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Big Cats of Missouri Missouri Sportsmen will show you the following photo's that you understand they have been submitted by Missourians. Telling us which county they come from. We go by the word of the Missouri Sportsmen that these photo's come from Missouri and are real. Photo by Allen Morris (2-1-2000) Maybe a Rabbit Track or Maybe a Big Cat Track but people in Ripley County, Missouri will tell you they have seen a big cat crossing roads right in front of them and crossing fields. You make the decision on what made this. For information on how to get your business involved in the  Missouri Sportsmen's Information network check out our advertising page.

This photo comes to us from a conservation cafe member. His friend from Dallas County, Missouri took this photo in his field. That is a deer in front of it. You will have to decide what you think.

Also photo submitted by a cafe member "Tinhorn"  his camtrakker like mine has taken many wonderful photo's.

You may not know what to think about this photo so "Tinhorn has helped us out by adding a deer to give you an idea of size comparison to the next photo. Same camera, same aiming point, different night, deer added digitally for size comparison.  Is there any doubt what this tan colored critter is in the photo?  There are some cougar in Missouri!

This mountain lion was said to be shot near Stover, MO. The story went that the shooter was going deer hunting when he heard his neighbors cows making noise. He discovered this cat attacking some calves. He shot and reportedly the cat jumped eight feet into the air, ran about 100 yards and died. The man in the picture is over 6 feet tall and the cat weighed over 200 pounds.  The story has now been brought out as a hoax.  We got a report from someone that knows the man in the photo and he knows this cougar was shot in Washington state. Just goe to show you you can not believe all the cougar stories that are cropping up in the midwest.......even with photos! It is a nice photo though.  Wow what a big kitty!

Mountain Lion Killed in Missouri
 

Posted on Tue, Oct. 15, 2002  Car hits cougar darting across I-35 in KC, North By BILL GRAHAM The Kansas City Star A cougar was mortally wounded by a car on Interstate 35 in the Northland early Monday, but it could be days or weeks before it can be determined whether the cat was wild or domestic. This is the first documented case of one of the big cats on the prowl in the Kansas City area in a century or more, said Dave Hamilton, a biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation. .

What is it?  Could it be a cougar?  Allen says it is.  Allen has had his eyes checked and he is usually pretty honest, so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt.  I do know he was pretty excited when he called me on his cell phone and told me what he had just got a photo of.  You duck hunters on Mingo Swamp better watch your dogs! This guy might want to retrieve some ducks of his own.

"The only thing that sounds odd to me is the location where it was hit, in an urban area," said Hamilton, who leads the department's Mountain Lion Response Team.

The cougar was killed near I-35 and Parvin Road, although there are several parks near that vicinity, including Riverview Greenway.

"The Missouri River is close enough to there," Hamilton said. "There is a possibility a wild mountain lion could have been roaming. It could have gotten into a bad spot and it couldn't get out."

People are supposed to register exotic animals with the Conservation Department, conservation agent Steve Nichols said.

Nichols said no one has reported a missing cougar. The closest permit issued by the department is to someone in Farley in Platte County. No one in Clay County is registered to own a cougar. Because of the Columbus Day holiday, the department could not check on permits issued in Jackson County, Nichols said.

Nichols said the department suspected that many people did not register their exotic animals.

Susan Ratliff of Kansas City, North, said she was driving north on I-35 about 1:45 a.m. when the cougar, stretched out at full run, suddenly appeared in her headlights.

"It was truly a magnificent, majestic animal," said Ratliff, 44. "He looked fabulous."

The accident happened so quickly she had no chance swerve or slow down.

"First I thought, `Oh my God, it's a mountain lion,' " Ratliff said. "Then, `Oh my God, I hit it.' "  She was not injured. A headlight on her Pontiac Bonneville was bashed in, and dents, blood and hair were on the fender and hood.

Though injured, the cougar ran off.

Ratliff called 911 and asked for animal control, fearing the wounded animal would be dangerous. When Kansas City police arrived, they told her she probably had hit a bobcat or deer rather than a cougar.

"I said, `I've got a bobcat and two deer stuck on my garage wall, because my husband hunts,"' Ratliff said. "I knew it was a mountain lion."

Police checked yards near the highway and found the cat severely injured. An officer killed it..

