Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #195454 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 221 pages

From Amazon.com
Marginally protected for four decades, cougars have made a dramatic Comeback in the American West. From 1990 to 1999 Canada and the United States reported that 53 people had been either injured or killed by cougars. Before the rise in attacks, most people believed they could fight off a cougar or that attacks only occurred in rural areas. Yet, half of those who lost their lives were attacked in urban areas in the West.

Swiftly and silently cougars stalk and attack their prey. These cats typically feed on deer, but a recent study in the 1990s shows that cougars have begun hunting humans. Children have always attracted the attention of cougars and the cats have been known to attack even if an adult is close by. Judy Underdahl is one of many parents who recounted her child's attack. Underdahl was in her motor home photographing sleeping cougars when one caught sight her two-year old son and pushed its way into the motor home, attacking and killing the little boy.

The deadly attack on Barbara Schoener in 1994 in California is the first of many alarming tales of the hunter and the hunted. The book also features wildlife photographer Jim Mepham's close encounter with a cougar, along with Diane Shields's and Lucy Oberlin's first encounter with an aggressive cougar in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, as well as their second encounter a year later in the same location.

Cat Attacks provides provocative stories that will not only cause the hair on the back of your neck to rise, but will also increase you knowledge and awareness of this potential predator. --Jenny Burritt

About the Author
Jo Deurbrouck writes for Heartland USA and is the co-author of Insider's Guide to Yellowstone and Grand Teton. She lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Dean Miller is a veteran political journalist who has written for U.S. News and World Report and the Christian Science Monitor. He is managing editor of the Post Register of Idaho Falls, Idaho, where he lives.

Customer Reviews

WARNING! Mountain Lions Frequenting This Area --Be Alert--
Cat Attacks was a really cool book. All of the stories collected in this volume are true stories of real people who were attacked or killed by mountain lions. It is written in an energetic style that really puts the reader into each of the scenes. There are graphs that describe the number and demographics of recent trends involving human-puma encounters. Probably of most interest though is that fact that the writers of this book do not approach mountain lions from a tree-hugger perspective, which is rare for book on mountain lions. It is an exciting read, and some of the chapter titles may give you an indication of the kind of mountain lion book this is (for example, "Profile of the Killer"; "A Father's Nightmare"; "Hunting the Truth"; "Into the Jaws of Death"; "Stalked"; and "Hard Truths" to name just a few).

Most of the stories are re-created as though you're there on the trail with these people as they're attacked: Barbara Schoener, for instance, when she was attacked and killed near the American River on the Western States Trail. Or there with Cindy Parolin when she wrestled with a cougar to save her six-year-old son. Or the Cuyamaca State Park stories near San Diego with ranger Laura Itogawa where mountain lions seem to be unusually aggressive and have attacked people a number of times.

This book dispels many of the popular myths, most of which ironically, have sprung up because of conservationist efforts in the past fifty years. Because I live in a remote area of Arizona and I often go for long-distance jogs alone, I can not tell you how helpful (and welcome) this book was. Most other cougar books I researched painted the mountain lion out to be a wonderful, beautiful animal and glossed over the very real facts (some times quite literally with beautiful photographs) that this animal has attacked nearly 60 people in the US and Canada since 1986.

Despite the fact that cougar numbers are at their all-time highest in 150 years, the general belief is that the animal is endangered. This book offers a very different perspective in the question as to who really is the endangered species.

Stacey

great reading
fo ay one inerested in the subject this book is a great read. it picked up momentum until I couldn't put it down. The stories are thrilling although many ar very unnerving. It also provides varying perspectives on attacks and non-attacks. Good storytelling by the writers. I highly recommend it.

Real Life Horror
"Cat Attacks" investigates the nature of the growing number of strange and terrifying encounters of ordinary people with wild cougars. Too many of these incidents are full-scale, blitz-like attacks on unsuspecting people, especially children, out to enjoy the bounty of the great outdoors. Virtually all these attacks end, if not in the death or injury of the people involved, then in a serious loss of their sense of security and well-being through the shear terror of what they endured. "Cat Attacks" proves once again that not only is reality stranger than fiction, but more captivating too.

People have forgotten the dangers that cougars present since their numbers have been so severely decimated through centuries of extermination. Once their range extended across the entire country. Cougar attacks were once almost unheard of and many people now seem to assume they present no real danger. However, since 1990 attacks have been steadily on the rise.

Like the setting in a fictional horror story, the people attacked in "Cat Attacks" were engaging in innocent, everyday activity: jogging, hiking, sleeping, picking mushrooms, watching birds and cross country skiing. The children were walking to school, running track, horseback riding, clinging to their parents in the presence of a park ranger and one was even riding inside a camper with his family! None of these people suspected the imminence of life threatening danger.

The authors explain that cougars are virtually silent and attack so quickly witnesses report only a blur. Most victims never know danger is present until they are hit hard usually from behind. The animal bites the back of the victim's neck trying to cut the spinal column while pinning the victim with its claws. If the attack is successful, the victim is dragged away by the head in the cougar's mouth. Some people are still conscious as they are being eaten alive.

I read this book to make sense of my own unexpected cougar encounter, which occurred by remarkable coincidence the same month this book was published in June 2001. I was near the end of the Lost Mine Trail in the Chisos Mountains in the Big Bend National Park, Texas. Having a bad hip and being unsure how far and fast I can hike, I go alone so I won't slow others down. [Big mistake! See page 109.] I only had a bottle of water, a trail map and two canes with me. After three hours or so I made it to the end of trail-it was spectacular-and had started back down. Suddenly I looked up and there was this huge monster, killing-machine mountain lion crossing the trail about 30 yards in front of me! Good God! 30 yards! I was hours away from safety. I did not run [Good move! See page 109.], but remained still. He had massive legs and huge jaw muscles! He could have easily killed me and dragged me away to be eaten [See chapters 1 and 14], but by shear chance he was not interested [A probable low risk encounter. See page 180.]. Without betraying any fear, he crossed my trail and slowly meandered down the ridge and out of view. Going into the wilderness will never be the same again.

"Cat Attacks" is a very disturbing book. It set my own experience in context. It is informative and well written. With protection cougar populations are rising and ranges expanding; encounters are expected to increase. Anyone who lives in or near cougar country should read this book. Even people who live in cities are not completely safe. In 1992 a cougar ran into the underground parking garage of the opulent Victoria Hotel in downtown Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Read this book and learn more about the unappreciated dangers these vicious animals increasingly present.