Officials with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) are on the lookout for a mountain lion that attacked a man soaking in a hot tub this past Saturday night. The man, who has not been identified, was relaxing with his wife when the animal crept up behind him and grabbed hold of his head.
From there, things went as you might imagine. There was a lot of splashing and screaming. Eventually, the man’s wife managed to splash enough water on the lion that it decided to run away. She then found a flashlight to shine on the lion, who ran up a hill a short distance, crouched, and stared back at the couple. With a light trained on the cat, the husband and wife managed to escape to their rental house where they called the police.
Area Wildlife Manager Sean Shepherd speculated that the lion was just as surprised as two people in the hot tub. The couple was in an in-ground hot tub with only their heads sticking above the water, and the lion could have mistaken the man’s head for a small prey animal. “It’s likely the mountain lion saw the man’s head move in the darkness at ground-level, but didn’t recognize [there were] people in the hot tub.”
Read Next: Watch Mountain Lion Ambush Deer in Big Bend National Park
Luckily, the man only suffered superficial wounds and some scratches on his ear. When the authorities arrived on the scene, he refused medical attention. The CPW put out a lion trap and attempted to track the animal, but because the ground was frozen, they couldn’t.
“The couple did the right thing by making noise and shining a light on the lion,” Shepherd said. “Although this victim had only minor injuries, we take this incident seriously. We have alerted neighbors and posted signs warning of lion activity. And we will continue to track the lion and lion activity.”
Read the full article here
