Lion attack ‘unsubstantiated’ — search ends

The reported mountain-lion attack in Foothills Park Saturday was found to be “unsubstantiated” by state investigators today, according to warden Patrick Foy of the Department of Fish and Game.

After spending hours combing the trail, forensically checking the hiker’s clothing and interviewing the alleged victim, officials found no evidence to confirm the attack, he said.

Foothills Park, where the incident occurred, and Arastradero Preserve, where another alleged sighting happened Saturday afternoon, may be re-opened soon, police Agent Dan Ryan said.

“[It was] more of a wild-goose chase than we thought. We just can’t confirm or deny it,” he said.

The Portola Valley man who reported the attack — which would have been the first in Palo Alto history — was hiking on the Los Trancos Trail in Foothills Park at about 4 p.m. Saturday. He said he felt a shove and tumbled down a hillside, stopping when he hit the trunk of a tree, according to Ryan.

He saw a lion continue to tumble down the hill, splash through Los Trancos Creek and scramble away, Ryan said.

But an aggressive, three-part investigation turned up nothing to substantiate the account, Foy said.

Four state wardens and a professional wildlife tracker from the U.S. Department of Agriculture searched inside the park late into Sunday night and again Monday and found no trace, he said. They even tied sticks to the side of a truck, combing the ground near the incident to smooth out dirt so tracks would be obvious.

As well, hounds specially trained to detect mountain lions were brought to the shady trail but couldn’t find the scent, he said.

The victim’s shirt was sent to a lab to detect puncture marks, hair or saliva but nothing was found, he said.

“You’d be surprised how many hairs end up on that victim’s back when a lion does attack them,” he said.

The shirt had a couple small spots of blood believed to be the hiker’s, Foy added. The hiker was badly scraped all over his body after the fall, including on his exposed legs where he’d been wearing shorts, Foy said.

Earlier Monday, authorities said they had no reason to doubt the hiker’s account.

The hiker, who told police not to disclose his identity, described a four-foot animal with a nearly four-foot tail, a description that matches lions rather than smaller bobcats often mistakenly called lions, Foy said.

A lion was also reported sighted from a distance near the lake at Arastradero Preserve on Saturday afternoon, about two miles away from the alleged attack, Ryan said.

And Foy and Ryan initially attributed the trouble finding a scent to the time delay between the alleged attack and its reporting.

The hiker only called officials Sunday afternoon, nearly a day later, because he feared he’d be fined for using a Palo Alto park not open to non-residents, according to Ryan.

The man entered the preserve through an unofficial trail winding by houses in a residential neighborhood of Los Trancos Woods near the 100 block of Ramona Road.

Foothills Park has been closed to non-Palo Alto residents since the 1,400-acre preserve opened in 1959.

Despite the lack of evidence of a weekend attack, Foy cautioned against complacency. Because of its large deer population, the park is mountain lion habitat and visitors should know how to defend themselves, he said.

Children should be kept nearby and dogs should be leashed, he advised. If confronted, people should stand tall and shout aggressively or blow a whistle to scare the animal away, he said. And if attacked, fight back, Foy added.

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