Caution: Mountain Lions

CAUTION: Mountain Lions!, originally uploaded by slworking2.

A hiker was attacked by a mountain lion in the Palo Alto Foothills of California. Ouch!

PALO ALTO (KGO) -- Police and a trapper are on the lookout for a mountain lion that pounced on a lone hiker in Palo Alto's Foothills Park on Saturday.

Police Agent Dan Ryan said the man was attacked from behind but avoided serious injury because the lion knocked him down a hill, where he hit a tree as the lion tumbled down into a creek.

I have only once seen a mountain lion in the wild, near Breckenridge, Colorado. It was awesome! Far enough away that there was no need to feel threatened but close enough to see it well.The lion was hunting amongst the rocks, looking for rodents before bounding over the ridge and out of sight. Some hikers on the trail I was going to take got to within 20 or 30 feet of the lion. They never saw it.

Stealthy creatures. I remember talking to a ranger in Olympia National Park about mountain lions. He showed me a picture of a family eating at a picnic table with a mountain lion on a branch above them. The family did not notice the lion until the pictures were developed! I wonder from time to time how close I have been to a mountain lion without knowing it.

Update: Tom at Two Heeled Drive has a post on this incident and mentions a study that mountain lions will get very close to humans without their knowledge.