Warning: This article contains graphic details that some readers may find distressing.
A woman who astonishingly survived a cougar attack has shared the key to her survival.
In February of the previous year, Keri Bergere was on a bike outing with friends when an unexpected incident occurred.
The group was cycling along a trail northeast of Fall City, Washington in King County, US, when a cougar suddenly emerged from the bushes and launched an attack.
During the encounter, Bergere was pulled from her bike, with her head caught in the jaws of the cougar.
For 15 harrowing minutes, she was in the grip of the animal, but her quick-thinking friends enabled her escape.
Her survival was due to the swift actions of fellow cyclists, Annie Bilotta and Tisch Williams, who intervened by hitting the cougar with rocks and sticks.
In an episode of Dan Becker’s podcast earlier this year, Williams recalled: “I just remember sweating so hard and I’m hitting it over and over trying to stick it and stab it. And it just wouldn’t release [Bergere].”
Bergere described: “During my 15 minutes I could hear everything that was going on with these ladies and the fight they were putting up.
“I was down there just pinned. First I was trying to gouge his eyeball out, but the skin on the eyeball was like leather and I just couldn’t get in there.
“So then I tried to put my fingers up his nose.
“He started crushing down on my face and it felt like it was disintegrating inside. I took a swallow and it felt like I was swallowing gallons of blood.”
Eventually, Bergere managed to free herself, and they pinned the cougar under one of their bikes.
Williams remembered: “If you see a bear you’re told to put your bike up and you hold your bike. […] Because of the bike we got on top of [the cougar].”
The women were concerned that if the cougar got back up, it could endanger all of them, so they kept it restrained.
Bilotta added: “I grabbed it because I thought no one is going to grab my brand new bike. Like, I started grabbing it.”
She recounted how the cougar was ‘thrashing beneath us’ as they stood on the bike to trap it, likening the experience to ‘riding a surfboard’.
The women succeeded in capturing the cougar, ensuring Bergere’s safety. The next day, she underwent a nine-hour surgery.
The podcast also featured clips from the distressing 911 call made during Bergere’s attack.
The audio captured one of the women saying: “Kill it. Kill it. I don’t have a knife. Somebody hit it with the rock again. No, no, no, no.”
Listen here: Warning some readers may find the audio recording distressing.
Eventually, an officer from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) arrived and shot the cougar, as reported by the Guardian.
The WDFW later retrieved the cougar following the incident, confirming that it weighed 75 pounds.
In a statement shared on March 8, 2024, they said: “Fish and Wildlife officers removed a 75-pound male cougar, nearly a year old (approximately 9-12 months) on arrival at the scene.
“A Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory examination at Washington State University found the animal to be in good health and body condition with no evidence of significant diseases or abnormalities that would affect its behavior. The animal tested negative for rabies.”