Daily US Times: A woman in California fights off a mountain lion attacking her five-year-old son and rescued him.
The child was playing outside his home in Calabasas in the Santa Monica mountains when the mountain lion attacked him.
The boy was dragged across the front lawn, but his mother ran out and struck the lion with her bare hands until it let go of her son.
The lion was later found and shot dead by a wildlife officer.
The boy suffered injuries to his torso and head, but is now in a stable condition at a hospital in Los Angeles, according to the Associated Press.
A spokesperson for California’s department of fish and wildlife, Capt Patrick Foy, said that the mother had “absolutely saved her son’s life”.
The department said in a statement that after arriving at the scene, a wildlife officer found a mountain lion crouching in the bushes with its “ears back and hissing”.
The wildlife officer killed the animal, believing it was the likely attacker “due to its behaviour and proximity to the attack”. Later, a DNA test confirmed that it was the animal that had attacked the boy.
In North America, attacks by mountain lions are very rare.
Officials said the lion involved in this case was young. Experts believe that it was still learning how to hunt and fend for itself.
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