(ProsperNews.net) – A 21-year-old man has died following an attack by a mountain lion in northern California. The victim and his 18-year-old brother were searching for deer antler sheds near Georgetown in El Dorado County when the attack occurred, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office confirmed. The younger brother reported the incident to police, who arrived to find him with severe facial injuries and his older sibling lying on the ground with the animal crouched close by. Deputies fired their weapons to scare the creature away, but life-saving efforts proved fruitless, and the young man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sheriff’s later identified the brothers as Taylen and Wyatt Brooks, and the surviving younger sibling described the ordeal to local media. He said when they encountered the lion, they raised their hands and threw a backpack to spook it, hoping it would leave.
Captain Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said this is precisely the advice he would give for such an encounter, but on this occasion, it sadly did not work. He described that people should stand tall, shout, and face off against the beast, which would usually be enough to scare them away.
Alys Granados of the Bay Area Puma Project explained that the animal was probably young, not long away from its mother’s protection, and had not yet learned “how to be a Puma.”
The attack was the first in California since 2004, with 22 such incidents noted since 1986. Mountain lions, also known as Pumas, Panthers, and Catamounts, are native to the American continent and are found in regions as varied as Canada’s northwest to the Andes mountains that stretch from Chile to Venezuela.
In the US, they live in several states, mainly in the midwest and on the West Coast, but also in Texas and Florida. The Lone Star State is home to the largest and most varied population in America, with around 5,600 in residence.
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