The bloodied Colorado trail runner who fought off a rare mountain lion attack pummeled the young cat with a rock, wrestled it to the ground and ultimately choked the animal to death with his hands, arms and feet, state wildlife officials said Tuesday. The man — who is his 30s and has yet to be publicly identified — was released from a hospital Tuesday morning after being treated for bite wounds and lacerations to his face and arms. “This is crazy but true. We have no reason to believe that this is a hoax,” said Rebecca Ferrell, spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. The shocking tale of survival on Larimer County’s Horsetooth Mountain quickly spread far beyond Colorado, with news of Monday’s attack prompting media calls from around the world, as well as suggestions of film and book deals, and even marriage proposals, Ferrell said. Gov. Jared Polis chimed in too, posting on his Facebook page: “Don’t mess with Colorado trail runners.” “He should never have to buy another beer in his life,” Ferrell said. RELATED: Tips to avoid a mountain lion attack in Colorado In an interview Tuesday afternoon, Ferrell offered the most complete description yet of the life-and-death struggle between the runner and the wild cat in the 2,711-acre park west of Fort Collins. The man previously had researched how to respond to a mountain lion attack and did everything right. “Not only is he brave, but he is very conscientious,” she said. “He was also as prepared as they come.” The victim was running Monday on West Ridge Trail in the Larimer County foothills when he heard something behind him, Ferrell said. The man whipped his head around and saw a mountain lion that wildlife officials believe was less than a year old stalking him. He locked eyes with the cat, she said. He yelled at the animal and waved his arms over his head to make himself look bigger. “The mountain lion pounced anyway,” Ferrell said. As it went for his head and neck, the man blocked the cat with his forearms, but the mountain lion bit him on the face and clamped its fangs on the man’s wrist — and wouldn’t let go, Ferrell said. The man picked up a rock with his free hand and pounded the cat in the head, but the animal hung on. He then put the lion in a headlock and wrestled and scrapped with the creature on the trail, Ferrell said. When he finally managed to free his wrist from the cat’s jaws, the runner counterattacked. He jumped on the mountain lion’s back, and, using his hands, arms and feet, he choked the animal to death, she said. He then hiked to his car and drove to a local hospital. “It’s an amazing story. Everyone is baffled and impressed,” Ferrell said. “He had no weapons, no knives or trekking poles with him.” “A few days to decompress” Wildlife officers spoke with the survivor of the mountain lion attack Tuesday while he was recuperating. “We can let you know that the runner is doing well considering his ordeal, and will need a few days to decompress before deciding if he will speak publicly,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials tweeted Tuesday afternoon. Wildlife officers also searched the trail where the runner told them his fight with the mountain lion took place, Ferrell said. They found the dead mountain lion within feet of possessions the victim had asked officers to look for. The lion’s appearance and wounds matched the runner’s description completely, Ferrell said. RELATED: Gov. Polis celebrates Colorado trail runner who killed mountain lion but urges others not to emulate On Tuesday afternoon, rangers put up yellow tape and closed the entrance of the trail where the attack took place because of the larger number of bystanders and media personnel in the area. Ferrell called it a “cooling off” period. Although preliminary information from the necropsy confirmed the jogger’s story about the cause of death, detailed information about the mountain lion’s injuries have not been released and could take several days before they are made public, she said. Doctors treated him for possible infections, she said. Medical staff already have confirmed the lion tested negative for rabies, “which is very welcome news,” Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said. Fight for your life Mountain lion attacks in Colorado are rare, officials said. The act of running may have triggered the young lion’s instinct to hunt. “Mountain lion attacks are not common in Colorado and it is unfortunate that the lion’s hunting instincts were triggered by the runner,” said Ty Petersburg, area wildlife manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “This could have had a very different outcome.” “The runner did everything he could to save his life,” said Mark Leslie, Colorado Parks and Wildlife northeast region manager. Ferrell said there are different survival strategies when a wild animal attacks a human. For some, the best strategy is to curl up and make yourself as small as possible. Not so with a mountain lion, she said. People attacked by mountain lions should do exactly what this victim did: Fight for your life. To avoid a physical confrontation, a person should yell, throw rocks and make themselves appear bigger by standing tall and waving their arms and facing the mountain lion, Ferrell said. “With a mountain lion, your best chance is to fight. If you make yourself small, they will think you are prey,” Ferrell said.