Missouri lion killed over hounds
Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2011 4:33 pm
This lion was treed by coonhunters in Ray County Missouri on January 2. They called the farmer whose land they were hunting, and he shot the lion.
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/03/25 ... ounty.html
click for pic
Ray County mountain lion a Missouri rarity
By LEE HILL KAVANAUGH
The Kansas City Star
The mountain lion killed in Ray County was examined by biologist Jeff Beringer (left).
KCTV5 | Mountain lion shot, killed in Ray County
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Ray County mountain lion a Missouri rarity
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The body, a .22-caliber slug lodged in the brain, was sprawled on the autopsy table waiting for the scalpel.
Weight: 115.2 pounds.
Length: 79 inches.
Age: Perhaps three years, maybe younger, according to the sharp white teeth and markings on the inside of the legs.
The anatomical evidence that most interested the scientists: The dead mountain lion — nicknamed the Ray County Cat — was male.
And with that, Missouri’s Mountain Lion Response team sighed with relief.
Had it been a wild female, it would have signaled the state could have a breeding population of the big cats. Of the dozen confirmed sightings since 1994, only one — the team’s first investigation — was a female. In that case, some members thought it was someone’s pet.
So far, it’s just the wanderers, said Jeff Beringer, Department of Conservation furbearer resource biologist, who was part of the autopsy team. That is, the young males looking for love in all the wrong places.
The team saw no signs the healthy feline had been in captivity, such as tattoos or electronic identification tags. Nor did the paws show evidence of life in a hard-floored enclosure. Also, its dewclaws, often surgically removed in captive animals, were intact.
Hair samples taken for DNA testing should show the lion’s origins.
In November, a confirmed sighting — a photograph and some tracks — occurred in Platte County. The team took lion hair from that site. They’ll check for a match with this one.
The Richmond rancher who shot it Sunday night believes it might not be the only one prowling north of the river. Losing calves, Bob Littleton set out game cameras that were triggered on two different cold October nights.
“One was big, and the other was smaller,” Littleton said. “If this was the smaller one, I sure wouldn’t want to meet the bigger one.”
The team has investigated more than 1,500 sightings in the state.
“I know that my e-mail will be full with new reports now that this one was shot,” Beringer said. “If we have solid evidence, we go out and investigate. But most of the time there’s no proof.”
One reason that Beringer thinks no cubs are out there in the Missouri hardwoods is the lack of road kills. In Missouri, only two lions met their doom that way: one in 2002 at Interstate 35 and Parvin Road, the other the next year in Callaway County.
The cats are common in Western states, with a few in South Dakota, western Texas and Florida. Northwest Nebraska is the area nearest Missouri with an established mountain lion population. Individuals also show up in Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Illinois.
“A neat looking animal, but every mountain lion up close is pretty amazing,” Beringer said.
Every March, he traps and collars the creatures on Ted Turner’s New Mexico ranch, giving field lessons to other biologists.
Out there they’re often called pumas. Some people say cougars. Or panther, painter or catamount. Their scientific name is Puma concolor.
Science shows that most cougars attack protecting their young. Or in the hunt for food.
“These wanderers are more afraid of people than we are of them. … And they’re afraid of dogs. A dog can tree ’em.”
This specimen was up in the branches of a tree on Littleton’s 350 acres just east of Richmond.
The cat’s misfortune stemmed from the taste for veal he had developed. A few months ago, Littleton found one calf mauled; another completely disappeared. Then a cow showed claw marks on its hindquarters.
Two raccoon hunters noticed Littleton’s cattle were riled up and skittish. Looking up in a tree, they saw why.
“They called me on their cell phone, and I went out there. They were afraid if they shot him, they’d get in trouble,” he said.
Missouri has laws against killing a mountain lion for sport, but not for protecting oneself, family or property. Such shootings are supposed to be reported immediately, with the intact carcass, including the pelt, turned over to state officials within 24 hours.
So his friends handed him their rifle. He aimed well.
Only after the big cat fell did the rancher begin to shake, thinking about the threat.
He called the conservation people and then a television station. Looking into the camera, his voice broke.
Later he said why. He knew how many times his “grandbabies” played in that field. Alone and without fear.
“This has changed my life. I’ll never let them do that again unless I’m there with my gun.”
To reach Lee Hill Kavanaugh, call 816-234-4420 or send e-mail to lkavanaugh@kcstar.com.
