Midwest mountain lions???

[mark page]

Just finished perusing through some Missouri Conservationist magazines that were piling up that I haven't read. One from about 5-6 months ago had an article about the myth of Missouri and mountain lions. The article stated that they did not exist at all. LOL. The first one I saw was in 1983 and have to admit that I thought I was seeing things at the time. I have seen several on my grandfathers farm, (or maybe same one). Just about had it narrowed down in 3000 acres where it's den may have been. But then he sold out his land and now cannot access it. Would have loved a great photo shoot and now regret not persuing it more. I live close to Smithville Lake and have seen tracks of one through my garden area (and yes I do know what I'm looking at, for all the non-believers). Then there is the one that was hit and killed by a car during rush hour traffic at I-29 & I-35 intersections (documented) about 5 years ago, which is about a mile from where I work. And also the one that lives around the river Casino that my wife works at. They have one on video surveilance meandering through the employee parking lot. I just had to laugh at the article, especially since there are documented cases beyond doubt that they do exist in Missouri. (hard to disprove a dead one hit by a car). Anyone else see any around here. I'm a nature photo buff and would love to have photos of one.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Mark.....It's interesting........sometimes these wildlife reports are myths and sometimes they are not.

For years after I first moved to central Idaho there were people who live and work in the mountains reporting they were seeing a mating pair of wolves on a specific river drainage in central Idaho. Most of the Forest Service and Idaho Fish & Game people cautiously poo-pood it. Then in late winter a local newspaper wildlife reporter and photographer was flying in a helicopter with a I F&G official doing a winter elk count. They photographed and published a picture of the two wolves in the local paper 15 years before the US government decided to reintroduce them.

I believe if you have the right habitat, wildlife will eventually introduce or reintroduce themselves to the area.

[Bonnie Campbell]

Sounds about like Mississippi. They like to deny there are any big cats down here. They'll accept bobcat reports, but that's it. I KNOW a cat track when I see one. And when I seen one by our pond I'd swear it was to big for a lil bobcat, but what do I know......

[Derek Jones]

Mark,
We acutally live in the same area of the midwest, I am a little further south but, I believe they are out there. I spend a lot of time in the woods and can give you the stories of what I believe are big cats that I have seen or heard. At the end of the day though I have no pics or proof. I do believe that in future years, with the deer populations increasing, that the bigs cats will continue to do well and expand their territory. And my guess is that this will lead to more sightings.
Derek

[Ken Fitzgerald]

A fellow Creeker and turner Joel Sauder is a non-game biologist for the Idaho Fish and Game department. It would be interesting to get a professional opinion and input on this subject!

[Owen Gregg]

I can vouch for documented existence in Omaha within the last two years. Multiple sightings coupled with a captured cat in a business district. Hard for naysayers to continue saying no when a video shows up on the 10 o'clock news.

[Doug Shepard]

A friend of my Dad's saw one a few weeks ago and contacted the DNR who stated that there weren't any in the lower peninsula of MI but that there were some in the upper peninsula. So either a raised one got loose or they can swim the straights. Within a week or so, a couple of the guys neighbors asked him if he'd seen the cougar and they'd also contacted the DNR who had apparently changed their reply to something like "there have been some recent sightings".

[Greg Cole]

Mark,
The MO DNR has validated a population of Mtn Lions living in the Independance area for going on 2 decades now. Something like 20-30 cats live in an not very secluded wooded area from what I heard on a radio blurb about the big cats.

Greg

[mark page]

Hey Greg,
Did you say that 20-30 cats are around the Independence area??? Thats a whole lot of pusskets for a small area. I found under my own research that the usual round-about area for one of these cats are about 2.5-3 square miles per "male" cat. Guess there could be a lot of females in the area. I never got the chance to check the plumbing to see what gender they are. lol.

[Eddie Watkins]

A lady in Kingfisher, OK took a picture of a large cougar-like cat standing at her patio door looking in. The picture was in the newspaper. It really scared her because her child had been in the room crawling around on the floor when she first spotted it. She got the child out of the room and came back and the cat was still there so she took the picture.

Eddie

[Doug Shepard]

Found a fair number of sites with info on the cougar sitings in MI including this one.
http://www.miwildlife.org/news-detail.asp?id=21
Roscommon county mentioned in the article is where my Dad's friend and his neighbors spotted one (or more).

[Joe Pelonio]

We have cougars around this area too, but most recently a bear attacked a mountain biker.

Port Orchard man attacked by bear is in satisfactory shape

By Christopher Schwarzen and Pamela Sitt
Seattle Times staff reporter

A Port Orchard man who was attacked by a black bear while mountain biking Sunday in a Kitsap County park was in satisfactory condition Monday but remained in intensive care.
Anthony Blasioli, 51, had a brief conversation with a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official Monday afternoon, and was adamant that it was a male bear that mauled him, not a mother bear with two cubs that had also been seen in the area Sunday.
"He said, 'It was on top of me and I'm positive it was a male bear,' " said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Sgt. Ted Jackson, who visited Blasioli at the hospital for about 15 minutes. Fish and Wildlife officers were still hunting the bear with a team of dogs Monday, with plans to kill it.
Blasioli suffered injuries to his face, shoulder and arm, Jackson said.
"From my understanding, it was his left shoulder that was heavily damaged," he said. "He's in a lot of pain and heavily medicated. You can tell he's still probably in a little bit of shock."

[Kyle Kraft]

Hey Doug, I'll bet that cougar slipped in with the crowd at the Labor Day Bridge walk. I believe it was wearing a schnozz mask!!

[Doug Shepard]

You know I totally spaced out about them being able to walk across the ice in the winter. I'm sure that's how they're coming. Either that or a Greyhound bus.

[Steve Clardy]

I read an article some time ago, that the Missouri Conservation actually tries to cover up the fact about the cats being in Missouri. They would rather not give the location because they fear some hunters would seek them out and kill them.