<doc-sep>FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) – A man who was running on a trail in the foothills west of Fort Collins and was attacked by a juvenile mountain lion wound up killing it through suffocation. That’s according to Colorado wildlife officials who released the necropsy report on the animal. The attack happened at Horsetooth Mountain Park on Monday afternoon. The man was on the West Ridge Trail when he was attacked from behind. The cat reportedly bit his face and wrist. He also suffered puncture wounds to his arms, legs and back. The runner survived after fighting off the cat, hiking to safety and then taking himself to a hospital. Officials with Colorado Parks and Wildlife said Tuesday morning in a tweet an examination of the animal confirms “the victim’s account that he was able to suffocate the animal while defending himself from the attack.” “The runner did everything he could to save his life. In the event of a lion attack you need to do anything in your power to fight back just as this gentleman did,” said Mark Leslie, Colorado Parks and Wildlife Northeast Region manager. Tuesday afternoon, Larimer County officials announced they are temporarily closing the park because of the attack. They say they want “to allow for a cooling off period before reopening.” CBS4’s Dillon Thomas spoke with Northern Coloradans who frequent the trail. Both Rudy Schmidt and Penny Bossert said they had never seen, or heard, mountain lions in the area. “(I) haven’t seen much wildlife except for some deer, here,” Schmidt said. “We have seen some bears, and things like that.” However, both said they have heard stories from others who have seen the mountain lions in the area. Bossert’s husband was just one of the many cyclists in the area that have seen the lions walking across the road. “(My husband) saw a pair of mountain lions crossing the road,” Bossert said. “He thought that they were younger, probably cubs.” Others told CBS4 they had heard mountain lions in the area before. One hiker, who wished not to be identified, said she heard their unique chirps before and was cautious when she did hear it. The cat that attacked the runner was tested for disease, and results were negative for rabies. Parks and Wildlife officials said they were unable to test the cat’s weight because a cannibalistic mountain lion likely got ahold of the deceased cat before investigators. Parks and Wildlife’s Rebecca Ferrell said the man who was attacked recently read an article on how to handle an attack from mountain lions. He was able to use that knowledge while responding to the incident. Ferrell said attacks on humans are very rare. However, if someone ever encounters a mountain lion, she said it was best to make yourself big, loud and calm. She said running away is a bad idea because the cat’s hunting instincts could kick in, starting a chase. Those, like Bossert, who frequent the trail said they were impressed the man was able to kill the cat, even if it was less than one year old. “He obviously is a strong guy. I don’t know if I would be able to do the same thing,” Bossert said. “It gives me a little bit of hesitation as to whether or not I really want to go up (the trail).” However, not everyone was intimidated by the recent attack. Schmidt said he knew there were dangers that came with exploring wildlands. He said the attack would heighten his alert, but would not keep him away from the trails. “It makes it a little more exciting if there are some animals around. Makes it like it’s a little more wild country,” Schmidt said. “I carry some bear spray, just to be on the safe side. But, it makes the country more interesting.” Since 1990, there have been 16 injuries as a result of mountain lion attacks and three human fatalities in Colorado. The runner’s name hasn’t been released.<doc-sep>A mountain lion makes its way through fresh snow in the foothills outside of Golden, Colorado, in this file photo. Photo: Reuters<doc-sep>DENVER (Reuters) - A 31-year-old man who fended off and suffocated a mountain lion when it attacked him on a Colorado jogging trail last week described on Thursday how he killed the big cat by stepping on its throat during a life-and-death struggle. Speaking for the first time publicly since the Feb. 4 incident that left him with still-visible lacerations on his neck and face, Travis Kauffman described for reporters the harrowing three-minute encounter. Kauffman said he was running at the Horsetooth Mountain Open Space, about 65 miles northwest of Denver, when he heard pine needles rustling and turned his head only to come face-to-face with a young cougar. “I was bummed out to see a mountain lion,” he said at a news conference in Fort Collins, Colorado, where the environmental consultant lives with his girlfriend. Kauffman raised his arms and shouted at the cougar, but it pounced and locked its jaw on his right wrist and clawed at his face. His attempts to halt the attack by stabbing the predator with sticks and hitting