{"id":488635,"date":"2026-01-03T04:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/488635\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T04:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T04:23:10","slug":"following-fatal-mountain-lion-attack-experts-advise-how-to-protect-against-wildlife-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/488635\/","title":{"rendered":"Following fatal mountain lion attack, experts advise how to protect against wildlife danger"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.westernslopenow.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:KREX;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">KREX<\/a>) \u2013 A hike on New Year\u2019s Day resulted in tragedy after a Larimer county woman was found dead in a suspected mountain lion attack \u2013 the first fatal attack to strike Colorado since 1999. Officials say though an incident like this is extremely rare, protecting yourself in the outdoors begins with acknowledging that it could happen to you.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Hikers encountered a rare and harrowing scene on Crosier Mountain Trail in Larimer County January 1st, when they spotted a mountain lion just 100 yards away from them, and a woman lying on the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When encountering a mountain lion, \u201cit\u2019s time to start throwing things toward it and doing what you can to scare that animal away,\u201d says Mike Porras, public information officer for Colorado Parks and Wildlife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">CPW says they threw rocks at the lion, and when they went to care for the woman, they couldn\u2019t find a pulse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">CPW officers and local officials responded to the scene, finding and euthanizing two mountain lions, in accordance with policy. But it was too late to save the victim\u2019s life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In the wake of the attack, officials are spreading the word about wildlife safety, and how to protect yourself from a mountain lion encounter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cMake yourself look big,\u201d says CPW assistant area wildlife manager Albert Romero. \u201cPut your arms up if you have a jacket on or a sweater. Make it look big. Talk to it forcefully.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cYou want to punch, you want to kick, you want to gouge its eyes,\u201d adds Porras. \u201cDo whatever you can to protect yourself. Show that predator that you are not prey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">As of Friday, the Larimer County Coroner\u2019s Office has not released the identity of the victim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernslopenow.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WesternSlopeNow.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WesternSlopeNow.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. (KREX) \u2013 A hike on New Year\u2019s Day resulted in tragedy after a Larimer county&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":488636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[9560,8108,1666,159,67,132,68,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-488635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-colorado-parks-and-wildlife","9":"tag-larimer-county","10":"tag-mountain-lion","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115829263753480236","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}