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Here is a story for you bowhunters that like to elk hunt in Colorado. link not pasting right



[Dentry: Party crashers stun bowhunter

Cougars surprise Minnesotan eyeing elk near Glenwood



September 23, 2003



Bowhunter Mike O'Brien returned to camp in the White River National Forest on Friday hoping to be a hunter again, not the hunted. This time, he's sure to be watching his back more carefully.



O'Brien, 29, of Outing, Minn., was attacked by two mountain lions on Sept. 11 while hunting elk east of Glenwood Springs. The brief scuffle with an adult female and young cougar left him scratched and tattered but undaunted and ready to hunt some more.









The incident, which O'Brien reported to the Colorado Division of Wildlife, happened about 6 p.m. near Grizzly Creek. It is the first recorded mountain lion attack on a human in the state in five years.



O'Brien said the elk herd he had been stalking grew skittish on the afternoon of the attack. But he enticed some bulls close enough to his position in a clump of brush that he was ready with a nocked arrow.



"All of a sudden I heard a twig break behind me. I turned around, and she was in the air," he said. "She hit me in the chest, and I fell over backwards, and then the little one was on me."



He said he shouted, and the lions ran off. "It happened so fast that I couldn't have defended myself. Even if I'd had a handgun in my hand, I wouldn't have had time," he said.



O'Brien said he figured the lions had mistaken him for an elk or deer and quickly realized their error. He suffered superficial claw marks on his hands and forearms and a sore neck from the impact of the female. He said his daypack, new rain jacket and silk long johns bore the brunt of the ambush. He wasn't bitten.



The cougars ran off in one direction, O'Brien in the other. Charged with adrenalin, he ran back to camp, more than two miles away, before realizing he might have been killed.



"The scariest part was when I finally got back to camp. I fell to my knees when I began to realize what had just happened. I know I am a lucky guy," he said.



The next morning he filed a report with district wildlife manager Sonia Marzec. That afternoon, he was back hunting again. He said he declined to go to a hospital because he had no puncture wounds.



O'Brien said he believes the attack was a fluke. He isn't worried that the same pair of cougars might purposely attack hunters and doesn't believe they should be hunted down and destroyed.



"I went to the same spot the next day. That'll never happen again," he said confidently.



The scent of elk blood might have triggered the attack. O'Brien said he wasn't wearing elk scent, which bowhunters often use. But two days before the attack, he had helped butcher a 5x6 bull elk that his brother, Tyler O'Brien, had killed.



The dried blood was still on his camouflage pants. The cougars pounced from downwind.



Every year a few hunters report they have been stalked by mountain lions, but there are no records of other attacks on hunters in Colorado.



There have been five previous cougar attacks - two of them fatal - in the state since 1991, when high school student Scott Lancaster was killed near Idaho Springs. In 1997, a lion killed a 10-year-old boy who was hiking with his family on the west side of Rocky Mountain National Park.



Nonfatal attacks occurred in 1994 near Cortez, in 1997 at Mesa Verde National Park and in 1998 at Roxborough State Park. In each case, the victims survived because they or other people fought back aggressively.



The Division of Wildlife says people who are confronted by a cougar should stay calm, speak firmly, face the animal and make themselves look as big as possible. Running is a bad idea, because it could trigger the animal's attack response.



The best strategy if you are attacked is to fight back and try to stay standing.



Based on O'Brien's daunting experience, hunters also might want to add one more precaution against mountain lion encounters of the close and frightening kind. Avoid wearing clothing with the blood of prey animals on them.





tom

tom

I have been stalked 3 separate times that I know of. It is the WORST feeling a guy can have, especially when hunting alone. On one occassion, there were FOUR cougars less than 2 feet apart and only 60 yards from me. I thought I was had. They were above me on a small ledge. They were all adults and not scared of me at all. All I had was a bow in my hand. I have never felt so vulnerable in my life! I hate the damn things! The two other times were both pairs of youngsters. I felt the hair go up on the back of my neck, turned around and quickly noticed them sneaking up on me! They were 30 yardw behind me. The other pair was only 10 yards from me. They have no fear of man, I swear! Gives me the willeys just thinking about them. They are too fast and quiet. A bear doesn't bother me, but cougars do. Flinch

Flinch, one of my buds hiked in before daylight during bow hunting season. when he hiked back out on the same trail later in the day he noticed tracks on top of his tracks for a long way. They were really big cat tracks. tom