Years of lion sightings finally justified

Reports of mountain lions in Missouri have become more common in recent years. Since 1994, the Missouri Department of Conservation has confirmed 68 sighting of mountain lions in the state including the recent striking and killing a male mountain lion by a vehicle on I-70 in Warren County.

The recent report of finding a female mountain lion in Shannon County has many hunters saying, "I told you so."

For years, there have been reports of sightings of panthers, also known as cougars, pumas or mountain lions, but the reports were turned away saying they were just something else or perhaps an animal that escaped from a circus. However, when Matt Hurst checked on his beagles that were laying beneath a large oak tree he saw a mountain lion some 15 feet above him and left him "scared to death."

At that time Wildlife Damage Biologist Scott McWilliams had followed up dozens of cougar sightings in the past and not one of them panned out. This time there was no doubt that what Hurst had encountered was indeed a real, free roaming wild mountain mountain lion.

On Feb. 2, groundhogs across the country watched to see if they would see their shadow. If they did, it meant six more weeks of winter.

The report brought out memories of Gent Thomas who said he had seen a cougar while hunting in the Ozarks several years ago. He said. "It has a long tail, there was no doubt that it was a cougar. I went into my house and called a friend. We both saw the animal later and tried to get a photo, but it was too fast for us."

I remember when Paul Hoffman, Bates City, watched a black panther on his farm. He called me saying, "I am watching it right now. It has a black body with a long tail, it's way too big so I am sure it isn't a house cat."

David Roberts, Sedalia, was hunting in April. He had failed to interest a couple of gobblers and was sitting quietly at around 7 a.m. when a mountain lion passed him at a trot about 75 yards away.

At first, Roberts thought the animal was a deer, but changed his mind when he noticed the cat's tail. It was it was about 7 feet long from head to tail and apparently had somewhere to go. It didn't pause when Roberts hit a few licks on his turkey call. The turkey hunter said, "I found that a cougar won't come to a turkey call, but if it had there would have been a larger question such as: What do you do when a mountain lion comes to a turkey call?"

Reports from deer hunters around the Lake of the Ozarks have surfaced for years about seeing deer carcasses that looked like a mountain lion had killed the deer and the case of a recent sighting two deer carcasses bore typical signs of a mountain lion kills.

McWilliams said, "When we arrived and met the guys that saw the lion, they had found two deer carcasses. When I saw the deer kills, I knew we had the real thing. One deer was a yearling doe while the other was an adult buck that would have weighed around 150 pounds."

Now that a female mountain lion, found in Shannon County has been confirmed through DNA tests it is the first definitive confirmation of a female mountain lion being present in the state since 1994.

Since 1994, the Missouri Department of Conservation has recorded 68 confirmed mountain lion sightings in Missouri. One of the recent ones was on Jan. 21 when a vehicle struck and killed a mountain lion on I-70 in Warren County.

Although mountain lions are rare in Missouri, the discovery of a female increases the possibility that a breeding population exists. Since the population of mountain lions has grown in states where they are more common, it stands to reason that more animals could find their way into here in the future.

The Missouri Department of Conservation encourages anyone with information about a mountain lion sighting to file a report with the Mountain Lion Response Team at mountain.lion@mdc.mo.gov.

Nearly 30 years ago, a lady said she saw a black bear while driving home from church near Lake Pomme de Terre. All her friends just laughed it off. Since then, there have been bears sighted in south Missouri. Now that there is proof of mountain lions in the state, she doesn't get many doubters when she tells them about the bear.