Nevada lion attack

[Emily]

http://www.kolotv.com/home/headlines/36409984.html

Woman Injured By Aggressive Mountain Lion in Virginia Highlands


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Nevada wildlife officials continue to search the Virginia Highlands area for a young mountain lion responsible for injuring a woman and her dog.

Sheriff's investigators say the attack happened at about 8:00 p.m. in a remote neighborhood atop Geiger Grade.

Both the woman and her dog are okay, but the mountain lion is still roaming somewhere in our area.

Investigators say the dog was tied to cinder blocks when the mountain lion approached.

"She heard a commotion and came out and saw it attacking her dog. She got involved, and then it ran off in that direction," said Nevada's Game Warden, Mike McCusker.

The warden responded to the report of an attack, but luckily the injuries were minor. Investigators believe the woman was clawed by the lion.

"There were two injuries. One to her inner bicep, some kind of a puncture or I don't know what it came from. And then another puncture wound on her clavicle," said McCusker.

Biologists and bloodhounds hit the trail, hoping to track down the aggressive animal. But with heavy snow and wind, the tracks proved difficult to follow, and after hours of searching...still no sign of the lion.

Neighbor Ken Adams says he heard the sirens, but had no clue there was a predator on the loose.

"It's kind of scary. If I had known what it was about, I might have thought twice this morning about hiking, but I went anyway."

Another neighbor, Ron Field, says his wife is terrified, but he wasn't surprised.

"I hope they're both okay. It's a wakeup call to all of us. We are in wilderness out here and we're all on the food chain."

The Game Warden says if they don't catch the mountain lion soon, it could be too late. There are hundreds of miles to cover, and as more snow falls, the tracks become harder to follow.

"A lion like this that is brazen enough to frequent these areas could do it again."

The warden says the animal was most likely looking for a quick meal, and a chained up dog is a perfect target. He says if the animal is caught, it will be euthanized.

There has only been one reported case in Nevada of a mountain lion attacking a person. That was in 1991 on the Nevada Test Site. The man was only injured

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