Eight-year-old fights off mountain lion with just a stick: ‘I tried to get it in the eye’

Every parent’s worst nightmare is having to fight for their child’s life, but imagine if that also required wrestling a mountain lion.

An eight-year-old boy miraculously survived a mountain lion attack outside of his Colorado home on Aug. 21, successfully protecting himself with only a stick.

Pike Carlson was playing outside with his brother Gage when his friend called him over to his home right next door around 7:30 p.m.

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That was when the lion attacked him, taking a bite of his head.

Gage sprung to action, running home to get help from their father, Ron Carlson, who left his home to find the lion on top of his youngest son.

“That parental instinct to protect your child kind of kicks in,” Ron told WFAA. “It never even entered my head that I was about to tangle with something that could kill me.”

“All you know is you have to do something,” he continued. “It doesn’t matter what happens to you, you’ve got to protect your children.”

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Against all odds, Carlson survived the attack, momentarily fending off the lion with a stick that eventually broke in half.

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“I was just punching, trying to grab anything that I can, like a stick,” the boy explained to the broadcast station. “I did find a stick and I tried to get it in the eye but soon the stick snapped.”

Eventually, the lion let Carlson go after dragging him under a tree. Ron ran over, the station reports, and noticed he was severely injured.

“When I first picked him up, I could see the whole side of his face was open,” he said. “There was blood all over him. His scalp was ripped open in several spots. It was something that no parent should ever see.”

He was rushed to the hospital where he received several surgeries and stitches to repair his head.

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“That first night in the hospital, even though the doctors were saying it’s going to be OK, I just kept flashing back to what could have happened,” mother Julie Carlson said.

“What if Gage, my oldest, didn’t get to him in time? What if my husband didn’t get to him in time?”

The Carlson family returned home to “welcome home” signs made by their neighbours, the station reports.

Luckily, the boy still has a sense of humour, advising: “No one try to wrestle a mountain lion. It is a cheater.”

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meaghan.wray@globalnews.ca