Wildlife officials say a man who fought off a young mountain lion on a northern Colorado trail killed the animal by suffocating it.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife says the man was running alone near Fort Collins when the lion attacked him from behind after the movement apparently triggered its hunting instincts.
A spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Rebecca Ferrell, says the man told investigators he choked it and an examination of the animal confirmed that.
Ferrell says he did exactly the right thing by fighting back as hard as he could. Since he was just out for a run, he didn’t have anything to help him other than “sheer will”.