Posted on Tue, Jan. 04, 2011 05:36 AM
***********************
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/201 ... dy-cougar/
click for pic and comments
Columbia conservation scientists study cougar
Photo by Don Shrubshell | Buy this photo
Rex Martensen, field program supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation, listens Monday as conservation research scientist Jeff Beringer talks about the male mountain lion that was brought to Columbia for study after being shot Sunday in rural Ray County.
By ANDREW DENNEY
Published January 3, 2011 at 6:44 p.m.
ADVERTISEMENT
The body of a cougar killed Sunday night in rural Ray County was brought to Missouri Department of Conservation officials in Columbia yesterday for study.
Tammy Pierson, a conservation agent working in Ray County, said the 115-pound male cat was in a tree when it was shot by a livestock farmer. The cougar had been spotted around 8 p.m. Sunday, when it was treed by the farmers’ dogs. When the farmer arrived, he shot the cat in the head with a .22-caliber rifle.
Pierson said the farmer — identified in a department news release as Bob Littleton — reported that three weeks before the cougar was discovered in the tree, a cougar had been responsible for the death of a 425-pound calf that he owned. In Missouri, cougars — also called pumas or mountain lions — are protected animals, but they can be killed if they present a danger to livestock, property, pets or people.
Conservation officials at the Resource Science Center in Columbia, where the cougar was brought for a necropsy, said it appears from the condition of the cougar’s teeth that it was about 2 years old. Testing of the cougar’s DNA and stomach contents could better determine its age and give scientists an idea of where it came from and where it had been.
Officials also said hair samples will be used to confirm whether the cougar is the same one photographed in November in Platte County near the Missouri River.
Jeff Beringer, a research scientist for the Department of Conservation, said it could take as long as a month before the lab results are returned. There was no evidence, such as tags or tattoos, to suggest the cougar had been in captivity.
According to the department, this is the 12th confirmed sighting of a cougar in Missouri since 1994. Although there have been as many as 1,500 reports of possible sightings in that timeframe, Rex Martensen, a field program supervisor for the Department of Conservation, said there must be hard evidence — a photo or carcass — for a sighting to be confirmed.
“The probability of you coming upon a cat would be like winning the lottery,” Martensen said.
The creatures are “very rare” in the state, he said, and the last cougar indigenous to Missouri is believed to have been killed in 1927. In a department news release, Beringer said there was no evidence of cougar reproduction in the state.
In 2003, a vehicle driven by a motorist hit and killed a 105-pound cougar in Callaway County on Highway 54 outside Fulton. At that time, officials told the Tribune that cougar populations in Western states were increasing with the populations of deer and elk and that the cats were making a “comeback” in Missouri.
Martensen said cougars cover large swaths of land as their territory, and younger cats will roam long distances to find a territory they can call their own. In one extreme case, he said, a cougar whose point of origin was South Dakota was found 800 miles away, in Oklahoma. Young cougars must wander long distances to find territory that has not been claimed by older cats, which, conservation officials theorize, is why cougars of that age are being found in Missouri, where there is no established cougar population.
According to the department, cougars rarely hunt for humans, but if a cougar is encountered in the wild, people are advised against running away and encouraged to try to make themselves appear physically larger by raising their arms or opening their jacket. If the cougar displays aggressive behavior, people are advised to respond aggressively, such as throwing nearby objects at the creature.
But, Beringer said, it is more likely that a cougar would be scared off by an approaching human. “These things are not as aggressive as they are portrayed to be,” Beringer said.
Reach Andrew Denney at 573-815-1719 or e-mail akdenney@columbiatribune.com.
This article was published on page A1 of the Monday, January 3, 2011 edition of The Columbia Daily Tribune with the headline "Columbia scientists study catA farmer killed the cougar on Sunday.."
******************
television news story. click for video, stills, etc
http://www.kmbc.com/r/26350123/detail.html
Man Kills Mountain Lion In Ray County
Big Cat Perched In Tree
POSTED: 7:24 am CST January 3, 2011
UPDATED: 5:52 pm CST January 3, 2011
Email Print
Comments (94)
RICHMOND, Mo. -- A man shot and killed a mountain lion on his property in Ray County on Sunday night.
KMBC's Maria Antonia reported that the man realized his cows were making a lot of noise.
"The dogs act up and everything. So I ran there with them and there it was in the tree, looking down at them," said Bob, who asked that we only use his first name.
