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Cougar story

kansasbowhunter

Shed Head!!!
I know that in Iowa there have been numerous confirmed sightings of Cougars and even one killed by a farmer. In Kansas, the department of Wildlife and parks has denied the existance of Cougars. I know several people who have seen them in the wild here in Kansas.

This story was in the Witchita Eagle.....

BY MICHAEL PEARCE

The Wichita Eagle

A mountain lion found dead just south of the Kansas state line last week is making news for two reasons.

Only 40 miles south of Arkansas City, it's the first wild mountain lion confirmed in this area in 100 years.

And, thanks to a tracking collar, it's known to have traveled a long distance in a short time.

The mountain lion -- found near Red Rock, Okla. --was last tracked via its collar in the northwestern part of the Black Hills of Wyoming on Sept. 3, 2003, said Jonathan Jenks, a wildlife professor at South Dakota State University.

"Then it shows up in Oklahoma. That's 667 straight-line miles," Jenks said. That's twice as far as any collared mountain lion has been known to travel.

Jenks, supervisor of a mountain lion research project in the Black Hills of western South Dakota, said the cat was treed with hounds, tranquilized and fitted with a tracking collar on Feb. 24, 2003.

By Sept. 3, it had moved 58 miles northwest into Wyoming's Black Hills.

On May 27, while inspecting a section of railroad track, Bruce Endorf of Arkansas City saw the mountain lion lying dead 2 ¼ miles south of Red Rock. It apparently was struck by a train.

The next day, Endorf e-mailed pictures to Tracy Daniel, a game warden with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

"I was skeptical," Daniel said. "It seems like we get a mountain lion report every day but they never pan out.

"But it was laying right there where he said it was. It was an impressive looking cat."

The male cat was taken to a research facility at Oklahoma State University. Officials said it weighed 114 pounds and was thought to be 2 ½ years old.

Jenks said the mountain lion was from a thriving population of about 145 in the Black Hills.

Oklahoma has a very small mountain lion population in the rugged country that makes up the far western tip of the state's Panhandle. Daniel said last week's animal is the state's only confirmed wild mountain lion east of that region.

Nebraska and Missouri have had confirmed wild mountain lions within the last year. All have been young males thought to be looking for a home territory.

The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks said the last confirmed wild Kansas mountain lion was killed in Ellis County in 1904. Department biologists have long said it's possible a mountain lion could wander into Kansas.

Jenks said it's highly probable.

"Judging from where it was found, compared to where it came from, it would have had a difficult time not going through Kansas," Jenks said.

He said male mountain lions often follow rivers as they wander. The Arkansas River passes within a few miles of where the animal died.
 
I would think there have been enough sighting to simply state that the midwest has a moving and growing population of mountain lions. Although I've heard fewer stories hear in Iowa of late, they do continue to be told. I have personally seem two cats here in iowa at one sighting and not many wanted to believe me. Serveral of my family have also seen them. I personally think there are more of them around than most would think and the numbers will only grow.
 
I know this will not matter to most of you...But I spent about 5 years hunting that area while in college at OSU back in the 80`s. The story stated 2 1/2 miles south of Red Rock, I spent many hours deer hunting that exact same area I can visualize it now. The deer there are proably still laughing at me as that is the area where I started bow hunting deer. I was a rookie with no one to show me the ropes so I made way to many mistakes and missed out on many fine deer (for oklahaoma).

But three memorys come to mind..
I shot my first deer there

I seen my first truly record book class buck there, I had nine of them come through in bachelor group at less than twenty yards, and one was truly a monster, and lets just say I "missed" the opportunity do to a huge case of buck fever.

My brother shot my pet deer there, I seen the same little forkhorn buck about 50 times while bow hunting and passesd him about that many times, it came to the point where he viewed me as a non threat after busting me at least half of those times that I had see him. Then I bring my brother in there during muzzle loader season and my pet buck is dead with in an hour, I was pretty bummed, because of no matter how slow the day was I could alwsy count on seeing him there.

Well anyway enough of the old memories.
 
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