Dad reportedly saves child from Mountain Lion attack at Seattle’s Olympic National park
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View from the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center at the Olympic National Park near Seattle (Image via Getty)The father of a four-year-old saved the child from grave harm by a mountain lion at the Olympic National Park near Seattle on July 20. The child did sustain a bite from the animal during the attack, notes Seattle Times.
The family whose identity has been kept under wraps by authorities, was reportedly hiking around the Hurricane Ridge at the Olympic National park when the attack happened. Passers-by, who heard a child screaming, told KIRO-TV, a CBS Seattle affiliate that the father was instrumental in saving the child.
As per CBS, a hiker named Steve Murrow approached the place where the attack took place, and witnessed people consoling a mother who was cradling her child, with eyewitnesses telling him that the father grabbed his child away from the mountain lion. Murrow, the hiker, told KIRO,
“I don't think that kid would survive if it wasn't for his dad jumping in. I mean, he's a hero. You know, it just boils down to safety in numbers and it is rare that something like this would happen.”
The child was airlifted to a Seattle hospital for treatment after the attack
As per a press release by the National Park Service, they received reports of the attack in the afternoon of July 20. The National Park Service stated,
“On July 20, a four-year-old child was injured by a mountain lion near the Victoria Overlook area on Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park…Rangers were notified of the attack at around 3:15 p.m. on July 20. According to initial reports, a collared mountain lion bit a child walking with their family on a popular trail.”
The National Park Service added that paramedics and park rangers attended to the child who was then airlifted to a Level 1 Trauma Center in Seattle. According to KIRO, the Harborview Medical Center said that the child has now been released.
The mountain lion was subsequently killed by park rangers
In their press release, the National Park Service also noted that rangers began a search for the mountain lion, also known as a cougar. The statement noted,
“Rangers began searching for the cougar immediately following the incident. A canine team joined the search at approximately 5 p.m. the same day. Rangers located the cougar shortly after the canine team joined the effort but did not complete the dispatch operation until the following morning.”
The term ‘dispatch’ is used to refer to the killing of an animal.
This is not the first time civilians have been attacked by mountain lions in the Washington state. In 2024, Keri Bergere recounted her ordeal of fighting off a cougar for almost an hour alongside her friends on NPR’s All Things Considered. Bergere, who was one of the women in their 50s and 60s who were cycling in the forest, provided details of the harrowing attack, and said,
“He tackled me off my bike. I ended up in the ditch on the other side of the road, pinned to the ground, and it was crushing my face. I could feel - I thought my teeth were coming loose and I was going to swallow my teeth. I could feel the bones crushing.”
Bergere’s friends were ultimately able to get the cougar away by dropping a rock on its head and pinning it with their cycle while one of them called for help.
As per Seattle Times, the Washington state has seen two fatal cougar attacks.
TOPICS: Seattle, mountain lion, Olympic National park