If confirmed, the encounter can be the state’s first deadly cougar incident since a minimum of 1999.
A cougar in Colorado (Picture: Georgia Evans / iStock by way of Getty)
Printed January 1, 2026 09:47PM
Colorado wildlife officers are investigating what they believe could possibly be the state’s first deadly mountain lion assault in additional than a quarter-century after hikers found a cougar close to a girl’s physique on New 12 months’s Day.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) stated that the hikers reported the encounter shortly after midday. In line with an company press launch, the group was mountaineering up Crosier Mountain in northern Colorado’s Larimer County once they noticed a cougar standing close to a girl’s immobile physique about 100 yards away. The witnesses managed to scare off the animal by throwing rocks at it. Once they checked the sufferer, nonetheless, they have been unable to discover a pulse.
CPW officers and an company biologist who had been conducting airborne surveys of deer populations searched the world for mountain lions, assisted by canine handlers, native sheriff’s deputies, volunteer firefighters, and police from the close by city of Estes Park. Responding officers shot two cougars, one discovered on the scene of the incident and one other positioned close by.
In its launch, CPW famous that company coverage requires it to euthanize any animals suspected of attacking people, and stated that its pathologists would conduct necropsies on the animals to search for indicators of illness or harm. Colorado’s 9NEWS famous that the company additionally plans to check the animals for human DNA.
The Larimer County Coroner’s Workplace will launch each the sufferer’s id and explanation for dying.
If confirmed, this week’s incident would mark the primary deadly cougar assault in Colorado in additional than a quarter-century. Since 1990, a minimum of two folks have died in encounters with mountain lions within the state, in 1991 and 1997. A 3rd, 3-year-old Jaryd Atadero, went lacking throughout a hike in Roosevelt Nationwide Forest in 1999 and was present in 2003, his physique bearing indicators of predation. Authorities formally listed his explanation for dying as undetermined, however pointed to a “possible mountain lion assault” on his dying certificates.
Mountain lion assaults on people are very uncommon, with research estimating that 4 to six happen yearly throughout all of North America. Deadly assaults are rarer nonetheless, averaging fewer than one per yr. CPW advises hikers who encounter one on the path to make noise, maintain gear over their heads to seem larger, and again away slowly.
