A woman saved her husband's life in a California state park by fighting off a mountain lion with a small log and a pen.
Jim (70) and Nell (65) Hamm were in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park when the lion pounced.
"He [Jim] didn't scream. It was a different, horrible plea for help, and I turned around, and by then the cat had wrestled Jim to the ground," Mrs Hamm said from the hospital where her husband is recovering from a torn scalp, puncture wounds and other injuries.
Mrs Hamm said she grabbed a four-inch-wide log and beat the animal with it, but it would not release its hold on her husband's head. "Jim was talking to me all through this, and he said: 'I've got a pen in my pocket and get the pen and jab him in the eye'," she said.
"So I got the pen and tried to put it in his eye, but it didn't want to go in as easy as I thought it would." When the pen bent and became useless, Mrs Hamm went back to using the log. The lion eventually let go and, with blood on its nose, stood staring at her.
She screamed and waved the log until the animal left.
The couple walked a quarter of a mile to the start of the trail, where she gathered branches to protect them if more lions came. They waited until a ranger came and summoned help.
Game wardens closed the park, about 320 miles north of San Francisco, and released dogs to track the lion. They later shot a pair of lions found near the trail where the attack happened.
AP