Hiker shoots mountain lion

From Colorado, a reminder why it's important to carry on your hikes (or walks on rural country roads) where legal to do so:

New Castle, Colo. -- A man walking with his wife on a country road in western Colorado shot and killed a mountain lion he said was advancing on them.
...
In Tuesday's case, a couple was walking on a road about two miles north of New Castle, about 170 miles west of Denver, when a mountain lion emerged from bushes alongside the road. The two told state wildlife officers that they yelled, waved their arms and backed away slowly, trying to scare the mountain lion away without startling it.

But the couple said the mountain lion was down low and kept moving toward them. The man drew a pistol he was carrying and shot the cat.

"Our investigation shows the mountain lion was about 6 feet away before the man fired a shot," Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton said. "The couple indicated they felt terrible they even had to do this."

Hampton didn't have the couple's names because all the paperwork on the encounter wasn't finished. He said the division's investigation indicated the two did nothing wrong and they won't be cited in the shooting.

"We felt this was a situation, where had they not been armed, we would've been dealing with a very different story today," Hampton said. [emphasis added]

Article here.