Cougar that attacked women was 'pretty fat,' didn't act out of hunger, vet says

Five women who fought off a young male cougar on Tokul Creek trail north of Snoqualmie "did the right thing," according to a veterinarian with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The cougar attacked Keri Bergere, 60, while she was cycling with her friends, sinking its teeth into her jaw and pinning her to the ground. The other women fought it for 45 minutes before a Fish and Wildlife officer made it to the scene and shot the cougar.

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At one point, Auna Tietz, 59, found a 25-pound boulder, the size of a large melon, and dropped it on the cougar's head several times. The cougar released Bergere about 15 minutes into the struggle, giving her time to scramble away.

Dr. Kristin Mansfield told KUOW the blows Tietz dealt with the heavy rock may have stunned the animal, giving her friend the chance she needed to get away.

"You do what you can with what you have available, and it's a really good chance that that was a significant action that they took to slow him down," Mansfield said.

Once the cyclists got the cougar off Bergere, they were able to pin it under one of their bikes. Officer Chris Moszeter arrived at the scene, and he shot the cougar between the shoulder blades. In an exclusive interview with KUOW, the women said it was a heartbreaking moment.

Mansfield said that gunshot wound "obliterated" much of the evidence of the women's struggle with the cougar.

One of the women had a two-inch knife and used it to stab the wild cat, for example, but the gunshot wound made it difficult to see those lacerations. The state necropsy did note several wounds on the body.

Read the full necropsy:

"Any stab wound to the chest, if it didn't kill them immediately, odds are really high that it eventually would have caused some real problems for the cougar," Mansfield said, although that's only hypothetical now.

The cougar was between nine months to a year old, and was seen with another cougar, presumably its mother or sibling, that ran away from the cyclists as they came down the trail.

The necropsy found no sign of rabies or any other disease that may explain the attack. And Mansfield said it was "pretty fat."

"So, you know, it wasn't doing this out of hunger," she said. "I think it's just a feline being a feline, liking to chase things and pounce on them."