Officials said efforts to locate. And capture the lion were hampered by the location of the attack. The weather and lack of access to private property due to the animal’s nomadic nature.
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. – California wildlife officials have called off the search for a mountain lion. That attacked a 5-year-old boy on a rural hiking trail in Northern California. Saying the chances of catching the animal are slim.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said Friday that DNA testing confirmed. That a mountain lion was responsible. For last Tuesday’s attack in San Mateo County, south of San Francisco.
But efforts to track and capture the lion have been hampered. As investigators have been denied access to private property near the site of the attack.
“Lack of location, combined with poor weather and the nomadic nature of mountain lions. Reduces the likelihood of a successful capture,” said department spokesman Capt. Patrick Foy.
Shortly before 7 p.m. Tuesday, the boy was on the trail along Tunitas Creek Road. And running ahead of his mother and grandparents. When the big cat knocked him to the ground, authorities and family members said.
His mother, Suzy Trexler, charged the cougar and it let the boy go and ran away.
Mountain lion attacks on humans are rare. About 20 confirmed attacks have occurred in California. In more than a century of record-keeping. And only three have been fatal, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Last September, a 7-year-old boy was bitten by a mountain lion while taking. An evening walk with his father in a park near Santa Clarita, Southern California. The father scared the animal away. And the child was treated for relatively minor injuries.
The last incident before Tuesday occurred in September. When a cougar attacked a 7-year-old boy in Pico Canyon Park in Los Angeles County. That child also survived.