Nichols picked up the cougar's body.  He said he and fellow agents had dealt with captive cougars. But an adult male roaming freely is highly unusual.  Cougars were native to Missouri and Kansas. But hunting and habitat loss wiped out the wild populations.  In Missouri, the last documented free-roaming wild cougar from the original populations was shot in the swamps of the southeast Bootheel in 1927, Hamilton said.

Other records are sketchy. But Hamilton said cougars probably had vanished from northwest Missouri by the 1880s or early 1900s, and perhaps from the Kansas City area as early as the Civil War.

Yet as wildlife habitat has rebounded in public conservation areas and private lands over the last century, reported cougar sightings have become numerous. They feed on such animals as deer, rabbits and wild turkeys.

A mountain lion caught on videotape in the Ozarks in the late 1990s may have been too trusting of humans to be wild, Hamilton said. But in 1999, rabbit hunters cornered a cougar in a tree. Conservation agents later found tracks and a deer the cat and killed and eaten, habits of a wild cougar.

Several cougar sightings have been reported but not verified by hard evidence in the Kansas City area.

Kansas has had no confirmed sightings in modern times, said Lloyd Fox, furbearer biologist. But in the last decade there has been at least one sighting considered reliable near El Dorado, and cougar tracks were found near Lawrence.

Biologists in the two states have found no evidence of cougars reproducing or maintaining established territories, Hamilton said.

"But these things are showing up more and more in the Midwest," he said. "Some seem like wild mountain lions, and some are readily explainable as domestic."

Most wild cougars fear humans, Hamilton said. They're active at night and very reclusive. Often people do not know they are in an area.

Pen-raised cougars that are released or escape tend to pose more problems because they're not as afraid of humans and will enter yards or farms in search of food, he said. Livestock can be at risk.

In the West, where wild cougars are common, attacks on humans are rare.

If a cougar confronts a human outdoors, Hamilton said, young children should be picked up and held by an adult. Don't run, he said, because you can't outrun a cougar.

Do yell and make threatening gestures, he said. Spread a jacket to appear bigger. If a cougar attacks, fight back with whatever means available, such as punching it in the face.

"But they're not an exorbitant threat," Hamilton said. "A mountain lion will normally avoid people."
 
 
 
 

Mountain Lion Sighting Confirmed In Lewis County
A deer hunter with a video camera caught the large adult cougar on tape.

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. Officials with the Missouri Department of Conservation have confirmed another mountain lion sighting, this one near the state's northeast corner. They say the sighting is not cause for alarm; the state is prepared to deal with cougars that become threats to people or livestock.

Michael Sharpe was sitting in his tree stand on private land in Lewis County at 1:30 p.m. New Year's Eve when a large, adult mountain lion appeared. Sharpe, 18, had opted to "hunt" deer with a video camera instead of with his bow, and he documented the big cat's passage on tape.

"I had a doe underneath my stand, so I was preoccupied with that," recalls Sharpe. "When I looked up, I saw something standing in a field of wheat stubble about 250 yards away. I thought it was a coyote at first, but when it started to walk away I noticed its long tail. I knew then it couldn't be a
coyote."

It wasn't until he viewed the video tape that he realized he had seen a mountain lion.

Senior Conservation Agent Gene Lindsey, who has chased down his share of mountain lion reports that couldn't be substantiated, watched the tape and visited the scene of the sighting before declaring it "irrefutable." He said the cougar appeared to be hunting. The undulating landscape,
with a mix of crop land, pasture, hardwood forest and cedar thickets, harbors a thriving population of white-tailed deer, the mountain lion's primary prey.

Sharpe's sighting brings the number of confirmed mountain lion reports in Missouri in recent years to five. Two other cougars have been videotaped, both in the Ozarks. Another was treed by two rabbit hunters' beagle hounds in January 1999 in Texas County. Conservation Department
biologists confirmed that two deer carcasses found nearby had been killed by a cougar.

The fifth case involved a mountain lion killed by poachers in 1994 in Carter County near Peck Ranch Conservation Area. The men, who later pleaded guilty to killing the cat while raccoon hunting, photographed themselves with the carcass, but said they had gotten rid of it. Two years
later, a deer hunter discovered a cougar hide, with the head and feet still attached, alongside a road in Texas County. Some evidence suggested that it might be the same animal.

