"DENVER - A 31-year-old man who fended off and suffocated a mountain lion when it attacked him on a Colorado jogging trail last week described on Thursday how he killed the big cat by stepping on its throat during a life-and-death struggle.

Speaking for the first time publicly since the Feb. 4 incident that left him with still-visible lacerations on his neck and face, Travis Kauffman described for reporters the harrowing three-minute encounter.

Kauffman said he was running at the Horsetooth Mountain Open Space, about 65 miles northwest of Denver, when he heard pine needles rustling and turned his head only to come face-to-face with a young cougar."

Keith Coffman reports for Reuters February 14, 2019. [2]