Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 20th, 2009
I really would rate these two as very strange. Of course, the first is only cryptozoological if the cyclist has misidentified the cow, which does not seem to be the case. But then, it certainly is weird, to say the least, to see two stories of this type coming in from one location, having happened on the same day.
From Colorado’s Daily Camera:
Cow charges cyclist on Boulder open space
By Amy Bounds
Monday, January 19, 2009
BOULDER, Colo. — A cow charged a woman on the South Boulder Creek Trail on Monday afternoon, knocking her down, officials said.
The woman was riding her bike on the trail when she encountered the cow, and she stopped to let the animal pass, said Pete Taylor, a ranger for Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks. The cow knocked the woman over and walked on her legs, he said.
He said the woman — whose name wasn’t released — wasn’t seriously injured, and she refused medical treatment.
She didn’t appear to do anything to provoke the animal, which witnesses said appeared to have an injured leg, he said. The cow had left the scene by the time rangers arrived, but hikers coming down the trail were warning others about the rogue bovine.
Marshall Mesa open space is leased by livestock owners and used as grazing land. Taylor said the cow’s owner was notified.
In 2003, a woman was rammed three times and her pelvis fractured by a grazing mama cow when she accidentally ran between the animal and her calf on the South Boulder Creek Trail.
Jason Vogel, vice president of the Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance, called Monday’s attack “odd, rare and random” and said he hasn’t heard of any other cows going after cyclists. It’s not even common to come across cows on the trails, he said, though they often can be seen nearby.
“It’s not something people should be concerned about,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the same newspaper Daily Camera, word is published of a local mountain lion killing a Boulder dog, also on Monday, January 19th:
Lion kills dog in north Boulder
By Vanessa Miller
January 20, 2009
BOULDER, Colo. — BOULDER, Colo. — Wildlife officers are trying to trap a mountain lion in north Boulder that took and killed a small dog late Monday.
The owner of the dog that was killed this week told officers he went outside with his dog about 10:30 p.m., and the dog started barking at the back fence, said Jennifer Churchil, spokeswoman for the Colorado Division of Wildlife.
A lion then jumped the fence and went after the dog, she said. The owner managed to scare away the lion, which dropped the dog. But the dog died, Churchill said.
Officers will not use the dog as bait to trap the lion and relocate it out of the area, as Churchill initially said. But officers will set a trap to try and catch it and collar it for the division’s mountain lion study.
An exact address for the dog attack isn’t known, but neighbors said it was near Iris Avenue, west of 9th Street. Neighbors also said the dog was a Yorkshire Terrier.
The lion attack happened near Foothill Elementary School, 1001 Hawthorn Ave., and Churchill said officers are setting their trap in that neighborhood. This afternoon, officers are talking with the principal about safety tips and about the basics of trapping lions.
“As always, the community should be extra diligent with their dogs,” Churchill said. “This person was close by his pet when this happened. But, in the evening from dusk till dawn, be extra careful with your pets.”
On Christmas Eve, a lion took a 4-year-old Jack Russell terrier in the same area. There have been several lion sightings since the first dog attack in that neighborhood, and officers have found several deer that have been killed by mountain lions.
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.