Several years ago a mountain biker in SoCal was attacked by a cougar. Can some of you southerners come up with a reference?

I haven't come that close to a cougar. Yet a few decades ago my dad and I walked down an MUP to see a waterfall. Minutes later as we walked back we saw a new line of soup plate sized tracks crossing the path, still filling with water. Dad figured that the hippo had been watching us and had waited for us to go by before heading for the river. If it had panicked we'd have been humanburger. The river was the Zambezi at Victoria Falls.