US

REPORT: Father Praised As ‘Hero’ After Mountain Lion Attacks Child At National Park

Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

A father saved his 4-year-old child during a mountain lion attack at Olympic National Park in Washington State on Sunday afternoon.

The family was hiking a popular trail in the park when a collared mountain lion bit the child, according to a National Park Service (NPS) report. Witnesses dubbed the father a “hero,” claiming his quick actions in removing his child from the mountain lion “saved the child’s life,” according to KIRO 7, a Seattle-based CBS affiliate.

“I don’t think that kid would survive if it wasn’t for his dad jumping in,” Steve Murrow, who was hiking the same trail at the time of the attack and saw the aftermath, told KIRO 7. “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 nearby medical center to be treated and has since been discharged.

NPS began a search for the mountain lion after the attack on Sunday and dispatched the mountain lion on Monday morning. Mountain lion sightings are rare in Olympic National Park, according to NPS.