LOS ANGELES — A 5-year-old boy was being treated Saturday for wounds suffered when he was mauled in his front yard by a juvenile mountain lion roaming the Monte Nido neighborhood in the Santa Monica Mountains.
With two other cougars lurking nearby, presumed to be the mother and a sibling, the boy's mother fought off the attacking animal and, with her husband, drove the child to a nearby hospital, authorities said. He was then transferred to Children's Hospital in Los Angeles.
State wildlife agents responding to the attack fatally shot the cougar. DNA testing confirmed that the dead animal was the one that attacked the boy, Patrick Foy, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said Saturday. Agents tracked down and tranquilized the other juvenile and subsequently released it after determining it was not involved in the attack, he said.
The boy's name and information about his injuries were not released.
The agency completed its investigation of the Thursday morning attack after a rabies test came back negative, he said.
Foy said the two juveniles appeared to be the offspring of the lion known as P-54. The surviving juvenile, a female, was released into the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area near where she was tracked on her GPS collar after the incident.
