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Mtn. Lion & Bear encounter in news
Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 4:56 pm
by HikeUp
Is this
story real?
Man claims attack by lion, saved by a bear
By Trevor Warner
Assistant Managing Editor
Posted: 03/27/2012 10:41:42 PM PDT
A Paradise man says he is lucky to be alive after an attack by a mountain lion Monday morning.
Robert Biggs, 69, often hikes in the Bean Soup Flat area, which is about a mile and a half above Whisky Flats. He came across a mother bear, a yearling and a newborn, which were about 40 feet from where he was standing.
After watching the bear family for a few minutes he decided to leave them be and turned to walk back up the trail. As he turned, a mountain lion pounced on him grabbing hold of his backpack with all four paws.
"They usually grab hold of your head with all four paws, but my backpack was up above my head and (the mountain lion) grabbed it instead," Biggs said. "It must have been stalking the little bear, but it was on me in seconds."
He wrestled with the cat, striking it in the head with a rock pick. The cat screamed when it was hit with the pick, but didn't let go, Biggs said. Before he knew it, the mother bear came from behind and pounced on the cat, tearing its grip from the backpack.
The bear and the cat battled for about 15 seconds, Biggs said, until the cat finally ran away. The bear went on its way as well. Biggs ended up with bite marks, scratches and bruises to his arm, but was otherwise uninjured.
Biggs, a naturist, has hiked that same trail several times and has seen the mother bear and its cub last spring and fall. He said the encounters with the bears were friendly.
"(The cub) stood up on its hind legs and put its paws up and I got to play patty-cake with it," he said.
The patty-cake game was simply touching the bottom of its paw with his open palm, more like a high-five. He said the mother watched the two play and her only reaction was to call the cub back. Biggs said he is certain that the mother that saved him during the mountain lion attack is the same bear he has seen in that area before.
"They're pretty territorial," he said, adding that he recognized some of the bear's markings. Though his arm was pretty cut up, he chose not to go to the doctor, a move that concerned his wife Suzanne.
"There were puncture wounds and skin was hanging off, and you don't know what's in their paws," she said.
Biggs said he wasn't worried because he had a tetanus shot a couple of years ago. Biggs simply put peroxide on his wounds and expects that will be enough.
As for lessons learned, Suzanne quipped, "He doesn't learn."
Biggs just chuckled at the comment. The incident isn't going to stop him from enjoying the Ridge's wildlife.
Re: Mtn. Lion & Bear encounter in news
Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 5:07 pm
by Hikin_Jim
Sounds pretty far-fetched.
A mother bear let him touch her cub? Yeah, right.
HJ
Re: Mtn. Lion & Bear encounter in news
Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 5:16 pm
by cougarmagic
Nothing that doesn't happen to me, oh,
every weekend. What's not to believe?
Re: Mtn. Lion & Bear encounter in news
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 12:37 pm
by AW~
I dont know, but this was Sawmill Peak, Lassen National Forest. The areas,"flats" are local names and not on the topo. There was a blog posting collaborating mountain lions and black bears being in abundance and local to that area.
The way I figure it is if he does play patty cake with bears, thats not a good thing. They should be left alone as much as possible.
As far as the mountain lion, it looks like NorCal doesnt care for SoCal's defense of mountain lions and sees them as pests or things to be hunted, your choice. Of course you knew this was coming-->
"The story got the attention of the California Department of Fish and Game that wants to know more about the scrape that occurred earlier this week on lands above Whiskey Flats......The Fish and Game folks have now sent a warden out to interview the hiker and, if possible, collect some animal DNA from his clothing or backpack to try to track down the combatants. "We have to respond to mountain lion attacks for other people's safety," Harry Morse, the department's spokesman tells us. "If that was occurring, others could be in jeopardy."If it is not too late, Morse says, they can send teams with special dogs to the site to follow the mountain lion's scent. Morse is clearly intrigued. He notes that it is not normal for mountain lions and bears to interact as Biggs describes in the newspaper's account. "They avoid each other," he says."
http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... n-attack/1
Re: Mtn. Lion & Bear encounter in news
Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 7:34 pm
by AW~
http://www.jocosarblog.org/jocosarblog/ ... story.html
"...This week, test results for blood found on his backpack showed that the blood is human. Other tests show there was no sign of an animal attack....California officials became skeptical when they noticed that Biggs came back from the attack with little more than a cat scratch. The Department Communications Manager Kirsten Macintyre said that mountain lions don’t scratch in an interview with the Huffington Post. “There’s a very distinct pattern of injuries when a mountain lion attacks a person or a deer. They don’t just run away — even if a bear comes along,” Macintyre said.
Macintyre also said in an email to the Paradise Post that there was no indication of lion or bear blood, hair, or saliva present on Biggs’ hiking backpack. Biggs says there was none found because he left his backpack out in the rain after the incident before it could be tested for DNA.
Officials say the evidence they did find – including small wounds on Biggs and a tear in his pack, is inconsistent with a mountain lion attack. But Biggs still sticks by his story, saying he doesn’t care what others say."
Re: Mtn. Lion & Bear encounter in news
Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2012 10:15 pm
by HikeUp
Hahahahahaha. Dipshit.