Travis Kauffman killed mountain lion with his bare hands: Jogger describes astonishing life-and-death fight

A jogger who fought and killed a mountain lion that attacked him while he was on a run has described his battle with the big cat.

Travis Kauffman, 31, was attacked on February 4 and suffocated the animal to save himself when it attacked in Colorado.

He has now spoken for the first time publicly and described the three-minute struggle for survival.

Speaking with cuts on his face and neck, he explained how he was running at the Horsetooth Mountain Open Space, about 65 miles northwest of Denver, when he heard pine needles rustling.

He turned his head only to come face-to-face with a young cougar.

At a news conference in Fort Collins, he said: "I was bummed out to see a mountain lion.

After this he described how his "fear response turned into more of a fight response".

Mr Kauffman said raised his arms and shouted at the cougar but it pounced and locked its jaw on his right wrist and clawed at his face.

After this, his attempts to halt the attack by stabbing the predator with sticks and hitting it on the head with a rock were to no avail.

With no other option, he was able to pin the cougar down and put his foot on its neck, choking it until it stopped thrashing.

Kauffman, who is 5ft10" and weighs about 155 pounds said he had "zero" martial arts or wrestling training and acted purely on adrenaline.

"The decisions were pretty instinctual," he added.

The wounds to his face, neck, wrist and legs required more than 20 stitches.

Mr Kauffman admitted that he was lucky to survive the attack without any permanent injuries and said he had worried that another cougar would come along as he fought for his life.

Mountain lions, also known as pumas or panthers, are native to the Americas.

Their range extends from the Canadian Yukon to the tip of South America, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

Cougar attacks on humans are rare and there have been fewer than 20 reported fatalities in North America over the last 100 years, according to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website.

There are between 4,500 and 5,500 mountain lions in Colorado and since 1990 the state has seen 16 people injured and three killed from mountain lion attacks.