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Britton and his wife were vacationing in Wyoming. |
Man fights off mountain lion with chain saw
BILLINGS, Mont. - A Colorado man used a chain saw to fight off a mountain lion that attacked him during a camping trip with his wife and two toddlers in northwestern Wyoming.
The adult male lion, described as emaciated and showing other signs of starvation, was later killed by wildlife officials after it attacked a dog brought in to track it.
Dustin Britton, a 32-year-old mechanic and former Marine from Windsor, Colo., said he was alone cutting firewood about 100 feet from his campsite in the Shoshone National Forest when he saw the 100-pound lion staring at him from some bushes.
The 6-foot, 170-pound Britton said he raised his 18-inch chain saw and met the lion head-on as it pounced - a collision he described as feeling like a grown man running directly into him.
“It batted me three or four times with its front paws, and as quick as I hit it with that saw, it just turned away,’’ he said in a telephone interview.
Wildlife officials said Sunday evening’s attack about 25 miles west of Cody was highly unusual because mountain lions are reclusive by nature. Only eight cases of mountain lions acting aggressively toward humans have been documented in Wyoming over the last decade.
Given the animal’s low body weight - male lions in Wyoming typically weigh 140 to 150 pounds - it may have attacked Britton out of desperation, said Mark Bruscino, a Wyoming Fish and Game biologist who responded to the incident.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
