A brutal mountain lion attack just 45 miles north of Sacramento, California, on March 23 left 18-year-old Wyatt Brooks with “traumatic injuries to his face,” and his brother, Taylen Brooks, 21, dead, according to the El Dorado Sheriff’s Office.
Wyatt Brooks is expected to recover.
The tragic attack on the Brooks brothers has garnered the sympathy of the nation.
Taylen Brooks’s death was the first fatal cougar attack in the state in 20 years.
Though mountain lion sightings are increasingly common in western states, such attacks are rare.
Since 1890, there have been fewer than 50 verified mountain lion attacks on humans in the Golden State, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).
Of those, six have been fatal.
The attack on the Brooks boys is the second terrifying incident involving a mountain lion in the western states this year.
A Feb. 17 attack just 35 miles east of Seattle left competitive cyclist Keri Bergere with severe head and neck injuries on a mountain trail just 35 miles east of Seattle, according to a statement from (WDFW).
Ms. Bergere and her companions were riding on a mountain trail when a pair of cougars jumped out of nearby bushes. One of the cats, a 75-pound male, dragged her from her bike and locked his jaw onto her face.
The victim’s companions reportedly spent the next 15 minutes fighting the cougar off with sticks, rocks, and even their bikes.
Ms. Bergere, who spent five days in the hospital, will recover.
Two people have died as a result of cougar attacks in Washington in the past century, with 20 other reported encounters leading to human injuries, according to the WDFW.
The most recent fatal cougar attack in Oregon took place in 2018 when Oregon resident Diana Bober was killed near Mount Hood.
She suffered a broken neck and had more than a dozen puncture wounds to the nape of her neck as well as defensive injuries to her hands, according to an Oregon State Police report.
Authorities said her death was the first confirmed fatal cougar attack in that state.
The Big Cats
Also called pumas, cougars, and panthers, mountain lions can weigh between 75 and 175 pounds. Grown adults can reach 8 feet in length from the nose to the tip of the tail, according to the National Park Service.Although a cougar’s primary food source is deer, they will also consume elk, raccoon, bighorn sheep, birds, and other mammals, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW).
The big cats also kill domestic pets and livestock.
After dwindling for decades, cougar populations have been growing rapidly since they received protected status.
In Oregon, an initiative petition approved by voters in 1990 prohibited hunters from using hounds to sport hunt cougars. This significantly reduced the number of hunters pursuing the cats.
As the number of animals taken plummeted, their population exploded.
In the late 1960s, there were an estimated 200 cougars in Oregon.
Today about 6,300 of the big cats live in the state, the highest cougar density in the nation according to the ODFW.
In California, mountain lions are classified as a “specially protected” species following the passage of the California Wildlife Protection Act of 1990, known as Proposition 117.
Nearly half of the Golden State is considered prime mountain lion territory, with the cats most commonly found in areas with plentiful prey and adequate coverage.
These conditions often include mountain subdivisions, urban fringes, and open spaces ranging from humid coastal forests to the deserts out east.
Today an estimated 4,500 cats reside in the state, according to CDFW.
A Harsh Reality
Wildlife managers acknowledge that conflicts will occur, particularly in rural settings.In rural Oregon, cougars have been seen on the playground of an elementary school, on a popular beach, along recreational trails, in backyards, and frequently on farms.
“As both the cougar and human populations have grown, so have the number of conflicts and damage complaints,” according to an ODFW management plan that is “designed to address the conflicts between the growing numbers of cougars and humans.”
When cats become a threat, the ODFW plan allows hunters to kill cougars that have killed livestock, threatened humans, or driven deer or elk populations.
Western Oregon resident Eric Lee removes predators under this plan as an unpaid “agent” for land owners, who are allowed to “dispatch an animal under any means necessary,” under ODFW rules.
An avid outdoorsman, Mr. Lee became an agent when his own family experienced a loss.
“I started doing this when a cougar got my wife’s favorite goat in 2018,” he explained. “We felt violated. I just want to help people who are in a similar predicament.”
He began responding to complaints of animal predation west of Eugene in 2020.
Since then, he has responded to more than 150 different cougar “kills” in an area of just 120 square miles.
In one two-week period, Mr. Lee responded to reports of cougar kills on three different farms. Six sheep had been killed in one week and one farm had lost eight goats over a year.
“These types of encounters are not unusual,” according to Mr. Lee.
“When these big cats find easy prey, “they’ll just keep coming back and can wipe out people’s herds,” he said.
“Anywhere you have hiding cover, trees, and brush, and a prey population, such as deer and turkey, you’re going to have cougars. If you live adjacent to forest habitat, a cougar has likely moved through the area.”
In another incident, Mr. Lee responded to a report of a cougar that had taken two goats inside a fenced enclosure just 30 yards from a residence. The cat had killed and buried a four-horned male goat.
“Cougars will bury their kill and return to feed on it later,” Mr. Lee explained.
Within a matter of days, Mr. Lee spotted and caught the cat, which was a 110-pound male that measured 84 inches long.
Cougars can also be “thrill killers,” according to Mr. Lee, who has found animals that cats had killed and not consumed.
“One cat killed 12 goats and three chickens in one night.”
Mr. Lee is concerned about the growing potential for conflict with humans.
“Most of the cats I have trapped are within 100 feet of houses,” he said. “One cat ... was just 30 yards from a little girl’s swing set.”
“If a cat would take a 90-pound, four-horned goat, what’s stopping it from taking a kid?”
