A man who was attacked by a mountain lion in Colorado has spoken of his ordeal for the first time.
Acting in self-defence, Travis Kauffman managed to escape by killing the juvenile cougar with his bare hands when it attacked him in the Horsetooth Mountain Open Space, a mountain park less than 110 km from Denver.
"I turned around and just was pretty bummed out to see a mountain lion chasing after me," he said.
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"It grabbed on to my hand and wrist from there it started to claw at my face and neck," he told American media.
It was then he entered fight or flight mode, CBS reports.
He pinned down the mountain lion and used a rock as a weapon to hit in the head.
"I tried to give it a few bashes."
He then strangled the animal with its bare hands.
"I had no choice but to strangle it to death," Mr Kauffman says.
After that, he managed to get to safety and, with the help of strangers, got to hospital where had more than a dozen stitches to wounds all over his body.
"I feel really fortunate it turned out the way it did. I feel like I made all the right decision," he says.
Officials caught two other mountain lions in the area after the incident.
Newshub.
