State officials Tuesday ended the hunt for a mountain lion that attacked a sleeping man July 1 near Nevada City.
Mike Taugher, a spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Game, said the search lost the mountain lion's trail.
"It had been several days since they saw any tracks," Taugher said. "They never picked up a hot scent."
In addition to trained dogs, the state and federal tracking team also placed at least 10 remotely operated trail cameras in the area, Taugher said. None produced any images of a mountain lion.
Taugher said the attack occurred along Shady Creek, a tributary of the south fork of the Yuba River that crosses Highway 49 about 10 miles north of Nevada City. He did not know where along the creek the attack occurred.
The department still withholds the victim's identity, except to say he is a 63-year-old Bay Area man. He was attacked while asleep in a sleeping bag, and suffered nonfatal cut and bite wounds.
According to Fish and Game records kept since 1890, it is the 15th verified time a mountain lion attacked a human, six of which have been fatal.
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