Mountain lion mania
Outdoor Adventures column
Friday, March 28, 2008
Every year, the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and news media from across the state receive numerous reports of people having a close encounter of the third kind with mountain lions.
I, for one, wouldn’t be surprised if what they see is a native wild animal.
After all, mountain lions, also known as cougars and pumas, once were native to Kansas and are documented as inhabiting all the states that surround us.
During my lifetime and throughout all my outdoor adventures roaming the woods, waters and grasslands of Kansas, I think I have seen two mountain lions. Both times, before my brain got the chance to fully register what I thought I saw, the animal was gone in a flash.
Both looked wild and mountain lionish, but only DNA testing could prove they were. A friend of mine once had me come out and identify the sound some wild critter was making in the woods next to the river by his rural home. He said it had to be some kind of big cat to make such a terrible roar.
Both of us got quite a chuckle when I pointed out a ferocious tree frog smaller than his thumb making the ruckus!
Research shows a young male lion might have a home range up to 200 square miles. It wanders many more miles when establishing this range.
In 2004, a cat was killed in Oklahoma by a train some 40 miles south of Arkansas City. This particular cat was tagged by wildlife officials in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
It makes sense it could have traveled through Kansas. It would have found resistance from way too many Tigers in Missouri!
Wildlife officials I know don’t deny wild mountain lions live in our state and want the public to believe there is not a conspiracy to prove otherwise. The truth is these officials don’t have indisputable evidence these wild mountain lions exist.
By this, I mean a positive photo, a track or the body of a road-killed animal such as what was found in Oklahoma. DNA from an animal’s scat also could prove to be positive identification.
Possible wild, native mountain lion killed in Kansas
Earlier this week a Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks news release stated officers are investigating the alleged killing of a mountain lion in south-central Kansas that occurred last fall. A Barber County landowner apparently killed the cougar on property he owned last November. He was cutting wood when he noticed the cat lurking nearby in some tall grass. The landowner got a firearm from his truck and shot the animal.
Investigators have taken possession of the pelt of the mountain lion and hope to obtain the skull. Previously, the animal had been taken to a taxidermist in Texas, and the remainder of the carcass was thrown away.
There is no outward indication the mountain lion had been raised in captivity. Department personnel hope additional analyses could lead to clues indicating where it might have originated.
Although lion sightings often are reported, the last wild mountain lion documented in Kansas was killed in Ellis County in 1904. However, mountain lions are known to live in Colorado within 75 miles of the border of southwest Kansas and have been documented with increasing frequency in recent years in the panhandle of Oklahoma. Mountain lions also have been dispersing out of the Black Hills of South Dakota into several Midwestern states for more than a decade.
Kansas has no hunting season for mountain lion and they may not be killed just because they are on one’s property. Landowners are permitted to destroy wildlife, including mountain lions, found in or near buildings on their premises or when destroying property, including livestock.
The person who harvested the animal may not possess such animal or parts with intent to use unless the possession has been investigated and authorized. Pending completion of ongoing investigations, the landowner who allegedly killed the mountain lion last November in Barber County could be cited for killing and/or possession of the cat.
This investigation could take several weeks. At this time, KDWP personnel has not ruled out the fact this animal could be a native wild mountain lion.
For more information, contact KDWP biologist Matt Peek at 342-0658 in Emporia.
If you are one that wants to surf the Web and learn more about mountain lion sightings in Kansas, go to the Department Web site at www.kdwp.state.ks.us. On the home page, hit KDWP Blog and see what others are saying about seeing mountain lions.
Attention Fishermen
I am depending on you to give me a fishing report and stories of your successes or failures. Lie to me if you want to!
I’ve got a fishing fever that won’t quit, and I can be reached at ptaunton@cableone.net.
A statewide fishing report can also be taken off the KDWP website. Things still seem to be pretty much at a standstill, but a few white bass are being taken at the Soden Grove Bridge south of town on the Cottonwood and up in the river at Marion.
The main thing is to get out and give it a go!