Mom Pulls Cougar Off 5 year old Boy Near Aspen

A five year old was playing in his front yard along with an older brother in a rural area not far from Aspen. Suddenly their mother heard screaming and ran outside to find a mountain lion had jumped him. The mother pulled the cat off the boy. The boy's father called 911 and drove him to a hospital.

This in a week when America has been transfixed by an alligator attack on a 2 year old boy at Orlando's Disneyworld Resort.

The Mountain lion, often called a cougar or Puma, is fairly common west of the Mississippi in North America. There are even a handful in Florida. They are not considered great cats (like lions or tigers), but are the largest of the small cats, which include bobcats and lynxes. Attacks on people in the United States by mountain lions are rare, but not unheard of.

The still unnamed boy suffered injuries to his face, head and neck, police said. He has been transferred in fair condition to a Denver Hospital, said a spokesman for Aspen Valley Hospital.

His mother sustained minor cuts and scratches on her hands and legs. The cougar attacked about 10 miles northwest of Aspen on Lower River Road in unincorporated Pitkin County.

Sheriff's deputies and a U.S. Forest Service officer located a mountain lion in the same area where the mother said the attack took place and killed the cat, Pitkin Sheriff's Dept said.

Officials with Colorado Parks and Wildlife will examine the dead lion and attempt to locate a second lion that was reported to be in the area earlier in the day, officials said.

Cougars can be as long as a man is tall, but are more often about 3-5 feet in length and weigh less than 200 pounds. They hunt rabbits, squirrels, deer and other small game. They are not endangered, and are the largest cats native to the Americas.

The cougar, also commonly known as the mountain lion, puma, panther, or catamount, is a large felid of the subfamily Felinae native to the Americas. Its range, from the Canadian Yukon to the southern United States and Mexico.