That's a deceitful number considering A. The population of Colorado is well under a billion and has plenty of documented attacks (the high school senior killed while jogging in Idaho Springs, the medical student attacked by a pair near Poorman, etc.) and B. The fact that mountain lion exposure is a cumulative risk i.e. the more time you spend in lion country the higher the probability.
My total mountain lion experience in 30 years of living and hiking in the area is that I once saw a footprint.
I live in the mountains a couple miles from this attack and I see tracks all the time probably once every 2 months or so. Neighbors have had their dogs attacked. Check out the lion log in the Gold Hill store for more info. They've had them fighting in the streets up there.
Mountain lion populations are way up...nationwide.
We not only see tracks but also the lions and their growing families.
We often see signs around town for folks who have a missing dog or cat.
One does not know if it was a pack of coyotes, a bear, or a mountain lion.
The sign that says..." Have you seen my dog muffin ? " teels the story that something had lunch.
B. The fact that mountain lion exposure is a cumulative risk i.e. the more time you spend in lion country the higher the probability.
This reason is precisely why I consider the odds are so low for an individual tourist family on a single trip to the mountains. The population of Colorado is about three million or so. Plus there are a million tourists per year. Since most residents go outside several times a year, and tourists are going to the very places that are mountain lion habitat, this would all probably add up to hundreds of millions of opportunities for a mountain lion attack per year. Yet I can only think of about six or seven actual attacks in the last ten years or so.
No I have not calculated the odds scientifically, but if someone wants to be afraid of something while in the Colorado mountains, here is a list of much more likely incidents:
Car Accidents
Inexperienced climbers falling from rocks
Hypothermia
Dehydration
Lightning
If a person wants to insist on being afraid of wild animals, be afraid of a deer on the road at night.