Officials Puzzled By Recent Cougar Attacks

ENUMCLAW - The state's second cougar attack within a week has baffled wildlife experts, who say there have been only four such attacks on humans since the state Wildlife Department began keeping records.

On Sunday, a 2-year-old Auburn boy was attacked by a cougar along Huckleberry Creek, near Enumclaw. His father heard the boy crying and scared the cat off by throwing rocks. The boy suffered a few scratches but was not seriously hurt.

Officials yesterday tracked the cougar near Enumclaw and killed it with a lethal injection. The body of the young cougar, which weighed about 23 pounds, will be studied for signs of rabies.

On June 15, a 60-pound cougar pounced on a 5-year-old girl at Lake Wenatchee State Park. The girl was treated for cuts, scrapes and small puncture wounds. Officials have said they plan to destroy that cougar, too.

"This is so rare we're still trying to figure out exactly what this means," said Tim Waters, a Wildlife Department spokesman.

In addition to the two recent attacks on children, there have been other incidents involving cougars, also known as mountain lions. A week ago, officials captured a 3-year-old cougar that had killed a young horse near Granite Falls. That cougar was tagged with a radio collar and released near Mount Rainier.

About a week and a half ago, a cougar killed some chickens and a dog near Darrington and got away before it could be captured.

Waters speculates that dry weather in the mountains could be a factor in these incidents. "They may be coming down looking for a water source," he said.

The number of cougar attacks seems to be increasing in the West, says DeWayne Johnston, chief of law enforcement for the California Department of Fish and Game.

A boy was killed on British Columbia's Vancouver Island earlier this year when a cougar attacked him on a school playground. A 5-year-old Montana child was killed by a cougar three years ago, and Johnston recalls four attacks in California in the past five years.

He attributes the apparent increase in attacks to a voter initiative that outlawed cougar hunting and to an increase in the number of people going into the back country.

As the history of attacks shows, children are particularly vulnerable.

"They're attracted to small children," Waters said. "You go to a zoo and you'll notice the cats eyeing the little kids, because the kids are always moving around. . . . They look like prey."

In Washington, the normally secretive animals are plentiful and are still hunted.

Despite the recent spate of cougar sightings and cougar attacks, Waters says there's little reason to fear the animals in the wilderness. But if you do run into one, don't back down, he advises.

"You want to confront the cougar; you don't want to run away," Waters said. "You want to be an aggressor. Scare it away, thump your chest."

-- Associated Press material was used in this report.