Cougars in Illinois?
02-13-2010, 05:37 PM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Macoupin Co, IL
Posts: 5
Cougars in Illinois?
Lately more and more articles are showing up about Mt.Lions or cougars making their way into the midwest. Granted, the Mississippi plays a big part in keeping them West, but what about us Illinois and Missouri hunters? Anyone seeing them? I know the rare occurences and rumors are always floating around, but does anyone have evidence or a story they would like to share? I almost think DNR keep findings or sighting quiet. What do you guys or gals think?
Thanks,
Thanks,
02-13-2010, 06:45 PM
#4
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Darien, IL
Posts: 6,744
They are here. The DNR has no reason to hide anything. The cat killed in Chicago was positively traced back to a sighting in a barn in WI thru it's DNA. The cat had scraped itself escaping thru a hole in a barn when the owner startled it and left behind enough tissue to get DNA. When they shot the cat in a backyard in Chicago the DNA was checked and it matched alright. So it is testiment to the travels these cats can and do make.
The Mississippi may keep a good divide from the west but what you are most likely to see in IL here are cats of what I think they call the eastern cougar or "florida cougar".
Let me dig up a little info.
The Mississippi may keep a good divide from the west but what you are most likely to see in IL here are cats of what I think they call the eastern cougar or "florida cougar".
Let me dig up a little info.
02-13-2010, 06:52 PM
#5
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Darien, IL
Posts: 6,744
Here is some info from an officer with the IDNR Police:
Almost a simple answer----, we do not have a viable breeding population of mountain lions or cougars (same thing) in Illinois--have not for a long time. Reread that sentence, I did not say you won't find them in Illinois--I said there is not a viable breeding population. That said, we have had 3 documented mountain lions killed in Illinois in the last 10 years--I believe 2 were south american species (speculated that someone released them) and one originated from a population in the Black Hills of South Dakota (a young male--likely traveled here on its own, they are known to range far.)
Cougars are not protected in Illinois under the Wildlife Code.
HOWEVER, there is the Western mountain lion and the Eastern mountain lion (sorry I don't know the Latin species names). The Western obviously occurs out west in strong numbers and is hunted and managed in the western states. The Eastern is only found in southern Florida from a very, very limited population. The Eastern mountain lion is Federally protected as an endangered/threatened species. Therefore the Eastern mountain lion is protected in Illinois as well as Federally under the Endangered/Threatened species act.
Now that I've said all of that, the odds of you seeing a mountain lion are very, very small. I've investigated numerous complaints and spend a large amount of time outdoors and have never seen one or sign/evidence of one. It is even far more unlikely that it would be the endangered/threatened Eastern mountain lion. It would be much more likely to be a Western or South American species that would not be protected in Illinois.
So, to answer your question, yes you could shoot a mountain lion in Illinois if it is not an Eastern mountain lion. If you did shoot one, immediately call the local game warden or biologist and they can do the appropriate studying and testing to determine the species and, (every bit as important), possibly investigate other clues as to how it got there. Will you get in trouble? No, not if you have the permission of the landowner/tenant and it does not turn out to be an Eastern, (the chances of that are very low as I mentioned above.)
If you have any other detailed questions regarding mountain lions, you can try to contact Dr. Clay Neilson at SIU Carbondale, or get a copy of the June 2006 Missouri Conservationist which has an extremely good article about mountain lions. I hope that helps.
Almost a simple answer----, we do not have a viable breeding population of mountain lions or cougars (same thing) in Illinois--have not for a long time. Reread that sentence, I did not say you won't find them in Illinois--I said there is not a viable breeding population. That said, we have had 3 documented mountain lions killed in Illinois in the last 10 years--I believe 2 were south american species (speculated that someone released them) and one originated from a population in the Black Hills of South Dakota (a young male--likely traveled here on its own, they are known to range far.)
Cougars are not protected in Illinois under the Wildlife Code.
