An 11-year-old girl is recovering in hospital after being attacked by a mountain lion in California over the weekend.
According to NBC Los Angeles, the child was bitten on Sunday at about 5:40 p.m. outside a home in the Pacific Coast Highway and Encinal Canyon Road area of Malibu.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies told the outlet that the girl was bitten on the arm and transported to a hospital in Thousand Oaks with non-life-threatening injuries.
Wildlife experts later put down the mountain lion they believed was responsible for the attack, it added.
The Mountain Lion Foundation estimates that about 4,500 mountain lions inhabit vast ranges of landscape across California, and about 40 per cent of the state is considered suitable habitat for the species, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife says.
A mountain lion sitting relaxed in Torres Del Paine, Patagonia, Chile.
Getty Images
Mountain lions are a solitary and elusive species that tend to avoid human contact and are also referred to as cougars, panthers and pumas.
The department receives hundreds of mountain lion sighting reports every year, but few result in the animals posing an imminent threat to public safety, it told NBC Los Angeles.
Mountain lion attacks on humans are also rare. Since 1890, there have been six known fatal human attacks by mountain lions in California.
Its website says the state’s most recent fatal mountain lion attack was in March 2024, when a 21-year-old man was killed in a remote part of El Dorado County. Since 1986, there have been 23 non-fatal attacks.
Mountain lions eat mostly large animals, such as deer, elk, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, wild pigs, feral horses and burros, the wildlife department says, and will adapt their hunting behaviour in response to a changing environment, prey availability and competition for food.
An 8-year-old boy narrowly escaped death after being attacked by a mountain lion
They may also hunt other animals, including poultry, small livestock or pets.
Last Thursday evening, a biker in the Alpine Capone area along Brohm Ridge, near Garibaldi Provincial Park in British Columbia, suffered minor injuries after being followed by a mountain lion.
Officials said the animal pursued the man and “made contact,” then followed him for another 20 minutes.
The man walked backward holding his bike, and eventually was able to get the big cat to disengage by throwing rocks at it.
Last year, a five-year-old boy survived a mountain lion attack in Malibu Creek State Park after he was targeted by the predator during a family picnic.
According to the Los Angeles news station KTLA, he was playing with several other children close to the family’s picnic site, where at least six adults were supervising, when a mountain lion picked up the child by his head and began to run away.
Witnesses said the child’s father chased the fleeing mountain lion and fought it until it dropped the boy from its mouth. The boy was airlifted to hospital, where he was treated for injuries, including to his eyes.
— with files from Global News’ Simon Little