Five confirmed mountain lion sightings aren't many, considering the fact that the Conservation Department receives hundreds of reports of sightings each year. Most end up being classified "improbable" or "unconfirmed." Conservation Department officials say some of these reports
could represent actual sightings, but they are impossible to verify without photos, video or other physical evidence, such as tracks or droppings.

"In most cases it's simply impossible to determine whether a person really saw a mountain lion," says Wildlife Research Biologist Dave Hamilton. "That doesn't mean we don't believe people who report sightings or that we don't want to know about them. We can only go by what can be proved."

Hamilton said Missourians who think they see mountain lions are encouraged to call the nearest Conservation Department office as quickly as possible. The agency does not send biologists for on-site investigations unless human safety is threatened or there is substantial physical evidence.
As a matter of policy, the Conservation Department doesn't conduct an on-site investigation if it learns about the sighting more than two days after the fact.

"Quick reporting is critical," says Hamilton. "Mountain lions are very mobile, so the chances of finding the animal or any useful evidence after two days are very slim." He says anyone who finds what they think are mountain lion tracks or droppings should photograph them and then cover the
evidence with a bucket and send the photos to the Conservation Department so experts can examine them.

Conservation officials say they haven't released mountain lions or taken any other actions to encourage the big cats to return Missouri. However, they note that the most important element of cougar habitat that was missing here for decades food has returned with the resurgence of deer
numbers. "If mountain lions migrated into Missouri from Texas or Colorado, the nearest self-sustaining populations, they would find enough food to sustain them now," says Hamilton. "The same is true of captive animals that escape or are released from captivity. Thirty years ago, they
might have starved. Now they would have no problem."

The mountain lion is a protected species in Missouri, and it's illegal to kill cougars that are minding their own business. If the Conservation Department documents an attack on a human or domestic animals, however, efforts will be made to find and destroy the offending animal.

The Wildlife Code of Missouri also allows anyone to kill a mountain lion that is attacking people or domestic animals. In situations where attacks on pets or livestock are suspected but not confirmed, the Conservation Department can issue temporary permits to kill mountain lions. Anyone who does kill a mountain lion is required by law to report the incident immediately. They also must turn the carcass over to a conservation agent within 24 hours of the kill.

Hamilton emphasized that the few mountain lions apparently living in Missouri pose very little threat to people or property. However, he acknowledged that the presence of a predator large enough to kill adult deer is not without risk. Those who spend time outdoors can reduce their risk
by knowing how to act in encounters with mountain lions.

A mountain lion that sees a human and does not run away should be considered dangerous. It's important not to run from a cougar. Fleeing is likely to trigger the cat's predatory instincts. Don't turn your back on the mountain lion, either, and don't crouch or bend over.

Instead, stand directly facing the animal. Make and maintain eye contact and do anything you can to make yourself look large and threatening. Raise the sides of your coat or shirt with your arms, or wave your arms slowly.

Talk to the cougar in a loud, firm voice. If you have pets or small children with you, keep them close to you. If attacked, fight back with a knife, rocks, sticks or anything available.
- Jim Low -

Big Cat Makes a Big Splash in Central Ozarks

A sighting of a free-ranging mountain lion in January-confirmed by Conservation Department biologists-sent ripples of excitement throughout the state and continues to raise questions about where Missouri mountain lions come from and what to do about them.

Three men discovered the adult mountain lion while rabbit hunting in the central Ozarks Jan. 10. Nearby they found two deer that the big cat had killed. It is the most tangible proof yet that at least one mountain lion is living wild in the Show-Me State.

Many puzzles remain, however. Foremost is the question of where the big cat came from. The most likely theory is that it adapted to the wild after having been in captivity. Another possibility is that it migrated here from Colorado or Texas, the nearest states with mountain lion populations.

Equally uncertain is the animal's fate. Conservation Department biologists who returned to the scene after the initial sighting repeatedly found groups of hunters with hounds in the area. All said they were after coyotes, which is legal. But those who are excited to think that Missouri may have a free ranging mountain lion population worry that hysteria could lead to the killing of an animal that, in the words of Conservation Department furbearer biologist David Hamilton," is doing what mountain lions are supposed to-preying on deer. It's not bothering people or livestock."

