The Unfortunate Death of a Mountain Lion Cub in Colorado

A mother puma rests in Torres del Paine National Park with two of her three young cubs.

I’m sure everyone saw the headlines a couple of weeks ago about a trail runner in Colorado who was attacked by a mountain lion which he then killed with his bare hands. He was lauded as a hero.  His “incredible” feat was reported on favorably by all the media.

But something didn’t sound right to me.  Male mountain lions weigh between 120 and 220 lbs, averaging 137 lbs.  Females generally weigh between 65 and 140 lbs, averaging 93 lbs.  Wikipedia.  Plus, they are much, much stronger than we are on a pound for pound basis.  I just couldn’t picture how a human could kill one without a weapon.  I could see a human putting up a good fight and the animal deciding to stop the attack and leave, but killing it with one’s bare hands?  No way I thought.  I decided to keep an eye out for any further reports.

As the details came out over the next two weeks it turned out the mountain lion was a male cub of just 35 to 40 pounds.  And the runner killed it by standing on its neck until it suffocated.  USA Today.   I’d like to see someone try to stand on the neck of an adult male mountain lion weighing the average 140 pounds or so.  A necropsy report later confirmed that the mountain lion was a male, only four or five months old, weighing 35 to 40 pounds. The cat had limited fat, indicating it was hungry but not starving.  Time.

The story goes on the report that this cub had two siblings that were later captured by Colorado Parks and Wildlife.  They were captured because Parks and Wildlife concluded the mother was dead because she didn’t come for the other cubs over a few days.  The cubs have been placed in a care facility until they are old enough to fend for themselves (although that is somewhat questionable without a mother to teach them to hunt).  They weren’t old enough to survive on their own.

In my opinion, the real story is that a mountain lion female with three young cubs had died.  While I don’t know how the mother died, the odds are that it was killed by a human, possibly a rancher nearby or the  Federal Government’s Wildlife Services agency which exists primarily to kill predators for ranchers and farmers.  To me, it’s not a hero story; it’s a sad story of a little mountain lion cub who would be alive today if its mother hadn’t been killed.

As I was writing this and searching for facts of the event I found a well-written blog where the writer posted a photo of a cub she was holding about the same size and age as the one that was killed.  It looks pretty small compared to an adult.  An incredible heroic feat?  Not compared to being attacked by an adult of about four times the size of the cub.  For a link to the blog click here.

Why did the cub attack?  I don’t know for sure, but most likely it was very hungry because its mother was no longer feeding it and it just reacted on instinct for food.  If it had been a deer walking by, the cat would probably have attacked it as well – and failed.