SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) — Natural world officials have been monitoring a mountain lion that attacked a 7-year-old boy and caused the closure of a sprawling Southern California park, government stated.
The kid and his father have been strolling up stairs at Pico Canyon Park close to Santa Clarita Monday night when a cougar emerged from brush and bit the boy at the buttock, stated Capt. Patrick Foy with the California Division of Fish and Natural world.
Foy stated the daddy, who was once strolling in the back of, heard his son shout and charged towards the massive cat, which fled again into the comb on the park in foothills about 35 miles (56 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
The boy was once taken to a sanatorium with accidents that weren’t life-threatening, the Los Angeles Occasions reported Tuesday. Natural world officers sampled the chunk wound to verify {that a} mountain lion was once accountable and to procure a DNA profile of the animal.
The daddy stated the cougar didn’t seem to be dressed in a GPS collar from the Nationwide Park Carrier, which tracks and research large cats in Southern California.
Mountain lion assaults on people are uncommon. Round 20 showed assaults have passed off in California in additional than a century of record-keeping, Foy stated.
As of Tuesday night, the park remained closed whilst the California Division of Fish and Natural world surveyed the world. The U.S. Division of Agriculture has assisted within the seek for the mountain lion through surroundings a baited field entice, the Occasions reported.