Niamh Shackleton
Warning: This article contains graphic details which some readers may find distressing.
A woman who miraculously survived a cougar attack has revealed what saved her life.
In February of last year, Keri Bergere went on a bike ride with friends when things took a dramatic turn.
The group of women were cycling on a trail northeast of Fall City, Washington in King County, US, when a cougar jumped out from the bushes and attacked them.
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In the attack Bergere was dragged from her bike and her head ended up in the jaws of the large cat.
She was in the cougar's grips for 15 minutes but, thanks to her quick-thinking friends, she was saved.
As to how she survived, fellow cyclists, Annie Bilotta and Tisch Williams, sprung into action and fought off the cougar, beating it with rocks and sticks to save Beregere.
Speaking on Dan Becker's podcast earlier this year, Williams said: "I just remember sweating so hard and I'm hitting it over and over trying to stick it and stab it. And it just wouldn't release [Bergere]."
Bergere said: "During my 15 minutes I could hear everything that was going on with these ladies and the fight they were putting up.
"I was down there just pinned. First I was trying to gouge his eyeball out, but the skin on the eyeball was like leather and I just couldn't get in there.
"So then I tried to put my fingers up his nose.
"He started crushing down on my face and it felt like it was disintegrating inside. I took a swallow and it felt like I was swallowing gallons of blood."
Eventually Bergere managed to break free and they trapped the cat under one of their bikes.
Williams recalled: "If you see a bear you're told to put your bike up and you hold your bike. [...] Because of the bike we got on top of [the cougar]."
The women feared that if the cougar got up again it would kill all of them so knew they needed to keep it pinned down.
Also chipping in, Bilotta said: "I grabbed it because I thought no one is going to grab my brand new bike. Like, I started grabbing it."
She went on to recall the cougar 'thrashing beneath us' as they stood on the bike to trap the cat and compared the moment to like 'riding a surfboard'.
The women successfully trapped the cougar and Beregere was saved. The following day she had a nine-hour surgery.
The podcast also played clips from the harrowing 911 call made as Beregere was being attacked.
The audio clip showed one of the women say: "Kill it. Kill it. I don't have a knife. Somebody hit it with the rock again. No, no, no, no."
Listen here: Warning some readers may find the audio recording distressing.
Eventually an officer from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) arrived and the animal was shot dead, the Guardian reports.
The WDFW went to retrieve the cougar after the attack and confirmed that the animal that attacked the cyclists was 75 pounds.
It said in a statement shared March 8, 2024: "Fish and Wildlife officers removed a 75-pound male cougar, nearly a year old (approximately 9-12 months) on arrival at the scene.
"A Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory examination at Washington State University found the animal to be in good health and body condition with no evidence of significant diseases or abnormalities that would affect its behavior. The animal tested negative for rabies."