The big cat was looking at Bob's two friends, who were out hunting raccoons. They called him just before 8 p.m.
Bob shot the male mountain lion with one of the hunters' .22-caliber rifle.
"Next time I'll leave the house with a bigger gun," he said.
Click Here To See Pictures Of The Mountain Lion
Bob said that one of his cows was killed recently.
"We had a cow that was clawed down both sides of its back and hind quarters," Bob said.
"I've got little kids at home and I won't even ... and he could take it so fast. I don't want them around here," hunter Jim McElwee said. "You think about a 4 or 5-year-old kid that weighs 40 or 45 pounds, it would be a light snack for him, basically."
He said a 3-year-old boy lives across the street, just 300 yards from where the animal was shot.
The boy's grandfather, Don O'Dell, said he hasn't seen one of the mountain lions before, but has heard his neighbors talk about them.
"It was no real surprise. It was something to see, that big of an animal, that big of a cat," O'Dell said.
Other people said it's not the first time they've spotted one of the mountain lions.
"We have seem them on the trail cameras when we were deer hunting," Bob said.
"To me, if this was an older cat, his teeth would be dirtier and worn down," McElwee said.
By looking at the animal, the men believe it is a young male between 140 to 160 pounds.
"I do think we have more," said Bob. "They're here. The cougars are here, so it's time to do something about them."
"It's a beautiful animal. It really is beautiful, but dangerous," McElwee said.
Mountain lions are protected in Missouri, but they can be killed to protect people, pets, livestock and property.
Bob said he has already contacted the sheriff's department and the conservation department. It's now up to the experts to take a look at the animal and figure out its history. They said they will run tests to see if it might be the same cat spotted in Platte County last month, but the markings appear different.
The sighting was just the 12th confirmed mountain lion sighting in Missouri since 1994.
http://www.kansascity.com/2011/01/03/25 ... ounty.html
click for pic
Ray County mountain lion a Missouri rarity
By LEE HILL KAVANAUGH
The Kansas City Star
The mountain lion killed in Ray County was examined by biologist Jeff Beringer (left).
KCTV5 | Mountain lion shot, killed in Ray County
More News
KC police release top-20 crash sites for 2010
KCK, FBI launch police misconduct inquiry
Brownback plans to focus on growing jobs, shrinking government
Long-term space flight may be a problem for human reproduction
Huge number of tickets bought for Mega Millions
Homicide suspect rams police car during chase
Jackson County executive calls for merit raises for workers
Legislative forum is Jan. 5 in Wyandotte County
Ex-officer indicted in enticement case
In brief: Murder victim identified
Texas man gets 18-year prison sentence in holdup, kidnapping of pizza delivery man
Grocery store argument preceded hit-and-run, police say
Hearings set for two defendants in KU ticket case
Tribute | Cary Conrad Goodman made mark on KC as an architect
Ray County mountain lion a Missouri rarity
Cass County prosecutor sues to remove new presiding commissioner
Brownback: Poverty programs shouldn't penalize marriage
Bartle Hall loses some big shows
Overland Park promotes from within for new city manager
A Brownback idea even liberals might like
The body, a .22-caliber slug lodged in the brain, was sprawled on the autopsy table waiting for the scalpel.
Weight: 115.2 pounds.
Length: 79 inches.
Age: Perhaps three years, maybe younger, according to the sharp white teeth and markings on the inside of the legs.
The anatomical evidence that most interested the scientists: The dead mountain lion — nicknamed the Ray County Cat — was male.
And with that, Missouri’s Mountain Lion Response team sighed with relief.
Had it been a wild female, it would have signaled the state could have a breeding population of the big cats. Of the dozen confirmed sightings since 1994, only one — the team’s first investigation — was a female. In that case, some members thought it was someone’s pet.
So far, it’s just the wanderers, said Jeff Beringer, Department of Conservation furbearer resource biologist, who was part of the autopsy team. That is, the young males looking for love in all the wrong places.
The team saw no signs the healthy feline had been in captivity, such as tattoos or electronic identification tags. Nor did the paws show evidence of life in a hard-floored enclosure. Also, its dewclaws, often surgically removed in captive animals, were intact.
Hair samples taken for DNA testing should show the lion’s origins.
In November, a confirmed sighting — a photograph and some tracks — occurred in Platte County. The team took lion hair from that site. They’ll check for a match with this one.
