A family of six was hiking down a trail in California called Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park when a mountain lion came out of nowhere and grabbed a 3-year-old boy by the neck. The boy was said to have been walking a few feet in front of his father who instantly reacted by throwing his backpack at the lion.
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The lion was in the act of pulling the boy off of the trail but when the backpack hit the lion it dropped the boy and grabbed the backpack instead. It then took off with the backpack and climbed up a tree and stayed there as other hikers gathered around the family and the tree.
This all happened in broad daylight around 4:13pm on Monday, Jan 20th, 2019. The family got the boy out of there as soon as possible and took him to the CHOC Children’s hospital where he was later released that night with non-life-threatening injuries.
A 3-year-old male was attacked by a mountain lion within Whiting Ranch around 4:15 this afternoon. The child is in stable condition at a local hospital. Dept of Fish and Wildlife gave local law enforcement the approval to euthanize the lion due to the public safety threat.
— OCFA PIO (@OCFireAuthority) January 21, 2020
As for the mountain lion, it stayed perched in the tree until the California Fish and Game officials got there and euthanized it due to it now being a threat to public safety. The hiking trail was temporarily closed down while the authorities scanned the area for more mountain lions just to make sure it was safe for people to start hiking there again.
Mountain lions usually hunt at night and avoid humans so it was rare that the incident occurred. The hiking trail, however, is known to have mountain lions and there’s very big signs at the entrance of the trail letting people know that this is “mountain lion country.” Â