Mountain Lion Killed in Missouri...

[kansas]

There have been numerous confirmed sightings of Mountain Lions in Missouri and Kansas over the past ten years. Several have been hit by cars. It is thought that they are coming from Nebraska and Colorado. A farmer killed one this week in Ray County, Missouri. Here's the article from the local news.

Ray County man kills 115-pound mountain lion - NBCActionNews.com - Kansas City

Steve
Kansas

[joshuaream]

I'm sure a .22 would do the job, but I'd probably want something with a bit more weight before tackling a lion.

[pointfinder]

yeah, I wouldnt feel right going after a cat like that with a .22. that guy has bigger cohones than me!

[Patrico]

They say there's no population but I have seen 2 myself and tracks at one of my fishing holes. About half of my arrowhead and mushroom hunting sites are in Ray co. Mo. I think there's alot more of them that they will fess up to !!!

[Konkata]

Cats are very illusive. There was one sited in Pittsbirgh, PA a few years ago and everyone went ape-shat. They say it crossed the Ohio river multiple times before disappearing, and then they claim that it must have been a pet that was released, because there are no cougars in PA.

I'd like to ask, how do they know? I've been to The Wilds in PA where its nothing but vast, vast mountains for hours and hours. If you run out of gas, you might as well put up a tipi and live off the land, because you'd be a lost cause for good. I even saw a black bear on the side of the road as road kill. How do they know there are no cats in that vast land?

Cats are so illusive that when they do appear, people are surprised. It doesn't surprise me when cougars are finally discovered in an area. They've probably been there for ages. Photographers roam cougar country for years without photographing a single one. They're tricky creatures. They have to be, or we would have killed them all already.

[silver lake]

We have a State Park close by (3mi.) that has at least one cat living in it. Ranger said they see it every few years. The 200K+ acre park is ringed on three sides by thousands of homes and is a hilly area.

[Fluff effect]

I dont have any reason to beleive they were ever killed out in Kansas or MO. Neat looking Cat!

[paleo_joe]

We have them in Arkansas but the Game and Fish Commission won't officially acknowledge it because then the whole bureaucracy would have to adapt, make plans and so forth.

This is a pic that went around a couple of years back.

[manoman]

That first photo is a fairly large lion! I hit one 3 years ago driving home one evening....it crossed so fast I had no time to react. After contacting the Fish & Game, I met them early next morning, where they confiscated the animal. They were very excited, as the condition was exceptional (they said they hardly get any in good shape...always just pieces or in an advanced state of decay, so the pelt was going to be mounted....so they said). It was a young male that still had a spotted coat. It died instantly with a severed spine. I can still invision the long tail and obvious fear in his eyes just before I hit him. Here in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, mountain lions have always had populations. The county has at least 1 full time hunter who culls other predators as well. In years past, the mountain lions were being killed because of their taste for Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep. That rankled a lot of people---killing one endangered species to supposedly help another species. I think it is still being done...they have just taken it underground so to speak and out of the publics eye. They have even gone so far as to cut down pinion pine trees in sheep habitat so that lions don't have cover to hide or stalk from. It's very silly.

[Konkata]

Those are some beautiful cats!