Teen Says He Was Attacked By Mountain Lion, Officials Say It Was A House Cat

On July 3, a 19-year-old in Arroyo Grande, California, suffered a mild concussion after being attacked by what he claimed was a mountain lion. However, after an investigation, wildlife officials say forensic evidence points to something far less intimidating: a common house cat.

The teen, whose identity has not been released, told officials in his initial report that he was riding a dirt bike when an animal fell out of a tree, nearly pulling him off the bike. In an interview with The stand, He claimed something grabbed his helmet, yanked him backwards and nearly knocked him unconscious just as he hit the gas pedal to “get out of there.”

“At first I saw something the size of a dog — a big dog — fall out of the tree and barely miss me,” said the teen, who later returned to the scene to see if anything else had fallen on him. “There was nothing for me to hit my head on. There was no tree that had fallen.”

After receiving the teen’s initial report, law enforcement officials from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife began an investigation, interviewing the victim and collecting DNA samples for lab testing.

Captain Patrick Foy, of CDFW’s enforcement division, says Outdoor living that the evidence collected did not support the teenager’s claim that he was nearly attacked by a predator.

“Our investigation, including interviews, collection of evidence in the form of clothing worn by the reporting party, and forensic analysis of that evidence, did not confirm the presence of a cougar,” Foy said. He did not clarify whether investigators searched the scene of the alleged attack for additional clues.

What the investigation did reveal, he says, was DNA from Felis catusa domestic cat. Anyway, the victim sticks to his story.

Read more: Four mountain bikers overpower the cougar that nearly killed their friend

The teen told reporters in a follow-up interview that he has a pet cat, which could explain the DNA found on his helmet and clothing. He also said the conspicuous absence of mountain lion DNA in CDFW’s forensic tests was because the mountain lion “barely grabbed the back of my helmet and pulled me back.”

“The caller has a pet cat, so it wasn’t a surprise,” said Foy, who added that CDFW continues to take the incident seriously.

“We’ve been closely monitoring our Wildlife Incident Reporting (WIR) database to see if others in the community have reported seeing a cougar,” Foy said. “So far, it’s been negative.”

Puma attacks on humans are extremely rare. Only 24 confirmed cougar attacks on humans have been reported in California since 1984, with most attacks occurring on young children. According to the CDFW“A person is a thousand times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be attacked by a puma.”

But with nearly half of these confirmed attacks occurring in the past decade, conflicts with humans in California appear to be on the rise. In March, two brothers were attacked and one killed by a mountain lion while hunting near El Dorado National Forest. Taylen Brooks, 21, died after taking the lion from his 18-year-old brother.

This was the first fatal cougar attack in the Golden State in 20 years, and the tragedy has led to Taylen’s uncle, Malcom Brooks, to call for changes to California’s lion management policies. He joins a growing number of hunters and rural California residents who believe the state needs to bring back cougar hunting in some form — or at the very least find a way to make cougars less comfortable around people.

“We’re really playing with fire, and what happened to Taylen and Wyatt could be the tip of the iceberg,” Brooks said. “Find a way to allow people who have lion dogs to have permits to chase them. Put pressure on this population. Get them out of human habitats.”

Rough estimates suggest that there are between 4,000 and 6,000 cougars living in the entire state. According to CDFWThe population is “considered stable based on the best scientific knowledge, research, and methods available.” Despite the cats’ abundance, however, California’s wildlife managers have one less tool in their toolbox, thanks to the state’s cougar protection laws.

Read more: A hiker says he was attacked by a mountain lion. Officials say it never happened

The state hasn’t held a cougar hunt since 1972, and the feline predators were reclassified as a “specially protected mammal” when Golden State voters passed the California Wildlife Protection Act in 1990. The new laws made it “unlawful to take, injure, possess, transport, import, or sell a cougar or any product derived from a cougar.” (The law makes it illegal to possess lions mounted by taxidermists in California, even if they were taken in another state.)

And since many California residents care deeply about protecting their state’s cougars, and made a dramatic public display of grief when a 12-year-old cougar was euthanized in the city after being hit by a car, the state’s policy is unlikely to be reversed by a popular vote.

However, some may reconsider their position if cougars fall from trees more often.