BAILEY, Colo. — A mountain lion attacked and injured an 8-year-old boy outside his rural Colorado home in the third attack by the big cats on people in the state this year, prompting authorities to set traps and use search dogs to find the lion so they can kill it, officials said Thursday.
The boy had been playing on a trampoline Wednesday evening with his brother when a friend called out to him from a house next door. When the boy ran to see his friend, the mountain lion pounced and bit him on the head, said a statement from the Colorado Parks and Wildlife agency.
The boy’s brother ran inside the home and told his father, who rushed outside and found the cat on top of his son. The mountain lion let go and took off running as the father approached.
The boy was hospitalized and his identity and the severity of his injuries were not made public.
“The kid was running and it probably triggered the lion’s natural response to a prey animal running,” said Mark Lamb, an area manager with the state agency.
Colorado wildlife policy states that any wild animal that attacks a person must be killed, the statement said.
The attack came after a mountain lion last week attacked a hunter scouting places to hunt elk in Big Horn Park northwest of Denver. He fought it off with a pocket knife and officials tracked the mountain lion with hounds, killing it.
And in February, a mountain lion attacked a runner on a trail in mountains west of the city of Fort Collins. The runner used his foot to suffocate the young cat after it didn’t release his grip after he hit it in the head with a rock and tried to stab it with twigs.
There have been 22 mountain lion attacks on people in Colorado since 1990, and three people have died.
