Lion attack in North bend?

[Timberstalker]

A cougar attack I can see, but for it to chase down and kill the second person has to be very rare...

I was thinking the exact same thing.

[jackelope]

A cougar attack I can see, but for it to chase down and kill the second person has to be very rare...

I was thinking the exact same thing.

[bearpaw]

I imagine the cat was hungry, it had probably seen plenty of humans in the area and none of them posed a threat. Remember the video from Vancouver Island a few months back, that cat had no fear of that guy.

[zwickeyman]

My sincere condolences to the family of the 2 men, if the 2 guys have family on here I am sorry. We all as outdoorsmen take a chance of something like this happening to us every time we head out. "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" 

Every one on hear knows we need more predator management, every one. Just some wont admit it

[Cougartail]

You guys jumping directly to relating this to hunting/politics is plain silly. It could be the only cougar left in the state and still have done this under the right ( or wrong) circumstances. Maybe I’d buy it if it was like a once a week or even month thing but come on n guys. Sometimes a tragedy is just a tragedy

You guys are as bad as the left given the right subject matter ...

Immediately following the closure of hound hunting predation on pets and livestock skyrocketed. I know because myself and my hunting partners helped WDFW with a lot of the predation calls in NE WA. You ignoring the obvious is just plain silly! 

No. You blaming this attack on politics is silly. A cats a cat and any cat that n any state is fully capable of this attack. This happening on a regular basis I’ve over there since the day after the law changed? I must have missed the news story’s.

Sorry but I’m going to call bs on spin when I see it

That would be sweet if you even had a slight clue what you were talking about!

My friends, my son, and I have responded to dozens, not just a couple handfuls of incidents, but literally dozens of predations by mostly cougar in NE WA for WDFW, most of these incidents occurred after hound hunting was banned. Three attacks by cougar were on children here in NE WA, one at Barstow, one at Deep Lake, one at Sullivan Lake, two of the cats that attacked the kids were caught, one was not. When hound hunting of cougar was allowed the cougar had more fear of humans and stayed farther back in the mountains! There is a direct correlation! Next time you might want to know what you are talking about before you call someone silly! Just sayin! 

Go to a national park and see the difference in behavior of predators in the park as opposed to outside the park. Absolutely correct assessment.

[James]

Can most cougars be put into a situation where this could happen regardless of predator numbers? Of course, but you are missing some important points.

1)   This is a statistics problem, while predator attacks are rare, but the higher the predator numbers the higher the occurrence rate of attacks, that’s just math.

2)   Desperate animals are more likely to make risky choices.  This goes from the simplest arthropods to even us “advanced” humans. Higher predator numbers combined with lower prey number (see predator prey population models), habitat encroachment, etc. leads to a higher occurrence rate of desperate animals.

3)   In my mind this biggest issue is fear/human acclimation. Want to know why even though we are one of the most helpless animals on this planet (without our tools) yet most animals fear us? We used to hunt anything that caused us trouble. Just venture from a wilderness area (anywhere you can hunt really) where most bears bolt at the sight of a human then go to a national park where they are likely to come up looking for a snack. Hunting IS important even if we only harvest the surplus, they are not stupid and learn quickly.  Go up to Canada where the first nations harvest seals, they don’t follow fishing boats like sea lions in the Columbia.

[LongBomb]

Not saying i support the management plan ( quite frankly don’t have intimint knowledge of it, but I doubt I’d be in favor of it) I’m saying politicizing some ones tragedy to support your stance is BS that’s no different than happens after a school shooting form the anti’s. And I call BS on that too.

If this area has a cat season sounds like every one bitching needs to strap on there boots and actually do something about how passionate they claim they feel about the issue

This specific area is Campbell Global land. Regulated by a limited number of $300(I think) permits required for access.
@bugs n bones

There are a lot of cougars up there! You can buy a vehicle access pass and drive in behind the gates. My company is just finishing a project up there that started in 2016 and between all our guys there was multiple cougar sightings as they drove from one work site to the next, during the day. I never got the chance to see one my self but seen plenty of tracks once the snow came. I ran into a bio that said they had a bunch of cougars collared up in that neck of the woods. I forget the exact number now but he said they were monitoring how much they go down into the urban areas.

[bearpaw]

Anyone who lives in Idaho should understand how predator hunting or lack of hunting changes predator behavior. Before wolves were hunted in Idaho they were literally showing up in towns and many wolves had little fear of people. Now that wolves have been hunted quite a few years in Idaho behavior has changed, now wolves are just as tough for the average person to see as cougar.

Washington could easily condition cougar to be afraid of humans by allowing "Pursuit Only Hound Hunting". Conditioning could happen without killing any cougar.


I'm sorry for the thread jack and certainly meant no disrespect to the victims or their families, again my sincere condolences. 

[cem3434]

Just announced they both died.

Where did you see or hear this? I just read in the Olympian that the hospital tweeted out the 2nd victim was alert and talking as of 2:26 pm.

[jackelope]

Just announced they both died.

Where did you see or hear this? I just read in the Olympian that the hospital tweeted out the 2nd victim was alert and talking as of 2:26 pm.

Pretty sure that was a mistake. There's nobody reporting 2 dead that I can find.

[KFhunter]

Sad and traumatic deal for sure, unfortunatly I think it's going to take a lot more attacks to swing the tide. 

"won't happen to me"

"cat must have been sick or injured"

"they should have had bear spray"

and 100's of other apologist remarks like that and this'll fade in people's minds.  A flock of sheep doesn't really care if a few get culled, they panic for a few minutes then start grazing again.

[bigtex]

A cougar attack I can see, but for it to chase down and kill the second person has to be very rare...

He ran and became prey. Natural fight or flight response on the part of the cougar. Hard to believe two adults in North Bend were both unarmed.

Lots of yuppies recreate in the Snoqualmie/North Bend area

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[Pegasus]

If they were carrying they both probably would be alive.  Wonder if the cat chased that guy for 5 miles(doubtful) or the guy was injured and lost his way? 5 miles is a long way to go if you are seriously injured but it is doubtful a cougar would follow someone seriously injured  for 5 miles with out finishing his wounded victim off much sooner.

[Pegasus]

"The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife is handling the investigation. The sheriff's office spokesperson said the fate of the cougar is UNCLEAR should they find it."  Let's not upset the liberals....

[bigtex]

"The Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife is handling the investigation. The sheriff's office spokesperson said the fate of the cougar is UNCLEAR should they find it."  Let's not upset the liberals....

It'll be killed.

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