Lion Attacks O.C. Biker; Man Found Dead Nearby

By Kimi Yoshino, David Haldane and Daniel Yi, L.A. Times Staff Writers

A bike rider was attacked by a mountain lion as she rode through a popular Orange County wilderness park Thursday, and the body of a man, who may have been killed by the same animal, was found nearby.

If confirmed, the death would be the first killing of a human by a mountain lion in California since 1994.

Hours later, sheriff's deputies shot to death a mountain lion spotted near where the man's body had been found. They said they were not certain they had killed the animal responsible for the attacks.

Witnesses to the attack on the woman said the mountain lion clamped its jaws around her head and dragged her off the trail before she was rescued by other riders.

"I have never seen anything like this � it was a tug of war between the mountain lion trying to drag her down the ravine by her face" and another cyclist "who had her by the legs," said Mike Castellano, 41, of Dana Point.

Capt. Stephen Miller, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority, who was called to the scene at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains, said, "It's not unusual to have mountain lion sightings," but this kind of attack "is absolutely incredible."

The woman, who was attacked about 4 p.m., was identified by friends as Anne Hjelle, 30, of Santa Ana. She was taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo with cuts.

Hospital officials said she was in serious condition.

Authorities did not release the name of the dead man, whose body was found near where Hjelle had been attacked. It was not immediately clear when and how he had been killed � by the mountain lion or something else.

A witness to the attack on Hjelle, Nils Magnuson, 33, of Long Beach, said he had stopped to investigate an abandoned bike alongside the trail. Moments later, he said, he heard a scream from one of two women riding ahead of him.

When he reached the scene, he saw Hjelle's head in the mountain lion's mouth. "All I could see was her body," he said. "I couldn't see her head at all."

The lion had pulled Hjelle off her bike and dragged her into the brush. Debi Nicholls, Hjelle's riding companion, held on to her legs and screamed. Magnuson and Castellano rushed to help, throwing rocks at the cougar.

"There was a lot of blood," Castellano said. "I jumped down the ravine grabbed a couple of rocks. I was maybe 10 feet from the lion."

Nicholls said she saw the lion after hearing "a weird scream" from Hjelle. The lion was gripping her head in his jaws � "He stayed right on her," she said.

Nichols said she grabbed Hjelle's leg and hung on as the lion dragged them 30 feet down the hillside. "I kept screaming, hoping someone would hear me," she said. And amid the trauma of the moment, she struggled to reassure her companion: "I told her there was no way I was letting go," Nicholls said.

The body of the dead man was discovered by a sheriff's helicopter farther up the trail, shortly after the attack on Hjelle.

"He was not with the group," Miller said, "and had possibly been there anywhere from a multitude of hours to a multitude of days. He appears to have been killed by the same mountain lion."

Wildlife experts, however, said that it was unclear whether the man had been killed by the lion. They said it was possible that the lion had come upon the body, then attacked Hjelle to protect what it considered its food.

Late Thursday, a healthy 2-year-old, 110-pound male lion was shot and killed by sheriff's deputies, said Steve Edinger, assistant chief in charge of five counties for the Department of Fish and Game. The animal was spotted 50 yards from the man's body � which, as is common with mountain lion prey, had been partially buried.

Authorities continued to search in the area, in case the mountain lion responsible for the attacks was still alive.

If it is confirmed that the man was killed by a big cat, authorities said, it would be the first such death in Orange County.

Cougar attacks on humans are rare. Wildlife experts say that the animals tend to be timid, elusive and frightened by humans and that they attack only when sick or famished.

Mountain lions are no strangers in Orange County's canyons and wilderness parks. In 1986, two high-profile attacks at Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park fueled a debate over lifting a moratorium on mountain lion hunting.

