A 21-year-old man was killed and his 18-year-old brother was injured in a rare and tragic mountain lion attack on Saturday in a remote area of Northern California's foothills. The incident marks the state's first fatal mountain lion attack on a person in approximately 20 years, according to statistics from California wildlife officials.
The El Dorado County Sheriff's Office reported that the brothers were hunting for shed antlers near Georgetown when the mountain lion attacked. Around 1:15 p.m., the younger brother called the sheriff's office to report the attack and said he had been separated from his brother, according to Fox News.
Deputies arrived at the scene around 1:30 p.m. and found the 18-year-old with traumatic injuries to his face. They immediately began administering first aid while other deputies searched for the missing brother. The older brother was found lying on the ground with the mountain lion crouched over him.
In an attempt to save the man, deputies fired their service weapons to scare off the mountain lion, which had positioned itself between the deputies and the victim. Once the mountain lion fled, deputies rushed to the older brother, but unfortunately, he was already deceased.
Wardens and trappers from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, along with the El Dorado County Trapper, responded to the area and located the mountain lion. The animal was subsequently euthanized, and its carcass was collected for further examination.
Kyle Parker, a spokesperson for the El Dorado Sheriff's Office, told the California news station KCRA, "A fatality like this is extremely rare." Statistics from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife document only 22 mountain lion-on-human attacks in the state since 1986, with four of those cases resulting in human fatalities.
The most recent fatal mountain lion attack in California occurred in 2004 in Orange County, where competitive cyclist Mark Jeffrey Reynolds was killed in Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park. The same mountain lion was suspected of injuring a second cyclist hours later before deputies shot the animal.
Georgetown, a historic town of just over 2,000 people, is located approximately 50 miles northeast of Sacramento. The brothers' identities have not been publicly released, and no updates on the younger brother's condition were immediately available.
Mountain lions, also known as cougars, are typically about 30 inches in height at the shoulder, 8 feet in length, and weigh around 175 pounds. While attacks on humans are rare, this incident serves as a tragic reminder of the potential dangers posed by wild animals in remote areas.
