A CPW spokesperson and an animal rights activist weigh in on recent fatal mountain lion attack

On Jan. 1, a hiker near Glen Haven was killed in a mountain lion attack — the first fatal mountain lion attack Colorado has seen in over 25 years. The hiker was Kristen Marie Kovatch, a 46-year-old woman from Fort Collins.

In response, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) officers euthanized two mountain lions in the area. One of the lions, a 1-year-old male, was found to have human DNA on its paws. In light of the deadly incident, Mark Leslie, Northeast Region Manager for CPW, said the euthanasia “was a necessary, if unfortunate action.”

Wayne Pacelle is President of the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action. In 2024, his organization supported Colorado’s Proposition 127, which would have prohibited the killing of mountain lions. He argues that Colorado’s hunting policies destabilize the mountain lion population in a way that may exacerbate human lion-conflicts, citing a study by Animal Wellness Action’s director of veterinary sciences, Dr. Jim Keen.

Kara Van Hoose, a spokesperson with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said Colorado’s implementation of mountain lion hunting regulations in 1965 resulted in a population increase as lions were given protection as a big game species. Van Hoose said that mountain lion management is “a really difficult and complex process” rooted in science and experience, and shaped by CPW biologists and wildlife officers who are working and living in communities where mountain lions are present. “It’s a process that we go through every year, and that we take very seriously at CPW,” said Van Hoose.

Fatal mountain lion attacks are extremely rare in Colorado. The state’s last such attack was in 1999, when a three-year-old went missing on a family hike in the Fort Collins area.

CPW advises that if you encounter a mountain lion, avoid running, and instead, make yourself appear large and threatening while making sure to give the lion an escape route.

“ I don’t know if we’ll ever have a reason that we can definitively point to why this happened,” said Van Hoose. “And that’s what I think makes it so tragic and so unfortunate, because a lot of people do want a reason, but we just don’t have it from our data. We just don’t.”

This story aired on A Public Affair, KGNU’s weekday morning show featuring in-depth discussions on local news issues. Click here to listen to other episodes of A Public Affair.