Travis Kauffman is an absolute legend. The 31-year-old Colorado man out for a trip in the woods when he was attacked by a mountain lion. The mountain lion, which approximately weighed 80 pounds, reportedly charged him and pounced, before sinking its teeth into his wrist, thighs, and other parts of his body.
However, Kauffman was able to survive, because he killed the animal with his bare hands like a straight gangster.
“I stopped and turned,” Kauffman said in an interview with KUNC radio. “In the back of my mind I always wonder if it’s something dangerous like a bear or a bobcat or a mountain lion, and in this case it was in fact a mountain lion.”
“But during that fall, the cat ended up on its back and it still had my wrist this whole time in its mouth.”
Eventually, Kauffman grabbed a rock and was hitting the cat before he was able to choke the mountain lion to death after a struggle which lasted around 10 minutes.
“I got my right foot onto its neck,” he said. “And then I was able to get some weight onto its windpipe and that’s what eventually suffocated it. One of the thoughts that I was having was like, ‘Well this would be a pretty crappy way to die. Just off on the side of the mountain, screaming and having this cat wrapped around my wrist. Then eventually another cat comes in and takes me out, and then getting eaten by a bunch of mountain lions. That wouldn’t be an ideal way to go.’”
Once he killed the mountain lion and broke free, he received assistance from a couple of hikers.
This just goes to show that staying calm even in the wildest of circumstances can end up saving your life. And if any jiu-jitsu instructors are reading, this man deserves a black belt.
You can watch Kauffman’s full story below.
This is a developing story. More information will be provided as it becomes available.