The presence of a free-ranging mountain lion in Missouri raises practical questions about how to minimize the potential for conflicts with human activities. One of those questions is easily answered; Missouri's Wildlife Code allows citizens to defend themselves and their property against depredation by wildlife, including mountain lions.

Until more is known about the origins, number and habits of Missouri mountain lions, there is little basis for sound decisions about management. The Conservation Department is working to get answers to these questions. It will keep a watchful eye on the Ozark hills where this particular mountain lion was seen and will continue gathering information to accurately evaluate the situation and take action when necessary.

Anyone who sees a mountain lion is encouraged to report the sighting to the nearest conservation agent or Conservation Department office.

Conservation Department officials say they would be pleased to confirm the existence of a free-ranging cougar population in Missouri . . . if they had convincing evidence.

JEFFERSON CITY -- Two men illegally shoot a mountain lion in Carter County. A group of people in Reynolds County videotape a live cougar in the presence of a conservation agent. A woman catches another cougar on videotape in her yard on the outskirts of Springfield. What do you conclude?

People who want to believe that Missouri still has wild mountain lions take those sightings as proof that they have survived here. But Gene Kelly, wildlife programs supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation, says that a wildlife biologist, after looking at the facts and asking some key questions, comes to a different conclusion.

"The most honest answer that we can give to the question of whether Missouri has wild, free-ranging mountain lions is, 'We don't know for certain, but it seems very unlikely,'" says Kelly.

The three cases mentioned above are just a few of the most recent verified reports of mountain lion sightings in Missouri. Kelly doesn't doubt the veracity of those well-documented reports. And they readily acknowledge that Missouri has mountain lions. Fifty-four Missourians have permits to keep captive mountain lions. But Kelly and other MDC officials say the facts of mountain lion sightings don't support the conclusion that Missouri has wild mountain lions.

On the surface, says Kelly, the sighting of two live cougars in a month seems like pretty convincing evidence that the animals are roaming Missouri's hills and valleys. But the devil is in the details.

"The cat that was seen in Springfield was in a developed area," he says, "and the one video taped in Reynolds County hung around while people with spotlights and video cameras came within a few yards of it, talking all the while. That's not typical behavior for a wild mountain lion. They are extremely shy and elusive. I doubt whether a wild mountain lion would be that tolerant of human presence. If you believe these animals have eluded humans in isolated pockets of wild country, that's hard to square with this kind of behavior."

One of the things that initially lent credence to the belief that the Reynolds County cat was wild was the fact that it had a dead white-tailed deer when it was spotted. That made it sound as if the cougar had killed the deer. Most captive mountain lions lack the skill to bring down large prey, so it sounded like this wasn't just a cat that had escaped or been released from captivity. But after the cat abandoned the deer, MDC officials skinned the carcass and found none of the classic signs of a fatal cat attack on the body.

"There were some slash marks on the hind quarters," says Kelly, "but nothing around the head. The slash marks on the rear could have gotten there when the cat tried to move the carcass, but to kill the deer, it almost certainly would have bitten it on the head, neck or throat, or at least have swatted it in that area to bring it down. There was no evidence that the cat had killed the deer."

Kelly said MDC investigators checked with people who are licensed to keep mountain lions in the area around the Reynolds county cougar sighting, but none reported losing any of their captive animals. "It's hard to say where that cat came from," said Kelly. "It's not uncommon for us to find people keeping mountain lions without the required permit. One reason for doing this is to avoid having to comply with stringent standards for safe, humane confinement facilities. Escape is much more likely if you're keeping a mountain lion in a flimsy cage or just in a room in a house. And letting one of these animals escape can result in a fine. There are a number of ways for captive mountain lions to end up on the loose."

There also are a number of ways for rumors about mountain lions to end up on the loose. Kelly recalls one instance where a captive cougar's owner got tired of the cost and inconvenience of keeping the animal. His solution was to shoot the animal in its cage and take it to a taxidermist. From there, the story got out that someone had shot a mountain lion and taken it to the taxidermist. Before long, the MDC received a rash of calls about the killing.

"The only thing harder to kill than a rumor is a rumor with a grain of truth at its core," says Kelly. "You'll never convince someone that the story about this cougar was false when they know people who actually saw the body."

Consequently, biologists look for other evidence to support the idea that the mountain lions sighted are wild, not escaped captives. Kelly says that in areas that have wild cougar populations the animals make their presence known.

