Interesting to read....

http://tinyurl.com/92oty

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Kenny Tharp was hunting deer near the Mississippi River last season when he spotted something curled beneath a pine tree that he just couldn't believe: the body of a 98-pound cougar.


[/align]Tharp's discovery was only the second confirmed cougar sighting in more than a century in Illinois, and it came within five years of the first.
Reports of cougars, sometimes called mountain lions, have increased in the Midwest in recent years, and a nationwide effort is scratching for evidence of more in middle America, where the big cats thrived generations ago.

No government agency tracks cougar numbers in this country, so the Cougar Network, based in Concord, Mass., took up the challenge.
Using the discovery of carcasses, verifiable photos, and cougar DNA from scat and hair samples, the network is trying to measure the number of cougars east of the Rocky Mountains.

It isn't easy. Some people confuse cougars with bobcats, which are far more common in the Midwest, said Mark Dowling, who helped found the Cougar Network about three years ago.

"We constantly get pictures of things people think are mountain lions, and they turn out to be domestic cats and retrievers," Dowling said.
Cougars were hunted to near extinction in most of the Midwest by the early 1900s. Populations of the generally reclusive animals managed to survive over the years in remote, mountainous areas out West, but there's nothing verifiable to suggest that populations lived in the Midwest over the years, outside South Dakota's Black Hills, said Dave Hamilton, a Missouri Department of Conservation research biologist.

Cougar Network officials believe that may be changing.

In Illinois, a cougar was killed by a train in 2000 near Chester, about 60 miles southeast of St. Louis. Three have been killed in Iowa since 2000.
A young cougar with no signs of captivity was killed by a vehicle in 2003 near Fulton, Mo. That marked at least the eighth confirmed case in Missouri since 1994 when a hunter shot a small cougar near the sprawling Mark Twain National Forest.

Missouri is taking the cougar issue seriously. It deploys a specially trained 10-member response team of experts and law enforcement to collect evidence following credible sighting, Hamilton said.

Other Midwest sighting have been too close for human comfort.
Earlier this year in North Dakota, two mountain bikers came face to face with a cougar they say followed them for more than a mile and came within 10 feet. The 45-minute ordeal ended when the two chased off the animal by throwing rocks and screaming.

In 2003, an 80-pound mountain lion was captured inside the Omaha, Neb., city limits.

Some biologists suspect that many Midwest cougars are younger males driven out of western states by dominant males or by urban sprawl squeezing their habitats. They may be following natural pathways such as river corridors in search of hunting territory.

Others may be migrating from South Dakota, where an estimated 145 mountain lions are said to roam the state's portion of the Black Hills.
South Dakota's first hunting season targeting mountain lions got under way Oct. 1, and 11 cougars had been killed by Wednesday.
Clay Nielsen, a Southern Illinois University wildlife ecologist who heads the Cougar Network's scientific research, believes southern Illinois and Missouri's 1.5-million-acre Mark Twain forest would be a comfortable habitat for the animals. The regions have dense woods and underbrush for cover and an abundance of deer for prey.

"They'd have all the food they ever wanted, as long as we didn't shoot them," Nielsen said.
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On the Net:
Cooperative Wildlife Research Lab, http://www.siu.edu/(tilde)wildlife
Cougar Network, http://www.easterncougarnet.org][/url]http://www.easterncougarnet.org

someone told me today about a montain lion chasin a deer through a field behind their house, in hancock county, indiana

Interesting post. There was a story on our local news today that students were kept inside the school all day today at one of the country schools in our county due to several reports of a lion running loose in the area. Im just glad it isnt anywhere close to where i hunt.

The DNR is so full of BS it is unbelievable. Their have been hundreds of sightings in the past 10 years. A bowhunter evn shot one last year, and the DNR said it was someones pet that had escaped. Yeah, sure it was.

they just dont want to cause an uproar. no pun intended

There have been eaten carcasses of full grown cattle here in NE Kansas that have been DRUG underneath a tree. No prints have been found, but the only thing stong enough to drag cows under a tree to eat it would be a mountain lion <---just my guess.

I have seen 2 myself in last few years here in MN

supposed to have been sighting/photos of one last week near Sterling, Ill.. that is N.W. Illinois. about an hour from Wisconsin border.

According to the sheriffs dept and our local CO, they could not confirm or deny wether or not it was a mountain lion that was spotted in our county on Monday. Apparently a resident saw something that looked like one behind his house in a fence row, both the sheriff deputy and the CO saw the animal and could not determine what it was becuase they said it took off so fast they could not make out what it was. I personally believe it probably was a lion, it was obviously something similar for the CO not to deny it.

We have a few places in neigboring counties who house big cats and they say none are missing. Pretty interesting story, hopefully it shows itself again and we can find out what it is for sure. Im in North Central Indiana by the way.

yeah im here in northeast nebraska right on the border by yankton south dakota..i hunt down by the lake and there was a mountain lion shot IN TOWN at yankton..ppl say there arent mountain lions around here in nebraska..there sadly misstaken..its kinda scary when u see large cat tracks down in the crick right next to where i hunt..[]