NATHROP, Colo. — Wildlife officers mentioned Monday they’re looking for a mountain lion that clawed a person’s head whereas he was sitting in a sizzling tub along with his spouse at a rental house in central Colorado.
The man was soaking within the in-ground sizzling tub in a wooded subdivision west of Nathrop on Saturday evening when he felt one thing seize his head, in response to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
He screamed on the mountain lion and began splashing water whereas his spouse shined a flashlight on the animal. Authorities mentioned it retreated to the highest of a hill and continued to observe the couple.
The man and his spouse have been capable of get again into the house, the place they cleaned his wounds and known as the property proprietor, who occurred to work for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The man had 4 superficial scratches on high of his head and close to his proper ear, however he declined medical therapy.
“We think it’s likely the mountain lion saw the man’s head move in the darkness at ground-level but didn’t recognize the people in the hot tub,” mentioned Sean Shepherd, space wildlife supervisor primarily based in Salida. “The couple did the right thing by making noise and shining a light on the lion.”
State wildlife officers instantly started looking for the massive cat alongside a steep ridge close to a creek however couldn’t discover any tracks within the frozen snow. But they set a lure close by and can proceed to observe mountain lion exercise close to Nathrop, a mountainous space identified for its outside actions.
Saturday evening’s encounter was the primary reported mountain lion assault on an individual in Colorado since February 2022. Wildlife officers say a minimum of 27 folks have been injured in mountain lion assaults in Colorado since 1990, three of them fatally.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”