Obviously outraged at having the bicycle equivalent of adventure playgrounds built in their forests, Vancouver’s cougar’s (puma type ‘mountain lion’ – sharp pointy teeth and feet, enjoys pouncing on other animals etc.) are on the offensive.

John Nostal was riding his bike back from an evening meal in Port Hardy when a local cougar decided he would make a decent supper himself. Luckily for Nostal, he was saved by passing truck driver Elliot Cole who told the following story to the local radio station ;

“I saw the cougar on the guy’s back. I jumped out of my truck and tried to scare it away. I shouted and yelled at it.” That didn’t work so he hit the animal on the head with a heavy bag containing two ring binders, and his lunch, but the cougar remained unimpressed.
“That didn’t faze it so I dropped the bag and punched the cougar in the head about six times,” he added. “It still wouldn’t release him, so I got the guy’s bike and took the wheel of the bike, put it on the cougar’s neck and shoved it to the ground to the point where I thought it was choking the cat.”
As he struggled to contain the cougar, the animal stuck its paws through the spokes of the bike and swatted at him. He used the wheel to ram the paw into the forks of the bike, stood on it and hit the cougar in the head another six times, he said.
“I could see that it had released John’s neck but not his jacket and I yelled at him to wriggle out of the coat or tear free,” he added.
Mr Nostal managed to free himself and run for the truck. His rescuer hit the cougar once more on the head then ran for the truck himself.
As he began to pull away to take Mr Nostal to Port Hardy hospital, the animal shot out from under the vehicle and over an embankment at the side of the road.