The two brothers were attacked as they were out collecting deer
antlers in remote wooded area near Georgetown, a former gold
rush mining camp in El Dorado County northeast of Sacramento,
the state capital, the county sheriff's office said.
The 18-year-old sibling, who became separated from his brother
during the attack, managed to call for help despite traumatic
injuries to his face, the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office said
in a news release.
A short time later, sheriff's deputies searching for the older
brother found the mountain lion crouched near his body on the
ground and fired shots to frighten the animal away.
State and county game wardens and trappers summoned to the area
tracked down the lion later in the day and killed it, the
sheriff's office said in a statement issued on Saturday.
The lion's remains were sent to a forensic laboratory to obtain
DNA and other information about the animal.
In an update on Sunday, the sheriff's office said the younger
brother had undergone multiple surgeries for his injuries and
was expected to make a full recovery. But the names of the two
victims were being kept confidential.
Mountain lions, also known as cougars or pumas, are largely
solitary predators that range widely across the Western United
States and Canada, feeding mainly on deer and rodents.
They mostly avoid humans, and attacks on people are relatively
rare, though interactions have grown more frequent as urban
sprawl increasingly encroaches on their natural habitat.
Saturday's incident marked the first fatal encounter between a
mountain lion and a human in California since January 2004, when
a man was attacked in the foothills of Orange County, south of
Los Angeles, while riding a bicycle through a park, according to
state Fish and Wildlife Department statistics.
(Reporting by Maria Caspani in New York; Writing and additional
reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Marguerita
Choy)
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