They are Here Again, Part V ?

SUMMERSVILLE, Mo. • Missouri conservation officials say a property owner shot a mountain lion on his land in the south-central part of the state.
The Department of Conservation said Thursday the man spotted the big male cat this week in Texas County, three miles from where a mountain lion was caught by a trail camera in July.
Mountain lions are protected, but may be shot if people perceive a threat to themselves or their property. Conservation officials say they found no reason to charge the landowner in this case.
The Conservation Department took possession of the cat and will use it for education and DNA testing.
Officials say they have no confirmed evidence of a breeding population in Missouri. They say it appears that mountain lions are dispersing from states to the west.

They are here part IV - Cougar Captured in Tulsa

First female !!! .... Wait what we've been told we have just roaming males ?

Read more here.

Link to Tulsa World Article

Mountain Lion Part three - Mountain lion killed near La Plata, Mo

Watch Video Here:

KIRKSVILLE -- The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) said a mountain shot near La Plata, Mo. was the second one killed in the state in three months.

Department officials told KTVO they received a call this afternoon from an Amish landowner. 

According to the department, a group of hunters were scavenging the landowner’s farm for coyotes, when they came within 20 yards of the big cat.

Nearly 100 hunters were scavenging the farm, but only about 12 saw the cat.  None of the hunters had dogs. 

At this point, the conservation department said they will not press charges because they believe the cougar presented enough danger to the hunters to warrant shooting.

MDC estimated that the animal weighed nearly 130 lbs., but have no official weight at this time.

This is the 14th official sighting of a mountain lion in the state, but it's the fourth in the last year.

Conservation agent Marsha Jones said it's rare to see a cougar, and while more big cats may be coming to the state, they're probably not breeding.

"We think that they're solitary males who are leaving areas like the Black Hills, the Dakotas.  They're following the Missouri River Basin.  They're looking to establish territory.  All of them have been males, we haven't seen any females.  You need a male and a female to establish a population.  We haven't seen the other half of that yet, so we feel very confident that we do not have a breeding population in our state," said Jones. 

The conservation will send the mountain lion to Columbia for lab testing to determine if it is truly wild, and also to determine if it's related to the animal killed in Ray County, Mo. in November.

For more questions about the cat, contact the Missouri Department of Conservation office in Kirksville.

Their number is (660) 785-2420.

They are here !!! PART deaux

The Missouri Department of Conservation has examined these photos of a mountain lion taken Jan. 12 in a wooded area outside of St. louis, MO and says they are valid.

The have confirmed that the photos are of a mountain lion.

The photos were taken by Garrett Jensen of Chesterfield with a trail camera. The Department of Conservation did not release the exact location, saying it does not want people flocking to the site. It would say only that the site was near the Missouri River.

This is the 13th confirmed report of a mountain lion in Missouri since 1994, and the first in the St. Louis area in that time. 

Pretty wild... One things for sure its not the lion that was shot in Ray county last month.

Mountain Lion Update

Ray County mountain lion killed

Reported Tuesday. A Ray County cattleman's coonhounds treed this young male before the cattleman shot it in the head with a .22-caliber rifle.

The 115.2-pound animal makes only the 12th official sighting of a mountain lion in Missouri since 1994.

The body, a .22-caliber slug lodged in the brain, was sprawled on the autopsy table waiting for the scalpel.

Weight: 115.2 pounds.

Length: 79 inches.

Age: Perhaps three years, maybe younger, according to the sharp white teeth and markings on the inside of the legs.

The anatomical evidence that most interested the scientists: The dead mountain lion — nicknamed the Ray County Cat — was male.

And with that, Missouri’s Mountain Lion Response team sighed with relief.

Had it been a wild female, it would have signaled the state could have a breeding population of the big cats. Of the dozen confirmed sightings since 1994, only one — the team’s first investigation — was a female. In that case, some members thought it was someone’s pet.

So far, it’s just the wanderers, said Jeff Beringer, Department of Conservation furbearer resource biologist, who was part of the autopsy team. That is, the young males looking for love in all the wrong places.

The team saw no signs the healthy feline had been in captivity, such as tattoos or electronic identification tags. Nor did the paws show evidence of life in a hard-floored enclosure. Also, its dewclaws, often surgically removed in captive animals, were intact.

Hair samples taken for DNA testing should show the lion’s origins.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/03/2558645/officials-relieved-ray-county.html#ixzz1AVhE4o59

They are here !!!

Mountain lion verified in Platte County

This was the 11th verified sighting of a mountain lion in Missouri since 1994.

A mountain lion was caught on camera Friday in southern Platte County, the Missouri Department of Conservation said Tuesday.

This is only the 11th time that Missouri officials have verified a mountain lion sighting since 1994, though the department receives several reports in a normal year. A scientist with the Mountain Lion Response Team found claw marks and hair samples Tuesday in the tree where the mountain lion was spotted.

The hair will undergo DNA testing to see where the animal originated.

Mountain lions are a protected species in Missouri, though officials say there is no “self-sustaining, reproducing population” in the state. The few that were spotted in Missouri are thought to have been traveling through to other states.

Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/11/30/2487861/mountain-lion-photographed-in.html#ixzz16uSIkv4P



The following instances have been confirmed by the MDC Mountain Lion Response Team. However, the origin of theses animals (i.e. escaped/released captive or pioneer from other state) is unknown.

2003 —August, Callaway County: An approximately 1-year-old male road kill. There were no obvious signs that it was formerly a captive animal. DNA analysis revealed its origin to be North America.

2002 —October, Clay County: A 2- to 3-year-old male road kill. DNA analysis revealed its origin to be North America.

2001 —December, Pulaski County: A photograph was taken by a motion-detecting game camera. After a lengthy evaluation, it was determined that it is likely a small, sub-adult mountain lion.

2000 —December, Lewis County: A video was taken by a deer hunter from a tree stand.

1999 —January, Texas County: An adult-sized lion was treed by a rabbit hunter’s dogs. Tracks in the snow (photos taken) and two deer carcasses characteristic of lion kills were found nearby.

1997 —January, Christian County: A video was taken by a property owner. The animal’s behavior implied it had once been held in captivity.

1996 —November, Reynolds County: A video was taken by a conservation agent of a mountain lion with a deer carcass.

1994—December, Carter County: A small adult female was treed and shot by two raccoon hunters near Peck Ranch CA. The carcass was never recovered, but a photo was obtained of the animal on a truck tailgate. Each hunter was fined $2,000.

In Nov. 1998, a deer hunter found the skinned pelt of a small adult, a female with head and feet attached, near a remote Texas County road. Evidence suggests this is the same animal killed in Carter county.