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American Morning

Mountain Lion Attack

Aired January 09, 2004 - 09:16   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Is this attack unusual? just how dangerous are these wild cats? Jack Hannah is the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo. He is also the host of "Animal Adventures."
He joins us live from Columbus, Ohio this morning.

Jack, good morning. Thanks for being with us.

Let's talk a little bit about this area in Orange County in California. It's a wilderness park. How unusual is an attack in this location?

JACK HANNAH, DIR. EMERITUS, COLUMBUS ZOO: Well, it's very unusual as far as that's concerned. You don't want people to think they can't go out and enjoy the mountains in California, Wyoming or Montana, Idaho, where these cats are. This is very, very unusual. I was shocked when I heard about this last night.

Right now, I am with a cheetah, the fastest cat in the world, but the reason I have the cheetah with me, it's about the same size as a mountain lion. That's why I have this. The head is not -- somewhat similar, not really as far as that's concerned. But when the cats do attack, especially a mountain lion, they usually will go for the head, or the neck or the face, because they're not the largest cat in the world, like the tiger goes for the back, or other animals kill in different ways, but that cat usually does go for the neck or head. A cat, to me, has to be either injured, or the cat has to be hungry for some reason or an older cat.

The reason I say that, mountain lions, out of all my 30-something years of working with animals in the wild, as far as filming them, I have only seen a mountain lion twice. Mountains lions are an animal, they're very elusive. They don't want to see you any more than you want to see them. That's why I was shocked when I heard it. I guess that there was -- was there a body of another individual found with the cat?

O'BRIEN: It's unclear if there was a connection between another body found very nearby. But It looks as if the same cat had indeed killed another person, another man. So that would be three people attacked. Fortunately, at least, two able to survive.

HANNAH: Right. Of course you know what the rule is now basically in the all parks, is that if a grizzly or another animal gets into a camp and attacks people or raids, then usually what they have to do is put down the grizzly or the cat, whatever the animal is, because they relate food to that animal. So that's why we try and tell people not to leave camp sites open, that type of thing, especially in the spring.

This time of year, this is a very, very unusual thing. If you saw the news yesterday, you saw that 30 percent of all species on the planet could go into extinction in the next 40 years because of our solar system and the ozone layer.

However, think about what happens to cats like the cougar that needs a certain territory, all these animals, with the human population approaching, and more and more people wanting to hike, and camp and bike an things, these animals are kind of pushed out.

So what you have to realize is that this is going to continue to happen as far as that's concerned, but it will not happen that much. Again, a mountain lion is an animal that people just don't see a lot of.

O'BRIEN: The mountain bikers who were riding by and were able to assist the woman who'd been grabbed by the head by the mountain lion, said that in spite of throwing rocks at the lion, it basically just sat there. I mean, that seems to be unusual behavior. The mountain lion wasn't afraid at all of people.

HANNAH: Right. This cat, had obviously lived in the area. I don't know the background. Somebody told me it might be someone's cat that got loose. I doubt that very seriously as well. But this cat seems like a cat that was used to humans, it was used to that area. Again, might be injured, might be older, that cannot hunt on its own, and therefore, it's watching these people for who knows how many months, and of course he's found by killing one person. Again, I don't know the age of the man that was killed. If you remember the person that was killed in California is a young lady jogging several years ago. She was a very small woman.

O'BRIEN: I remember that.

HANNAH: Right, and usually these cats will go after something that's smaller. If you watch it in a zoological park sometimes, it's very safe in the zoo. But go there sometimes and watch when the little kids run by the cat enclosure or something, they sometimes will see that. So that's kind of basically makes me think what has happened here. I think that the cat must be either older, or injured that type of thing.

O'BRIEN: Real tragedy, though, to talk about.

Jack Hannah, joining us this morning.

Thanks a lot, Jack. As always, nice to see you.

HANNAH: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 9, 2004 - 09:16   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Is this attack unusual? just how dangerous are these wild cats? Jack Hannah is the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo. He is also the host of "Animal Adventures."
He joins us live from Columbus, Ohio this morning.

Jack, good morning. Thanks for being with us.

Let's talk a little bit about this area in Orange County in California. It's a wilderness park. How unusual is an attack in this location?

JACK HANNAH, DIR. EMERITUS, COLUMBUS ZOO: Well, it's very unusual as far as that's concerned. You don't want people to think they can't go out and enjoy the mountains in California, Wyoming or Montana, Idaho, where these cats are. This is very, very unusual. I was shocked when I heard about this last night.

Right now, I am with a cheetah, the fastest cat in the world, but the reason I have the cheetah with me, it's about the same size as a mountain lion. That's why I have this. The head is not -- somewhat similar, not really as far as that's concerned. But when the cats do attack, especially a mountain lion, they usually will go for the head, or the neck or the face, because they're not the largest cat in the world, like the tiger goes for the back, or other animals kill in different ways, but that cat usually does go for the neck or head. A cat, to me, has to be either injured, or the cat has to be hungry for some reason or an older cat.

The reason I say that, mountain lions, out of all my 30-something years of working with animals in the wild, as far as filming them, I have only seen a mountain lion twice. Mountains lions are an animal, they're very elusive. They don't want to see you any more than you want to see them. That's why I was shocked when I heard it. I guess that there was -- was there a body of another individual found with the cat?

O'BRIEN: It's unclear if there was a connection between another body found very nearby. But It looks as if the same cat had indeed killed another person, another man. So that would be three people attacked. Fortunately, at least, two able to survive.

HANNAH: Right. Of course you know what the rule is now basically in the all parks, is that if a grizzly or another animal gets into a camp and attacks people or raids, then usually what they have to do is put down the grizzly or the cat, whatever the animal is, because they relate food to that animal. So that's why we try and tell people not to leave camp sites open, that type of thing, especially in the spring.

This time of year, this is a very, very unusual thing. If you saw the news yesterday, you saw that 30 percent of all species on the planet could go into extinction in the next 40 years because of our solar system and the ozone layer.

However, think about what happens to cats like the cougar that needs a certain territory, all these animals, with the human population approaching, and more and more people wanting to hike, and camp and bike an things, these animals are kind of pushed out.

So what you have to realize is that this is going to continue to happen as far as that's concerned, but it will not happen that much. Again, a mountain lion is an animal that people just don't see a lot of.

O'BRIEN: The mountain bikers who were riding by and were able to assist the woman who'd been grabbed by the head by the mountain lion, said that in spite of throwing rocks at the lion, it basically just sat there. I mean, that seems to be unusual behavior. The mountain lion wasn't afraid at all of people.

HANNAH: Right. This cat, had obviously lived in the area. I don't know the background. Somebody told me it might be someone's cat that got loose. I doubt that very seriously as well. But this cat seems like a cat that was used to humans, it was used to that area. Again, might be injured, might be older, that cannot hunt on its own, and therefore, it's watching these people for who knows how many months, and of course he's found by killing one person. Again, I don't know the age of the man that was killed. If you remember the person that was killed in California is a young lady jogging several years ago. She was a very small woman.

O'BRIEN: I remember that.

HANNAH: Right, and usually these cats will go after something that's smaller. If you watch it in a zoological park sometimes, it's very safe in the zoo. But go there sometimes and watch when the little kids run by the cat enclosure or something, they sometimes will see that. So that's kind of basically makes me think what has happened here. I think that the cat must be either older, or injured that type of thing.

O'BRIEN: Real tragedy, though, to talk about.

Jack Hannah, joining us this morning.

Thanks a lot, Jack. As always, nice to see you.

HANNAH: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com