By Dennis Romero—
NBC News
A group of Seattle-area cyclists who braved a mountain lion last month to rescue one of their friends from the animal's jaws recounted their terrifying experience this weekend.
The woman who was attacked, Keri Bergere, suffered injuries to her neck and face and was treated at a hospital and released after the Feb. 17 incident on a trail northeast of Fall City, it said in a statement. the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Bergere said
he spent five days in a hospital
and was still recovering.
Erik Olson, an official with the agency, described the actions of the cyclists as “heroic” in the statement.
What happened that day with the 75-pound animal was not immediately clear last month.
Three of the riders — Bergere, Annie Bilotta and Tisch Williams — spoke to NBC affiliate KING in Seattle on Friday.
A group of cyclists uses a bicycle to immobilize a mountain lion that attacked one of them in Washington state.KING 5
The three women, who have been riding bicycles together for five years and participate in competitions, said they were about 19 miles from a cycling trail called Tokul Creek, when a pair of mountain lions suddenly approached, grabbed Bergere and dragged her off her back. bicycle.
“I only remember that they grabbed me from one side of the road and I ended up on the other side immobilized and lying on the ground, hearing everyone else coming to me, while I was fighting for my life,” Bergere told KING.
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The other feline ran towards the hills, the cyclists said, while the four who were with Bergere mounted a counterattack to save her from the animal's claws and jaws, which at that moment were on her face, exerting pressure.
“Erica and Tisch approached with sticks and a stone and we began to fight hand to hand,” Bilotta told the local television station.
According to experts, pumas use the extraordinary strength of their jaws, which press about 400 pounds per square inch, to crush the skulls, neck bones and windpipes of their prey.
For a while it seemed like the feline wouldn't budge, and Bergere did everything he could, including squeezing its eyes and nose, he told the Seattle affiliate.
But after 15 minutes of fighting, according to the cyclists, the puma relaxed its pressure on Bergere and she was able to escape its jaws.
At that moment, the women used a bicycle to immobilize the animal, while help from the authorities arrived.
Bergere wounded, but alive.
“He gave us thumb signals,” Williams recalled.
The agents fatally shot the animal and took it away for examination, later concluding that it had no diseases or abnormalities that could contribute to such an attack, according to the agency's statement.
The second feline was not found.
Bergere expressed her gratitude to her teammates.
“I know for a fact that she would be dead if they hadn't come back to help me, she just wouldn't be here,” she told KING.
“That cougar had me.”