A man sitting outside his RV in a Colorado campground killed a mountain lion with a shovel last week, prompting an investigation by wildlife officials.
The man told Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers that the mountain lion approached while he was parked Thursday night at a campground west of Cañon City, according to a CPW news release issued Wednesday.
He told officers he had been sitting outside the RV with his husky, which attacked the lion when it walked within 10 feet. The man then grabbed a shovel and struck the mountain lion in the head, killing it.
The man reported the incident to CPW the following day. The officer who responded found the mountain lion carcass on the hood of the man’s Jeep. CPW biologists will complete a necropsy on the animal.
It is illegal in Colorado to kill a mountain lion outside of regulated hunting or to protect humans or livestock from death or injury.
The officer’s preliminary finding “was that the man was in fear of his life and acted in self-defense when confronted by a lion acting unusual and extremely aggressive,” according to the news release. But CPW will continue to investigate the incident.
The mountain lion was a female that weighed about 95 pounds, according to CPW. It had an injury to its right front paw and scratches on its back.
CPW does not consider the incident a mountain lion attack because the man was never touched by the mountain lion.
Although more than 3,800 mountain lions live in Colorado, the elusive predators rarely attack humans. CPW has recorded 25 lion attacks on humans in Colorado since 1990.
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