The Richmond rancher who shot it Sunday night believes it might not be the only one prowling north of the river. Losing calves, Bob Littleton set out game cameras that were triggered on two different cold October nights.
“One was big, and the other was smaller,” Littleton said. “If this was the smaller one, I sure wouldn’t want to meet the bigger one.”
The team has investigated more than 1,500 sightings in the state.
“I know that my e-mail will be full with new reports now that this one was shot,” Beringer said. “If we have solid evidence, we go out and investigate. But most of the time there’s no proof.”
One reason that Beringer thinks no cubs are out there in the Missouri hardwoods is the lack of road kills. In Missouri, only two lions met their doom that way: one in 2002 at Interstate 35 and Parvin Road, the other the next year in Callaway County.
The cats are common in Western states, with a few in South Dakota, western Texas and Florida. Northwest Nebraska is the area nearest Missouri with an established mountain lion population. Individuals also show up in Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas and Illinois.
“A neat looking animal, but every mountain lion up close is pretty amazing,” Beringer said.
Every March, he traps and collars the creatures on Ted Turner’s New Mexico ranch, giving field lessons to other biologists.
Out there they’re often called pumas. Some people say cougars. Or panther, painter or catamount. Their scientific name is Puma concolor.
Science shows that most cougars attack protecting their young. Or in the hunt for food.
“These wanderers are more afraid of people than we are of them. … And they’re afraid of dogs. A dog can tree ’em.”
This specimen was up in the branches of a tree on Littleton’s 350 acres just east of Richmond.
The cat’s misfortune stemmed from the taste for veal he had developed. A few months ago, Littleton found one calf mauled; another completely disappeared. Then a cow showed claw marks on its hindquarters.
Two raccoon hunters noticed Littleton’s cattle were riled up and skittish. Looking up in a tree, they saw why.
“They called me on their cell phone, and I went out there. They were afraid if they shot him, they’d get in trouble,” he said.
Missouri has laws against killing a mountain lion for sport, but not for protecting oneself, family or property. Such shootings are supposed to be reported immediately, with the intact carcass, including the pelt, turned over to state officials within 24 hours.
So his friends handed him their rifle. He aimed well.
Only after the big cat fell did the rancher begin to shake, thinking about the threat.
He called the conservation people and then a television station. Looking into the camera, his voice broke.
Later he said why. He knew how many times his “grandbabies” played in that field. Alone and without fear.
“This has changed my life. I’ll never let them do that again unless I’m there with my gun.”
To reach Lee Hill Kavanaugh, call 816-234-4420 or send e-mail to lkavanaugh@kcstar.com.
Posted on Tue, Jan. 04, 2011 05:36 AM
***********************
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/201 ... dy-cougar/
click for pic and comments
Columbia conservation scientists study cougar
Photo by Don Shrubshell | Buy this photo
Rex Martensen, field program supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation, listens Monday as conservation research scientist Jeff Beringer talks about the male mountain lion that was brought to Columbia for study after being shot Sunday in rural Ray County.
By ANDREW DENNEY
Published January 3, 2011 at 6:44 p.m.
ADVERTISEMENT
The body of a cougar killed Sunday night in rural Ray County was brought to Missouri Department of Conservation officials in Columbia yesterday for study.
Tammy Pierson, a conservation agent working in Ray County, said the 115-pound male cat was in a tree when it was shot by a livestock farmer. The cougar had been spotted around 8 p.m. Sunday, when it was treed by the farmers’ dogs. When the farmer arrived, he shot the cat in the head with a .22-caliber rifle.
Pierson said the farmer — identified in a department news release as Bob Littleton — reported that three weeks before the cougar was discovered in the tree, a cougar had been responsible for the death of a 425-pound calf that he owned. In Missouri, cougars — also called pumas or mountain lions — are protected animals, but they can be killed if they present a danger to livestock, property, pets or people.
Conservation officials at the Resource Science Center in Columbia, where the cougar was brought for a necropsy, said it appears from the condition of the cougar’s teeth that it was about 2 years old. Testing of the cougar’s DNA and stomach contents could better determine its age and give scientists an idea of where it came from and where it had been.
Officials also said hair samples will be used to confirm whether the cougar is the same one photographed in November in Platte County near the Missouri River.
Jeff Beringer, a research scientist for the Department of Conservation, said it could take as long as a month before the lab results are returned. There was no evidence, such as tags or tattoos, to suggest the cougar had been in captivity.