In March of that year, 5-year-old Laura Small was hiking in the park with her parents and 9-year-old brother. The family had paused beside a shallow stream next to a nature trail when Laura's mother saw a cat grab her by the head and drag her into the bushes. A stranger hit the animal with a stick, forcing it to drop the girl. Laura's head and face were severely injured, and she remains blind in one eye and partially paralyzed.

Seven months later, Justin Mellon, 6, was attacked while hiking with his family.

The park was closed to children for more than 10 years after the attacks.

Fish and Game officials recorded only nine mountain lion attacks on humans between 1919 and 1995, including two women killed by mountain lions in 1994 at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park east of San Diego and Auburn State Recreation Area northeast of Sacramento.

Experts who study the animals, however, say that mountain lions are beginning to see humans as prey.

"God, this is horrible. This is exactly what I've been predicting," said David Baron, author of "The Beast in the Garden," an examination of ominous changes in the big cats.

As homes are built in or next to wilderness areas, "mountain lion behavior is changing in some very worrisome ways," said Baron, now a visiting scholar at Boston University. "As the cats adapt to suburban life, mountain lion attacks, while still very rare, are much more common than they were 10 or 15 years ago."

Many residents of the area have been unsettled by recent mountain lion sightings.

Residents of nearby rural Modjeska Canyon have seen mountain lions and lost livestock to them in the last two months. The most recent attack was last Friday. Modjeska is a few miles from Whiting Ranch; cougars have ranges of as much as 100 miles.

Among those reporting attacks was resident Jenny Richards, who on Saturday found that her goat had been killed, dragged a short distance and partially buried.

Even residents who have not seen mountain lions in the area were upset by Thursday's attack.

Betsy Sagey, 43, a Portola Hills resident whose property borders Whiting Ranch, said she had seen posted signs warning that mountain lions are unpredictable and that attacks can happen. The absence of recent attacks, however, creates a false sense of security, she said.

"When you're out there hundreds of times and nothing happens, you think nothing's going to happen," she said.

Susie Brown of Trabuco Canyon, a mountain bike rider who knows both Hjelle and Nicholls, offered a similar thought. "We feel so safe in the mountains because we go there so much," she said. "Now we're going to be nervous about it."

Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Christine Hanley, Janet Wilson, Claire Luna, Dave McKibben, Joel Rubin and H.G. Reza.

"Experts who study the animals, however, say that mountain lions are beginning to see humans as prey."

If your not the hunter your the prey. The lions there have no reason to fear humans so they are just another source of food.

What is barely hinted at in the piece by the lefties at the Los Angeles Times, is the fact that since 1972, Mountain lion hunting has been banned in Kalif. Kalifornia has long been being overrun with mountain lions, yet, because of the left wing greenie animal rights PETA environmental whacko anti-hunter numbskulls and the totally ignorant bliss ninny inhabitants of Kalif., anytime a lion attacks a human, or human's pet, or farm or ranch animal, all we hear is that EVIL MANKIND has intruded on the poor kitty's space.

Until 1972, there was a balance in Nature, re the lions, but that was upset by the anti-hunting rule.

There are thousands of mountain lions all over Kalif., now, and the problem will only worsen, as hunting of lions was banned forever, in an initiative vote, in 1994 or 1995.(??) I can't remember the exact year at the moment, but my wife and I damned sure voted against the anti-hunting initiative... with no success.

I should add too, that the Marxist Socialist inspired editors, columnists, reporters, and cartoonists, of Pravda West (The Los Angeles Times), crusaded unabashedly and incessantly to make the moratorium on mountain lion hunting, a ban forever. They won.

Now, the scrambled-eggs-for-brains bliss ninnys are paying for it. More power to the lions, I say!

L.W.

I think it is good that the prey animals are nervous about being prey. It is unfortunate that such incidents will have to occur to reacquaint people with the realities of the wild world. Still, the PETA and earth first types will not be disuaded. They will continue their hypocritical activities no matter what happens.

