this is from the Wichita Eagle. Someone shot the first confirmed cougar in Kansas in the last century. He sent the pelt to a taxidermist in TX before the law caught up with him, and is now cooperating with authorities.
http://www.kansas.com/news/state/story/352601.html
click for pix and comments
Posted on Wed, Mar. 26, 2008
Mountain lion killed in Kansas
BY MICHAEL PEARCE
The Wichita Eagle
Bo Rader/The Wichita Eagle
Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks game warden Tracy Galvin displays the pelt of a mountain lion that was killed in Barber County last November. Galvin has been investigating the rumor that a mountain lion had been killed in Kansas for the past several weeks. This is probably the first confirmed wild mountain lion in Kansas in over 100 years. Charges are pending against the individual who killed the lion.
MEDICINE LODGE - The long-standing debate about the presence of wild mountain lions in Kansas appears to be over.
For the first time in more than 100 years, state wildlife officials think they have confirmation of such an animal.
Tracy Galvin, a state Department of Wildlife and Parks game warden, took possession Monday of a mountain lion pelt shot west of Medicine Lodge in November.
A Barber County resident said he shot the catwhile cutting wood on his property.
Galvin said the man saw the mountain lion nearby, walked to his truck, grabbed a rifle and shot it.
Charges are pending since it's illegal to shoot a mountain lion in Kansas "unless it's a threat to life or property," Galvin said.
Galvin started investigating local rumors of the cat killing about three weeks ago.
The landowner admitted to the shooting and arranged to have the pelt returned from a Texas taxidermist, Galvin said.
He told Galvin he had previously seen big cats in the area.
Matt Peek, a furbearer biologist for Wildlife and Parks, described the event as substantial.
While it's believed the cat was wild, DNA testing will be done to see if it came from wild or domestic stock.
Many reports
Biologists say there's no need for Kansans to fear for their safety. The cats are known to be reclusive and contact with humans is rare.
Reports of big cats in Kansas have been coming since the last one was killed in the western part of the state in 1904.
While reported sightings have numbered in the thousands, Peek said proof has been nonexistent.
He and a number of biologists have followed leads but haven't found such solid evidence as tracks, droppings, a carcass or hair.
For about 15 years, Bob Wilson of Garden City has scoured the western half of Kansas placing infrared cameras in areas where big cats have been reported, using road-kill deer for bait.
He said after "countless" camera placements, "I got a number of very interesting bobcat shots, tons of coyotes and deer, but as for mountain lions... zero."
Kansas has come close a few times, like trail camera pictures of out-of-focus tan animals and piles of feces originally identified as mountain lion, only to have the lab testing come into question.
Last summer, an Audubon of Kansas Web site posted what it claimed was proof, though trained biologists who looked at the fuzzy photos and plaster casts of tracks said neither were of a lion.
Several mountain lions captured or killed proved to be released or escaped captive animals.
All around us
Neighboring states have plenty of proof of wild lions. Peek said there's a healthy population in a rugged part of southeast Colorado within 80 miles of the Kansas border.
Studies have shown that male mountain lions, like the one killed in Barber County, routinely range that far to establish a territory.
Nebraska has about 50 confirmations, with most coming since 2004.
Their cats have been traced to a growing population in South Dakota's Black Hills.
Missouri has about 10 confirmations, including a road kill within a few miles of Kansas.
Among others, in 2004 Oklahoma authorities found a lion hit by a train about 40 miles south of the Kansas state line. It was wearing a tracking collar from South Dakota.
"We've never said we didn't have any because of the likelihood a few have been through the state," Peek said. "This is just the first one that happened to get killed that we're aware of so we can verify it."
Had the shooter known the law, Kansas might still be without a confirmation.
"When I told him it was against the law to shoot one, his eyes really bugged out," Galvin said. "I really don't think he knew it was illegal."
Because he's been "super-cooperative," Galvin said, he doesn't plan to press felony charges of taking an illegally killed animal across state lines.
Penalties for conviction of shooting a protected species and possessing a protected species each carry fines up to $500 and up to one year in jail.
The Barber County kill also doesn't mean there's a thriving population.
Mark Dowling, along with Wilson, founded the Cougar Network in 2002 to study mountain lions in nontraditional areas.
"When you are in mountain lion country you're lucky to see one or two in your life, but you can find lion tracks and signs everywhere. It's not hard," he said. "If Kansas had a population, (verifiable) signs and tracks should be easy to find. But they're not."
Reach Michael Pearce at 316-268-6382 or mpearce@wichitaeagle.com.
Kansas lion!
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Emily
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Kansas lion!
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Emily
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column on Kansas lions
from
http://www.thekansan.com/stories/041208 ... 2022.shtml
Cougars are among us
Steve Gilliand: Exploring Kansas Outdoors
PUBLISHED: Saturday, April 12, 2008
In preparing this week’s column my mind naturally wandered to the recent disclosure (finally) of a cougar killed in Barber Coounty.
I found myself with two differing opinions as to whether I should write on this subject. The first being any outdoor writer worth his goose jerky and campfire beans needs to write about this, no questions asked; the second being this topic will probably be written into the ground, so I should just bury this dead horse. I don’t much care for horses dead or alive so I chose the first.
