Authorities may have killed cougar that killed female hiker

ZIGZAG, Ore. – Authorities say they are investigating whether an adult female cougar they killed at the site of a fatal attack on a human is the same animal that killed the 55-year-old hiker.

U.S. Department of Agriculture officers killed a cougar Friday that appeared at the site of the deadly attack near Mt. Hood, the state’s highest peak, by a cougar on Diana Bober, an avid and experienced hiker.

Bober’s body was found Monday, almost two weeks after she was last heard from. She was the first person known to have been killed by a cougar in the wild in Oregon and the second in the Pacific Northwest this year.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says in a news release that the cougar’s body will be taken to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory in Ashland. The laboratory will analyze the evidence to determine if the cougar is the same one that killed Bober.