According to the department, this is the 12th confirmed sighting of a cougar in Missouri since 1994. Although there have been as many as 1,500 reports of possible sightings in that timeframe, Rex Martensen, a field program supervisor for the Department of Conservation, said there must be hard evidence — a photo or carcass — for a sighting to be confirmed.
“The probability of you coming upon a cat would be like winning the lottery,” Martensen said.
The creatures are “very rare” in the state, he said, and the last cougar indigenous to Missouri is believed to have been killed in 1927. In a department news release, Beringer said there was no evidence of cougar reproduction in the state.
In 2003, a vehicle driven by a motorist hit and killed a 105-pound cougar in Callaway County on Highway 54 outside Fulton. At that time, officials told the Tribune that cougar populations in Western states were increasing with the populations of deer and elk and that the cats were making a “comeback” in Missouri.
Martensen said cougars cover large swaths of land as their territory, and younger cats will roam long distances to find a territory they can call their own. In one extreme case, he said, a cougar whose point of origin was South Dakota was found 800 miles away, in Oklahoma. Young cougars must wander long distances to find territory that has not been claimed by older cats, which, conservation officials theorize, is why cougars of that age are being found in Missouri, where there is no established cougar population.
According to the department, cougars rarely hunt for humans, but if a cougar is encountered in the wild, people are advised against running away and encouraged to try to make themselves appear physically larger by raising their arms or opening their jacket. If the cougar displays aggressive behavior, people are advised to respond aggressively, such as throwing nearby objects at the creature.
But, Beringer said, it is more likely that a cougar would be scared off by an approaching human. “These things are not as aggressive as they are portrayed to be,” Beringer said.
Reach Andrew Denney at 573-815-1719 or e-mail akdenney@columbiatribune.com.
This article was published on page A1 of the Monday, January 3, 2011 edition of The Columbia Daily Tribune with the headline "Columbia scientists study catA farmer killed the cougar on Sunday.."
******************
television news story. click for video, stills, etc
http://www.kmbc.com/r/26350123/detail.html
Man Kills Mountain Lion In Ray County
Big Cat Perched In Tree
POSTED: 7:24 am CST January 3, 2011
UPDATED: 5:52 pm CST January 3, 2011
Email Print
Comments (94)
RICHMOND, Mo. -- A man shot and killed a mountain lion on his property in Ray County on Sunday night.
KMBC's Maria Antonia reported that the man realized his cows were making a lot of noise.
"The dogs act up and everything. So I ran there with them and there it was in the tree, looking down at them," said Bob, who asked that we only use his first name.
The big cat was looking at Bob's two friends, who were out hunting raccoons. They called him just before 8 p.m.
Bob shot the male mountain lion with one of the hunters' .22-caliber rifle.
"Next time I'll leave the house with a bigger gun," he said.
Click Here To See Pictures Of The Mountain Lion
Bob said that one of his cows was killed recently.
"We had a cow that was clawed down both sides of its back and hind quarters," Bob said.
"I've got little kids at home and I won't even ... and he could take it so fast. I don't want them around here," hunter Jim McElwee said. "You think about a 4 or 5-year-old kid that weighs 40 or 45 pounds, it would be a light snack for him, basically."
He said a 3-year-old boy lives across the street, just 300 yards from where the animal was shot.
The boy's grandfather, Don O'Dell, said he hasn't seen one of the mountain lions before, but has heard his neighbors talk about them.
"It was no real surprise. It was something to see, that big of an animal, that big of a cat," O'Dell said.
Other people said it's not the first time they've spotted one of the mountain lions.
"We have seem them on the trail cameras when we were deer hunting," Bob said.
"To me, if this was an older cat, his teeth would be dirtier and worn down," McElwee said.
By looking at the animal, the men believe it is a young male between 140 to 160 pounds.
"I do think we have more," said Bob. "They're here. The cougars are here, so it's time to do something about them."
"It's a beautiful animal. It really is beautiful, but dangerous," McElwee said.
Mountain lions are protected in Missouri, but they can be killed to protect people, pets, livestock and property.
Bob said he has already contacted the sheriff's department and the conservation department. It's now up to the experts to take a look at the animal and figure out its history. They said they will run tests to see if it might be the same cat spotted in Platte County last month, but the markings appear different.
The sighting was just the 12th confirmed mountain lion sighting in Missouri since 1994.