A mountain lion bit an 11-year-old girl outside her home in Malibu on Sunday and then proceeded to chase her mother and sibling before it was killed by authorities, according to state wildlife officials.
The girl was doing her chores near a chicken coop on the property in the 32500 block of Pacific Coast Highway when the mountain lion pounced, according to California Department of Fish and Wildlife spokesperson Peter Tira.
It attacked her from behind, knocking her onto her stomach and biting her right arm, leg and lower back, Tira said. The girl’s mother was nearby and heard her child’s screams and ran over with one of the girl’s siblings.
“That’s when the mountain lion proceeded to chase the mother and the sibling,” Tira said.
One of the family members had a stun gun and the sound of the weapon scared away the mountain lion, Tira said.
Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies from the Malibu/Lost Hills station responded to the attack around 5:45 p.m. Deputies secured the scene until California Department of Fish and Wildlife officers arrived, according to the Sheriff’s Department. Wildlife officers located and fatally shot the lion, which was hiding on the property.
Wildlife officers took clothing from the girl and will compare it with the mountain lion’s DNA to confirm it was the same big cat that attacked her. The material is being processed at a forensics laboratory in Sacramento, Tira said.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department also responded to the scene and took the girl to Los Robles Regional Medical Center, where she was treated for minor injuries, officials said. The mountain lion was a young adult male, Tira said.
Sunday’s attack is the 27th reported mountain lion attack on a human since 1986, according to the latest Fish and Wildlife data. The majority of the encounters were nonfatal. The most recent fatal attack was in March 2024 when a mountain lion killed a 21-year-old man in El Dorado County.
In September, another young adult mountain lion attacked a 5-year-old boy in Malibu Creek State Park. The 53-pound female mountain lion was slightly underweight and appeared to have been relatively healthy. State wildlife officers tracked and killed the lion because it had attacked a child and could possibly pose a safety risk to the public, officials said at the time.
Last week, a mother in Carson also rescued her small child from an animal attack — in that case, a coyote. The animal started biting and dragging a 6-year-old boy away at a local park; his mother intervened and scared the coyote away.
The post Mountain lion bites 11-year-old girl in Malibu then chases her mother and sibling appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