"An adult mountain lion is among the most capable predators around." Invariably, says Kelly, wild cougars kill some livestock, but the MDC has never been able to verify a big cat killing any livestock in Missouri.

Even in areas with very small mountain lion populations, one is killed by an automobile occasionally. Such road kills don't happen in Missouri.

Some reports of mountain lions in Missouri are just cases of mistaken identity. Kelly says yellow Labrador retrievers, large bobcats and coyotes that have lost most of their hair to mange all can look like big cats when seen at a distance, only for a moment, or in the fading light of dusk.

Some reported "facts" about mountain lions are just plain bogus. An example is a recently published newspaper column, whose author noted that the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission once hired three expert mountain lion trackers to look for the animals in extensive tracts of wilderness in the Ouachita and Ozark mountains. He said their finding was "that there were quite a few mountain lions in north and west Arkansas."

But in fact, the mountain lion experts -- Roudy and Roy T. McBride and Jenny L. Cashman of Alpine, Texas -- came to the opposite conclusion. Their final report said that the lack of livestock depredation, road kills or physical evidence, along with their failure to find any mountain lions during intensive ground surveys with hounds, made it extremely unlikely that free-ranging mountain lions survived in Arkansas.

Still, Kelly says he doesn't fool himself that these arguments will convince everyone. He remembers getting a call from a man who said he and his girlfriend had seen a "black panther" cross the road in front of their vehicle. "He was very excited, said he had gotten a clear look at the animal and found the tracks it left," says Kelly. "I asked him if he could see the claw marks in the tracks, and he said, yes, they were very clear. I told him that cat tracks don't show claw marks, and he said, 'yes, my girlfriend is a vet and that's what she said, too. But I know it was a panther; you can't tell me what I saw.' And he was right, I couldn't."

"If we had a choice, we'd rather have wild mountain lions than not," says Kelly, "but we're not going to stock them, and we're not going to say we've got them unless we have credible evidence."

-Jim Low-

Mountain Lion Is Not Just a Rumor Anymore in Iowa HARLIN WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Shelby County Conservation officials spent Monday looking over the male cat, which weighed about 130 pounds, had a six-foot-long torso, two-inch claws and paws as big as a man's hands.

"It's been taking care of itself," said Bryce Schaven, roadside manager for the conservation board. "It was a well-muscled animal."

The mountain lion was discovered Saturday night after Harlan police received a report that a woman driving on U.S. Highway 59 had hit an animal. The cat was killed about a block from Harlan Community High School. Harlan is about 40 miles northeast of Omaha.

According to a new book on Iowa hunting, the last confirmed mountain lion killed in Iowa was in 1867 in southeast Iowa. There had been confirmed sets of paw tracks found in the state in recent years but never an animal or carcass.

Ed Weiner, wildlife biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said more people have reported seeing mountain lions in the past two to three years with sightings in several areas south of Sioux City. There have been recent sightings around Magnolia and Pisgah. Pottawattamie County officials also received several reports about a mountain lion last winter near Underwood.

"We've had stories for the past two or three years of people spotting them," Weiner said.

Weiner wanted to alleviate fears people might have that such cats would pose a serious danger to people. Weiner said that if the animal found in Harlan were wild, it had avoided contact with people and probably kept itself well-fed from area wildlife. He had not heard any reports of farmers losing livestock to the cat.

"That goes a long way to point out that children are not in any sort of peril," Weiner said.

Darby Sanders, director of the Shelby County Conservation Board, said a family had reported seeing a mountain lion northwest of Harlan over the past year. Sanders said there are two possibilities that brought the animal to Harlan: one, someone had raised the animal and dumped it; or two, the mountain lion is wild and roamed into the area.

"I have no doubt in my mind scenario two is what we are looking at because people have been seeing them all over," Sanders said.

There are no other marks or signs to suggest the animal was being kept by people. Conservation agents contacted two residents with licenses to keep such animals. Neither reported any animals missing, and most domesticated mountain lions have had their claws removed.

"This one has all of its claws," Schaven said. "That tends to make us think it's a wild one."

With no objections from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the cat likely will be stuffed and put on permanent display at the Nishna Bend Nature Center. Sanders said the local conservation office likely will need to solicit donations to mount and display the animal.

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