This has caused the cats to form their own branch of PETA:

P umas
E ating
T asty
A ctivists

In all seriousness, my condolences would go to the families of those involved. Kind of takes the enjoyment out of a nature hike or bicycle ride and would most certainly be a horrible way to go. Maybe time to revisit the ban on lion hunting in Kalifornia?

Man and animals do not funtion the same by virtue of sound reasoning. Animals survive by instinct and can not reason as man does. The animal rights groups place animals on the same level as them selves and that is their major failure as a group. I call it the Disney World Syndrome created by Walt Disney. His movies depict animals as human like walking upright talking reasoning entities.

The real world senario is far removed from those Disney movies that give all animals human like movements and actions. God did not intend animlas to be equal to the humans he created, he placed all animals here as a food source and as beasts of burden. America has many special interest groups who relish in special treatment through rediculious legislation enacted by our vote seeking elected officials. In this new age of being politically correct lest we offend some group has us all in the fix we now enjoy to hate.

Since the Bible has been replaced by the laws our elected officials now view as Gospel with little regard for good common sense only time can reverse those ignorant man made laws. The reason man must remove animals as he sees fit is in Genesis Chapter 1 verse 26. When man decides he will alter and rewrite Gods laws set to print in the Holy Bible, things go wrong and stay that way until that law is striken down through legislation. No man made law is above Gods laws as set to print in His Holy Bible.

Wild creatures will continue to do what instinct guides them to do as God created them to act and if man gets in the way he will perish. Only mans foolish thinking would rationalize he can live in harmony with wild creatures and not be in harms way. All those animal rights activists organizations are mentally deranged atheists fools who persuade our elected officals to set rediculious laws to print. I feel no sorrow for any one who is stupid enough to believe he can walk with Lions Tigers and bears and not be harmed. There is no such thing as a domesticated wild animal, sooner or later they will kill you.

And of course no one that was responding to these attacks was allowed to have a fire arm or carry it with them on their outing to the mountains. Who would ever need to defend themselves just for going out for a bike ride or a hike? < !--color-->

A weapon of any kind wouldn't have helped Mark Jeffrey Reynolds, the man killed by the Mountain Lion. The preliminary autopsy report said that Mr. Reynolds was killed by a single bite on the back of his neck severing the cord. Seeing that in that park there is no firearms allowed maybe a can of bear pepper spray would have helped. The funny part of this is the fools that got our Mountain Lion hunting ban convinced everyone in power that there were only 9 Mountain Lions left in California and thus needed to be protected. From 9 to 6,000 or more in such a short period of time. Seems to me that the Mountain Lions in California have followed the Lords word very well by going forth and multiplying at an unheard of rate. Time to make them a Big Game animal again in California, in my opinion. And yes, the ban can be lifted but it is going to take a 2/3's majority vote by the public to do so. We just missed a few years ago and plan on trying again. Lawdog

This who post is pure Bull Sh*t. Everyone knows that this is just a conspiracy of the Republicans and the Hunters in this country to be able to go out and just hunt a poor defenseless Mountain Lion, one of Mother Nature's Most beautiful creatures.

If you don't believe me just go ask any card holding member of PETA or the ACLU.

If you are like me tho, just shoot the dam mountain lions and walk aways whistling like nothing ever happened. The only good one is a dead one.

I used to live about 45 minutes from where the attack took place. Its off a road that leads from riverside to orange counties but is very windy and goes through the coastal mountains.

They mentioned another park where someone was killed. Cuyamacca is about 1 1/2 hour from my house but I go there a lot to hike and "look" at the deer because thats all we can do there. There is a lot of black tailed deer there. A friend and I went hiking up a mountain there and came across atleast one den that had fresh prints outside. We were pretty nervous but never saw a lion.

I remember when they were trying to ban lion hunting and trapping. I was only about 13 at the time. Im sure with more and more killings that will happen something going the oppite way will happen. They cant continue to build and build deeper into lion territory and just let the lions run free. Through hunting or relocation something is going to happen.