Lab Results Come Back On King County Mountain Lion That Attacked Cyclist

The results of an examination on the carcass of the King County mountain lion that attacked a 60-year-old cyclist last month has been released, and more precise aging on the 75-pound male is out too.

WDFW reports that Washington State University’s animal disease lab “found the animal to be in good health and body condition with no evidence of significant diseases or abnormalities that would affect its behavior. The animal tested negative for rabies.” 

An updated agency statement on the February 17 attack on Keri Bergere also terms the cougar to be “nearly a year old (approximately 9-12 months).”

Last week, an article and photos on MeatEater shed more light on the midday attack, based on information from the son-in-law of one of the five cyclists in the train.

Three women were riding about 200 feet ahead of the other two women when “(two) cougars walked behind the group of three, and at the last second, one of the cougars decided to turn and jump on the lady who was at the rear of that group,” the son-in-law, who wished to remain anonymous, told reporter Jordan Sillars.

The cougar bit Bergere’s face and would not let go for 15 minutes even as her friends used a rock, stick and a Leatherman to try and get it to stop biting, and Bergere poked its eyes and nose to free herself, according to the article.

When the cougar finally let go, the cyclists were able to pin it to the ground with a bike to keep it from attacking again, and then three of them stood on it, photos show.

By chance, a state game warden was nearby and able to quickly respond to the scene and shoot the cougar.

As for that second cougar that the cyclists spotted, WDFW reports that based on the male’s age, it “could have been its mother or sibling that it had been traveling with.”

“WDFW Police performed an exhaustive search using hounds on February 17 and did not find a second cougar. WDFW Police conducted increased patrols of the area following the incident,” the agency stated. 

So why would a mountain lion tackle a bicyclist? the MeatEater article also asks.

“That’s definitely strange cougar behavior,” Bart George, a cougar researcher with the Kalispel Tribe’s Natural Resources Department in Northeast Washington, told the reporter. “Biking down the trail may have triggered a predator response. Whether or not it realized what it was doing, we can only speculate.”

The incident occurred 3.38 air miles west-northwest of a fatal May 2018 attack on a mountain biker.

George also speculated that the attacking male “never had a negative interaction with a human, or it had interactions with people that never led to any kind of negative or aversive conditioning.”

Hound hunting was banned in Washington by voter initiative in the mid-1990s, but George has been studying other ways to haze cougars away from people. He states that how the King County animal behaved in the attack – holding onto Bergere’s jaw and not letting go – is typical for the species.

Photos posted by Bergere’s daughters on a GoFundMe page show major swelling on the right side of her face that has gone down over several weeks. She was treated at Harborview in Seattle, where she had jaw surgery, and was released after five days. Her daughters report her recovery will be “a lifelong battle.” The fundraiser has yielded $71,617 at the time of this writing.

Cougar attacks are rare and WDFW’s page for the species has tips for reducing the odds of conflict with the big cats and what to do in case of an encounter.

Correction: Keri Bergere’s last name was incorrect in the original version of this blog. It was reported as McCorkle, based on the hyperlinked MeatEater post, but is Bergere, based on widespread subsequent articles quoting her and her fellow cyclists.