A man in Colorado had a close call with a mountain lion while he was soaking in a hot tub at a rental property. The incident occurred on March 18th in Nathrop, Colorado, where the couple was staying in a heavily wooded area around five miles west of the town. According to reports from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the victim felt something grab his head while he was in the hot tub with his wife. The couple then identified the animal as a mountain lion and quickly scared it away.
The victim suffered minor scratches on the top of his head, and officers confirmed that they were consistent with mountain lion claws. The department sat traps in the area to find the big cat but did not locate it. This was the first mountain lion attack on a human in Colorado in a year, and it’s the 24th known attack of a mountain lion on a human in Colorado since 1990.
While mountain lion attacks on humans are rare, they can occur, and the department urges people to be cautious when they’re in mountain lion habitats. If you encounter a mountain lion, it’s important to make noise and appear larger to scare the animal away. Colorado has an estimated population of 3,000 to 7,000 mountain lions. These elusive predators usually avoid humans and typically prey on large herbivores like deer and elk.