it on the head with a rock were to no avail. Ultimately, he was able to pin the cougar down and put his foot on its neck and choke it until it stopped thrashing. He worried during the struggle that another cougar would come along and join the tussle. “My fear response turned into more of a fight response,” he said. Mountain lions, also known as pumas or panthers, are native to the Americas and their range extends from the Canadian Yukon to the tip of South America, according to the National Wildlife Federation. Cougar attacks on humans are rare, however, with fewer than 20 reported fatalities in North America over the last 100 years, according to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website. There are between 4,500 and 5,500 mountain lions in Colorado, and since 1990 the state has seen 16 people injured and three killed from mountain lion attacks, the agency said. Kauffman, who is 5-feet-10 inches tall and weighs about 155 pounds, said he had “zero” martial arts or wrestling training, and acted purely on adrenaline. “The decisions were pretty instinctual,” he added. The wounds to his face, neck, wrist and legs required more than 20 stitches. Kauffman admitted that he was lucky to survive the attack without any permanent injuries. “I should go buy a bunch of lottery tickets,” he said.<doc-sep>
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (CBS4) – A Colorado trail runner who fought off a juvenile mountain lion and killed it says his “fear response turned into more of a fight response” after he was ambushed by the animal. Travis Kauffman spoke publicly about the highly publicized event for the first time on Thursday afternoon at a news conference in Fort Collins. The attack took place at Horsetooth Mountain Open Space in Larimer County on Feb. 4, and Kauffman has numerous wounds from it including lacerations on his nose and cheek. He had to have about 20 stitches. Kauffman wound up killing the animal by stepping on its neck while they were locked in combat and suffocating it. Kauffman, who is originally from Arkansas, has lived in Colorado for a little more than 5 years and has been trail running for about 1. He says he often ran in the trail systems west of the city. He was planning to go on a 12 to 15 mile run on the day of the attack. He started at Lory State Park and ran south through the park into neighboring Horsetooth Mountain park. He said he first heard pine needles rustling behind him on the West Ridge Trail. He turned and he said “One of my worst fears was confirmed” — it was a mountain lion that was about 10 feet away. “I just had my heart sink into my stomach a little bit,” he said in a video shown in Thursday’s news conference. Kauffman raised his hands and yelled at the creature but it was to no avail. The lion then leaped at him and “latched onto” his wrist with its jaws. “It was going up towards my face so I threw up my hands to kind of block my face, at which point it grabbed onto my hand and wrist and from there it started to claw at my face and neck. And that’s when kind of my fear response turned into more of a fight response,” Kauffman said. As man and mountain lion engaged in battle, the two fell off the south side of the trail. “From there it was just like a wrestling match,” he said. He pinned down the lion’s back legs. He tried to stab the lion’s throat with sticks. (That didn’t work.) He picked up a heavy rock and managed to hit the lion in the head with it two times. “I tried to give it a few bashes in the back of the head but unfortunately I kind of had a tough time swinging it with my arm still locked into the cat’s jaws,” Kauffman said. Eventually he managed to step on the lion’s neck and was able to suffocate it. “I was able to shift my weight and get a foot on its neck. … I stepped on its neck with my right foot and just slowly after a few minutes I thought I would be getting close and then it would start thrashing again — and I had a few more scratches that resulted from those thrashes at that point — and I’d say another couple minutes later it finally stopped moving,” he said. He said he feels like it’s unfortunate that the lion died, although he wasn’t sure at the time if it was in fact dead. As he ran off he was worried that more lions might be lurking around. He ended up having to run approximately 3 miles to get out of the park. Another runner linked up with him on the trail and jogged with him, and another park visitor close to a trailhead gave Kauffman a ride to the hospital. Moments before meeting the national news media, Travis Kauffman and Annie Bierbouer embrace at our office. Our live stream of the press conference will begin at 1:15 p.m. MT @CPW_NE pic.twitter.com/s6pReZrMCa — CO Parks & Wildlife (@COParksWildlife) February 14, 2019 “We all feel extremely lucky that this attack was made by a young mountain lion on a knowledgeable runner, otherwise we may have been hosting a very different press conference,” said Mark Leslie, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife manager. “These animals are ambush predators, and are trained to take quick and lethal action whenever possible.” The park was closed after the attack but reopened this week.