The next question was how to approach this delicate and emotional subject which has suddenly come to a head.
Hmm … maybe I should start by relating all the cougar encounters I’ve heard, told by local farmers and ranchers I know. Yes, that should be good for a paragraph or two. For years now I’ve heard stories such as a local woman spotting a cougar behind her as she walked near her home, or of a mother and son seeing a cougar cross ahead of them as they drove along a side road, and so on and so forth.
No, maybe that’s not the best way to go. Maybe I should start by telling how all those people described what they saw. Yes, I’ll try that. … I’m a born skeptic, and I know full well that in dim light, in the heat of the moment or from a distance, Ol’ Shep, the neighbor’s big, old, slobbery, BLOND Labrador retriever could look amazingly like a cougar.
But that tail; that darn, long, thin tail that curled down behind and then up again at the tip and trailed straight out behind those animals they saw. The people telling me about “cougar” sightings always talk about that tail, which never has or never will belong to Shep.
Or better yet, maybe I should describe how people feel after they have seen or had some kind of encounter with what they’re certain was a cougar, only to be told by Wildlife and Parks officials what they saw was probably something else because there was no “verifiable” evidence.
No, maybe that’s not the direction to take either. … I know; I’ll look at it from the Wildlife and Parks’ point of view. I’ll talk about the curious lack of real evidence that there is a thriving cougar population in Kansas; (road killed cougars, cougars killed by deer hunters, conclusive trail camera photos, etc.)
Then I’ll touch on all the “cougar sightings” which turned out to be bobcats or even Ol’ Shep, then about all the “cougar tracks” that in fact were made by someone’s big coonhound (or Ol’ Shep.) I could end the story by saying every conservation officer and biologist I’ve talked to one-on-one believes full well that cougars at least travel through the state on a regular basis, and they are as befuddled as the rest of us why more conclusive evidence has not been found.
No, I’m not sure that’s best either. Heck, now I don’t know what to say. I guess we’ll each just have to decide for ourselves what we believe. I’m almost disappointed about last week’s findings because now, for me, some of the mystery and mystique surrounding cougars in Kansas is gone, and I kind of liked it that way.
Steve Gilliland is a syndicated outdoors columnist, and can be contacted by e-mail at stevegilliland@embarqmail.com.
http://www.thekansan.com/stories/041208 ... 2022.shtml
Cougars are among us
Steve Gilliand: Exploring Kansas Outdoors
PUBLISHED: Saturday, April 12, 2008
In preparing this week’s column my mind naturally wandered to the recent disclosure (finally) of a cougar killed in Barber Coounty.
I found myself with two differing opinions as to whether I should write on this subject. The first being any outdoor writer worth his goose jerky and campfire beans needs to write about this, no questions asked; the second being this topic will probably be written into the ground, so I should just bury this dead horse. I don’t much care for horses dead or alive so I chose the first.
The next question was how to approach this delicate and emotional subject which has suddenly come to a head.
Hmm … maybe I should start by relating all the cougar encounters I’ve heard, told by local farmers and ranchers I know. Yes, that should be good for a paragraph or two. For years now I’ve heard stories such as a local woman spotting a cougar behind her as she walked near her home, or of a mother and son seeing a cougar cross ahead of them as they drove along a side road, and so on and so forth.
No, maybe that’s not the best way to go. Maybe I should start by telling how all those people described what they saw. Yes, I’ll try that. … I’m a born skeptic, and I know full well that in dim light, in the heat of the moment or from a distance, Ol’ Shep, the neighbor’s big, old, slobbery, BLOND Labrador retriever could look amazingly like a cougar.
But that tail; that darn, long, thin tail that curled down behind and then up again at the tip and trailed straight out behind those animals they saw. The people telling me about “cougar” sightings always talk about that tail, which never has or never will belong to Shep.
Or better yet, maybe I should describe how people feel after they have seen or had some kind of encounter with what they’re certain was a cougar, only to be told by Wildlife and Parks officials what they saw was probably something else because there was no “verifiable” evidence.
No, maybe that’s not the direction to take either. … I know; I’ll look at it from the Wildlife and Parks’ point of view. I’ll talk about the curious lack of real evidence that there is a thriving cougar population in Kansas; (road killed cougars, cougars killed by deer hunters, conclusive trail camera photos, etc.)
Then I’ll touch on all the “cougar sightings” which turned out to be bobcats or even Ol’ Shep, then about all the “cougar tracks” that in fact were made by someone’s big coonhound (or Ol’ Shep.) I could end the story by saying every conservation officer and biologist I’ve talked to one-on-one believes full well that cougars at least travel through the state on a regular basis, and they are as befuddled as the rest of us why more conclusive evidence has not been found.
No, I’m not sure that’s best either. Heck, now I don’t know what to say. I guess we’ll each just have to decide for ourselves what we believe. I’m almost disappointed about last week’s findings because now, for me, some of the mystery and mystique surrounding cougars in Kansas is gone, and I kind of liked it that way.
Steve Gilliland is a syndicated outdoors columnist, and can be contacted by e-mail at stevegilliland@embarqmail.com.
esp