[Islandgirl]

I saw a documentary on DISCOVERY channel a few days ago about cougars that attack humans. It is a big problem on Vancouver Island, CA. They told about 4-5 incidents over the past year which took place on the same end of the island (I can't remember the direction,whether S,E,W or N.)no more than 15 miles of each other. The majority of victims are children, although there have been attacks on adults. The incidents that they told, most of the victims survived. One story was of a 4 year old girl who was attacked walking a path down to a swimming hole.
Her father had put a life vest on her and it saved her life as the cougar could not get at her neck. However, it bite her about the head causing serious injury. They said once a cougar decides to attack there is no stopping them. They can make impact at up to 400lbs of force and go for the throat which more than not causes instant death. The girl's mother heard her screams and ran down the path where, after a tough and courageous struggle, was able to make the cougar run off by hitting it continually with a small vinyl cooler packed with soda cans. Upon her approach the cougar was already dragging the child towards the woods. It's a wonder that little girl survived [or that it did not attack the mother]. In the end they concluded that it is the juvenile cougar that are making these attacks due to shortage of natural prey (human beings are not natural prey for wild cats). The juveniles can not discriminate natural prey from humans and attack children because they are small and more manageable. Cougars live their lifes alone and they are left on thier own at a very young age -they have a very short time with thier mothers.
Since the subject came up, just thought I'd tell ya about this documentary.