PICTURED: California man, 21, killed by mountain lion as his younger brother recovers from savage attack in the hospital
The man who died after a being attacked by a mountain lion in California has been named as Taylen Brooks.
Taylen’s brother Wyatt Brooks, 18, was also injured but survived and is recovering, according to El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office.
The siblings were hunting for shed antlers in a remote part of Georgetown, California, when they were attacked by the mountain lion – a protected species under California law.
Wyatt called 911 on Saturday to say that he and his brother were attacked, leaving him with ‘traumatic injuries to his face,’ according to the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office.
The teen added he had been separated from his brother during the assault- the first fatal mountain lion attack in two decades.
The man who died after a being attacked by a mountain lion has been named as Taylen Brooks
Brooks’s brother Wyatt Brooks, 18, (right) was also attacked but survived and is recovering, according to El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office
First responders arrived at the scene around 20 minutes later. They began treating the 18-year-old and launched a search for the 21-year-old.
‘Shortly after the search started, they located a man down, and next to that individual was a mountain lion in a crouched position,’ Kyle Parker, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, told KCRA 3.
Police Taylen’s lifeless body was dragged by the mountain lion to another location while his brother searched for help.
Deputies fired shots to scare the lion off before finding that the older man was already dead.
The animal was captured by wardens and trappers from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. It was euthanized near the scene of the attack, the sheriff’s office said.
‘The mountain lion has been sent to the CDFW forensics laboratory to obtain DNA information and general health of the lion,’ the office wrote.
Mountain lion attacks are exceedingly rare, and the last fatal encounter in the state occurred in 2004, according to CDFW records.
Since 1890, there have been fewer than 50 verified attacks on humans in California, only six of which have been fatal.
The last time a mountain lion killed someone in the El Dorado County area was in 1994 when marathoner Barbara Schoener’s mutilated body was found in the isolated trails in Auburn Lake area.
Police Taylen’s lifeless body was dragged by the mountain lion to another location while his brother searched for help
Wyatt called 911 on Saturday to say that he and his brother were attacked, leaving him with ‘traumatic injuries to his face’
Schooner, 40, was attacked by a cougar that bit her neck and crushed her skull, according to the LA Times. The cougar dragged her partially eaten body about 300 feet and then buried under leaves.
Wildlife experts told the publication mountain lions conceal their pray and return when they are hungry.
What makes the attack even more rare is that victims are alone in most instances.
‘When you hear about stuff like that, you get a little on edge,’ local Daniel Lesher told KCRA 3.
‘I was surprised to hear that it was going after humans. It’s not uncommon for them to go after livestock.’
The circumstances surrounding the attack are unclear. The sheriff’s office says more information will be made available after an investigation.
Mountain lions are solitary animals that travel alone except during mating or cubbing season, according to the National Park Service.
They are known as a keystone species, keeping prey populations in check and culling invasive species.
In the instances where lions do attack humans, most are injured, stressed, or hungry, the NPS says.
‘A hungry, stressed mountain lion with only one good eye, upon observing an abundance of slow, frequently inattentive bipeds on park trails may attack one of us humans, hoping for an easy meal,’ the agency wrote on its website.
