlanders: 2-3. Wow very cool.

 @edventure: there are no "mountains" in the midwest.

 @mattg95: boars

 @mattg95: I’d wager that a really angry duck might have a hedgehog beat.

 @mattg95: had a mate nocked off by a charging badger on a night ride once

 Can confirm. They were gravel bikers on gravel. Not MTB out on a trail.

 @slovenian6474: oh well this changes everything. Mountain bikers never cycle on gravel roads. (Sarcasm)

 @btjenki I mean....if the initial reports referred to "gravel riders", would the average person actually know wtf that even means? Most people aren't absorbed in a diet of dumb industry semantics like we are.

 I remember a recent story here in the Bay Area about a “mountain biker” attacking a woman jogging on a “trail”. It was an asphalt trail at a local park and a homeless looking dude on certainly not a mountain bike but the woman who was attacked said it was a mountain biker so they ran with that.

 How do you explain it being a mountain lion then? Wouldn't it be a gravel lion?

 They shot a cat over a gravel rider???


(I hope she's okay. What a terrifying ordeal)

 I mean - your right but to the average person does it really matter? I think that falls under technically correct but non-relevant info to the general public.

 @RadBartTaylor: like literally. "Cougar attacked cyclists" oh, really, what type of tyres did the bike have?

 Maybe it wasn’t a cougar or a mountain Lion… Rather a Gravel Lion

 This is a general use trail, not specific to gravel riders. I ride it on my mtb, but there are also walkers, runners, kids on striders, gravel, mtb. etc.

 @pmhobson @caltife @RadBartTaylor @johnny2shoes My reason for calling it out? Because I think it's a good idea for news information to be accurate. We have a major problem with hot takes and bad information in the public sphere these days so I think it's best when accurate information is presented. Inaccurate information has either a neutral or negative impact on society-no positive. I agree general public doesn't know difference. That's why it should of said 'cyclists' attacked on a 'logging road' in the initial report, because that's what it was. Not "mountain bikers attacked on a trail".

I ride gravel as well, have no issue with that user group, the point is that there is a distinction in how & WHERE the user groups ride--so it is relevant to the story, even for the masses. 'Cyclists' is the correct broad user group term that should have been used by the initial and continued news releases from authorities.

Beyond the primary issue that news should be accurate. ... The second issue is the harm and/or confusion the inaccurate information cause on a local level. Locally, online, there has been a lot of negative comments/conjecture on the MTB user group. Some people in the local community going as far as calling for MTBers to be banned from riding in areas where cougars live, etc. Others saying the MTBers were trespassing (there are no MTB trails in the exact area of the attack and it's private land). Some of this negative community energy, while un-likely, could lead to negative outcomes for MTBing. All could be avoided if accurate information was released by officials involved in the case.

Lastly, I'll add, details in this case matter as there could be a lot of eyeballs on how to move forward with the cougar population/user access in this general area. There have been 2 cougar attacks within 4 miles of each other in the past 6 years. The first, in 2018, had a fatality and this would of likely been a fatality if the person was alone. Something that has never occurred in the past 100 years in North America. Because of this, the facts of the case are more important when making decisions on access/game management, etc.

 @btjenki: fair point on general public looking at MTBers as the cause of a wild animal dying, didn't look at it from that perspective.

To play devils advocate maybe some of them were riding MTBs - so it may be technically be correct. In which case, as a writer of a news article, you get to make a judgement call.....be technically correct or genericize the article in good spirit since riding a MTB on a gravel road is not "Mountain Biking"

 @AnimationNathan: Here is a perfect example of why accurate information matters.. AnimationNathan thinks this occurred on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail (I'm assuming) because that is what the news channel was recording on for the story and they said it happened on a 'trail'(?) However, this happened on a remote gravel logging road 5 miles north of the SVT. Here: maps.app.goo.gl/TEUWktX5nmyLfA54A
There are no walkers, or kids on striders there, haha. You have to have a permit to ride here as it's private land.

 @btjenki: I’m sensitive to issue that impact trail access. I’ve in Portland. I totally get it.

I have one quick question: do the people who want to ban MTBers from riding areas give a flying f*ck about the amount of suspension on the bike or the shape of the riders’ handlebars?

(Narrator: they don’t)

 @btjenki @RadBartTaylor: Agreed - fair point on the optics for mountain bikers, I didn't consider the contested access and factionalism issues that you guys have to deal with across the Pacific.

I only come at it from the point of being an ex-journalist - column space/time is precious, so less is more, layman terms are generally preferred and "mountain bikers" more immediately evokes "off road cyclist" to the average audience. Very true that news accuracy standards are slipping away (to the point that many in the Western hemisphere happily digest the barefaced lies of a criminal...) but for something relatively benign as an outdoor sports incident... surely some easily recognised shorthand is passable.

Final thought - while I don't like the venomous snakes down here, I am SO glad I don't have to duck and weave massive bloody cats and bears!

 @caltife: Australia has more snake bite fatalities since 2010 than there have ever been fatal cougar attacks and that's with a well developed anti-venom schedule. As a transplant I'll take the cougars any day.

 @btjenki: bro this is too coherent to be on this website. Get out while you still can.

 @farkinoath: yep the "stick or snake" game isn't fun, particularly at speed...but north America can keep its hairy bitey things

 RHERES A GODDAM COUGER IN THE CAR!!!

