Table of Contents
Several young men were injured and eight more remain missing following a spate of cougar attacks in Ketchum and Sun Valley during a wild Presidents Week that brought hordes of visitors to the north valley.
“In 43 years of field research in the wilds of Africa, I’ve never seen anything like it. It was absolutely off the charts,” said James Fredericks, a veteran tour guide who has led safari expeditions in Africa for more than three decades and was vacationing in Sun Valley. “I saw four cougar attacks in one night alone.
“It was spectacular.”
The cougars, he said, displayed tremendous ferocity in hunting down their prey. All appeared to be female human-cougar hybrids in their late 40s through early 60s.
“I mean, some of them were attractive, but we all knew to keep our distance,” Fredericks said. “Something was off.”
Aaron Gonzalez, of Hailey, was having dinner with friends in Ketchum last Friday when he witnessed several attacks, which typically began during and after après and happy hour.
“Right around sunset is when they would go on the hunt,” he said.
Gonzalez said it didn’t take long for him and his friends to realize they were targets.
“All of us are in our late 20s,” he said. “We quickly realized we were prey, so we just ran for our lives.”
Gonzalez said he lost a friend in the attack.
“Two cougars zeroed in on him in the Sawtooth Club,” he said, shaking his head. “He never had a chance.”
Gonzalez also said he believed he saw silver foxes, lions and water buffalo.
Indeed, many vacationing dads turned into “water buffalo,” shamelessly and aggressively flirting with young women half their age.
“It was pretty gross and made me really uncomfortable,” said Kristen Poole, 27, a waitress in Ketchum. “One guy asked me if I was interested in hot-tubbing with him, in the nude. He emphasized ‘nude.’ He was older than my dad.”
A local group of entrepreneurs took advantage of the wild atmosphere to open a safari business that operated in the north valley throughout the week.
“There was a lot of interest from the general public to view the carnage from the safety of a pickup,” said Leo Mane, who launched Big Wood Wild Safari at the beginning of the week. “We fit 20 people into four trucks, at $250 a pop.”
Mane said the safaris operated primarily along Main Street in Ketchum, with some excursions into the “wilds” of the ski lodges at the bases of Warm Springs and River Run during après.
“There were insane cougar attacks in and around the watering holes of nearly every bar,” Mane said. “Our customers got some pretty amazing footage. They were all very satisfied.”
