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A father fought off a mountain lion that attacked his 8-year-old son Wednesday in Bailey.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife puts the attack around 7:30 p.m., and officials said it happened while the boy was playing in the yard with his brother. The boy suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized overnight.
CPW officers set traps and tried to track the mountain lion with a team of dogs following the attack. They searched the area for roughly two hours, but were unable to pick up a scent to track the animal.
The boys were reportedly playing on a trampoline outside when the 8-year-old heard one of his friends calling from a neighboring house and ran to go visit his friend. While he was running, the mountain lion pounced on the boy and bit him on the head.
His brother ran inside and told their father, who rushed outside and found the mountain lion on top of his son. The mountain lion let go of the boy and took off running as the father came at the cat.
“The kid was running and it probably triggered the lion’s natural response to a prey animal running,” Area Wildlife Manager Mark Lamb said in a CPW news release. “We all hope that the child will be alright and you just hate to see this occur.”
Since 1990, there have been 22 mountain lion attacks on humans in Colorado with three of those resulting in death, all in the 1990s, according to CPW.
There have also been three attacks this year alone, including one this month near Kremmling and another Feb. 4 on a trail runner at Horsetooth Mountain Open Space west of Fort Collins. The last time three attacks occurred within the same year was in 1998.
The Associated Press is reporting that authorities said they euthanized two lions that were found roaming the area on Thursday.