 Hopefully they got their balls back

 she ripped my Crystal Gale shirt...................
:'D :'D :'D

 This is EXACTLY why I like loud hubs. It's a deterrent... or a dinner bell. Hopefully the former.

 Hope FTW!! Hopes have the best sounding hubs IMHO.

 Could've been starving too, attacking someone in a group of people sounds like an act of desperation.

 Bummer all around but that youngin wasn't raised right by mama cat.

 @suspended-flesh: My thoughts exactly. Mama cat is supposed to teach them to stay away from humans. For some reason, she let jr. stage that attack. Makes me sad for the boy cat and the humans too.
Betcha they all had to change their riding shorts.

 Googly eyes on the back of all my helmets for exactly this reason

 Didn't WDFW track down the cougar afterwards, and determined the animal was sick which emboldened it? It was a sad event.

 Dude, get your facts straight before spreading misinformation. Every time this story comes up there's some bro going on about the victims handled it poorly. Officials said that they handled the situation correctly; they both got off their bikes, made themselves look big, and yelled at the cougar. It kept coming and attacked one of them and the other that was killed trying to flee. The cougar was way underweight and probably desperate. Nobody knows that they would've done in the situation when they did what they should and it didn't work... maybe you could've beat it with your bike, maybe not, but it's pretty lame to leave out parts the story of someone's death to build yourself up and suggest you would've handled it better.

 As far as I've ever heard or read, mountain lions do not go for the face, they go for the back of the neck. It's why hikers in Vancouver Island (highest concentration of cougars in the world) wear packs that cover the back of their necks.

hikingguy.com/how-to-hike/understanding-mountain-lions-when-hiking

mountainlion.org/2020/11/03/mountain-lion-kill-site-forensics-identifying-predation-scavenging-and-kleptoparasitism

www.edcgov.us/Government/ag/pages/mountain_lions.aspx

www.backcountryattitude.com/mountain-lion-safety.html

 Cougar bite certified helmets

 @rsapp240:

Whoa. It looks like I didn’t communicate as well as I wanted. For the record, I never tried/wanted to imply that I would have done any better. Nor was I trying to say the other attack victims didn’t do other things right.

I was just trying to say good for the 5 people last week for handling the situation well, and not giving up. Sorry if that didn’t come across that way.

 My wife and I were there that day. We were excited to ride in WA for the first time. Had heard so many good things about Tiger Mountain so chose to go there first. Super fun mountain but it was a horrifying intro to PNW riding.

 @twozerosix: The initial media reports from the 2018 attack were inaccurate/guessing and said the animal 'might have been sick'. The final report that came out after autopsy was completed found no health issues with the cougar. It was slightly under weight but not starving and had fat reserves.

 @rsapp240: His facts on the situation are quite accurate. The first person was attacked, head in the mouth of the cat. When the second person ran, the cat leg go of the first person and chased the second person. Taking that person down and eventually killing them. That is factual, not 'misinformation'.

 @Hayek: This attack was on gravel riders, 4 miles north of the Tokul MTB trails. Which are about 10 miles north of Tiger, depending how you measure it. That said, there are lots of cougars at Tiger too. Quite a few in these parts.

 @Hayek: Having relocated to the Seattle area a year ago from the UK bumping into the local wildlife here was the biggest concern as I ride mostly on my own. Rode the trails at Tiger Mountain a lot last year and in September I had my first Cougar sighting luckily it ran across the trail about 150 yards in front of me but it still made the brown stuff come out.

 @novajimmer: I literally did my first MTB ride in Washington this Saturday on Tiger Mountain!!! I'm visiting from the UK for a few weeks and I'm going to live in Issaquah for the last two weeks, was planning to ride Tiger Mountain after work every day... Slightly worried now!

 @btjenki: thx for that

 @Paluzas: you’ll be fine, I’ve ridden tiger in the dark lol and every weekend for a long time.

 @btjenki: I was referencing the attack on Tiger Mountain about 5 years ago that killed a rider that was mentioned in the post above. That was my first experience in the PNW

 @Hayek:
That didn’t happen at Tiger Mountain. It happened like 15-20 miles from Tiger Mountain.

 @Hayek: There's been no attack on Tiger. The attack in 2018 was 4 miles from the attack this past weekend. Same gravel road system.

 Agree with you sentiment here, but just to clarify for accuracy, it was a kitten (yes, a 75lb kitten) that was the attacker and therefore euthanized. Not the mother with cubs.

 @sarahmoore
Couple updates at a gofundme set up for the rider.
www.gofundme.com/f/keris-ride-to-recovery?fbclid=IwAR0MOMnm8ziCodgvWKLnQzDb5nC2IVQHNlqzZQni3tYnIu4DIFWEvCj7tBc

 I can't believe I had to scroll down this far to find this one. Steve French would never do this

 Lol. That was unexpected.

 Looks like a zucchini will do in a bind.

 Don't drain the swamp!

 That's the name of the cougar

 username checks out

 youtu.be/1vCulArInkw?si=UtbeOl8JQXBj_M2J

 Seriously. That's impressive work by the ladies. Cougars on cougar action.

 Props to those friends. That is seriously awesome.

 They had mountain bikes . . . The assault rifle of the bicycle world

 You ride bikes with a gun?

 A Good Guy With A Gun is a myth concocted by the NRA, one has never successfully defended anyone, ever.

 Jamie does