HOWEVER, there is the Western mountain lion and the Eastern mountain lion (sorry I don't know the Latin species names). The Western obviously occurs out west in strong numbers and is hunted and managed in the western states. The Eastern is only found in southern Florida from a very, very limited population. The Eastern mountain lion is Federally protected as an endangered/threatened species. Therefore the Eastern mountain lion is protected in Illinois as well as Federally under the Endangered/Threatened species act.
Now that I've said all of that, the odds of you seeing a mountain lion are very, very small. I've investigated numerous complaints and spend a large amount of time outdoors and have never seen one or sign/evidence of one. It is even far more unlikely that it would be the endangered/threatened Eastern mountain lion. It would be much more likely to be a Western or South American species that would not be protected in Illinois.
So, to answer your question, yes you could shoot a mountain lion in Illinois if it is not an Eastern mountain lion. If you did shoot one, immediately call the local game warden or biologist and they can do the appropriate studying and testing to determine the species and, (every bit as important), possibly investigate other clues as to how it got there. Will you get in trouble? No, not if you have the permission of the landowner/tenant and it does not turn out to be an Eastern, (the chances of that are very low as I mentioned above.)
If you have any other detailed questions regarding mountain lions, you can try to contact Dr. Clay Neilson at SIU Carbondale, or get a copy of the June 2006 Missouri Conservationist which has an extremely good article about mountain lions. I hope that helps.
02-13-2010, 06:53 PM
#6
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Darien, IL
Posts: 6,744
More from the IDNR officer:
For what its worth, I spoke to an expert (only one expert) on Mountain Lions and the answer I got surprised me tremendously. He referred to the Eastern Mountain Lion as Florida Panthers (mountain lion, cougars, panthers etc all refer to the same animal) and stated he did not believe genetic testing could show it to be distinctly separate from the Western Mountain Lion. He also said that there would be no obvious external differences. However, that was only one expert (trust me, this is his field of study, he's an expert) so I'm going to check into this further with USFWS.
As far as destruction of private property, it's a 2-way street, they can't let their critter roam at will, doing whatever it wants. Kind of like letting a cow or horse wander and eat up a farmers crop or stand in the road causing an accident. I know several years ago we had a CPO who killed a tiger--got the complaint call and showed up to see a multi-hundred pound tiger had escaped and killed a horse and a chained canine, apparently it showed interest in him and he didn't wait to see if he was next on the menu. It was in southeastern Illinois (Jasper County area) about 4-6 years ago and if you dig around you can probably find the newspaper article on it.
For what its worth, I spoke to an expert (only one expert) on Mountain Lions and the answer I got surprised me tremendously. He referred to the Eastern Mountain Lion as Florida Panthers (mountain lion, cougars, panthers etc all refer to the same animal) and stated he did not believe genetic testing could show it to be distinctly separate from the Western Mountain Lion. He also said that there would be no obvious external differences. However, that was only one expert (trust me, this is his field of study, he's an expert) so I'm going to check into this further with USFWS.
As far as destruction of private property, it's a 2-way street, they can't let their critter roam at will, doing whatever it wants. Kind of like letting a cow or horse wander and eat up a farmers crop or stand in the road causing an accident. I know several years ago we had a CPO who killed a tiger--got the complaint call and showed up to see a multi-hundred pound tiger had escaped and killed a horse and a chained canine, apparently it showed interest in him and he didn't wait to see if he was next on the menu. It was in southeastern Illinois (Jasper County area) about 4-6 years ago and if you dig around you can probably find the newspaper article on it.
02-13-2010, 06:55 PM
#7
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Darien, IL
Posts: 6,744
Here is the link to the June 2006 Missouri Conservationist article:
http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2006/06/20.htm
http://mdc.mo.gov/conmag/2006/06/20.htm
02-13-2010, 07:06 PM
#9
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Darien, IL
Posts: 6,744
chicagotribune.com
Cops kill cougar on North Side
Neighborhood stunned as animal cornered, shot in back alley
By Jeremy Manier and Tina Shah
Tribune reporters
April 15, 2008
A cougar ran loose in Chicago on Monday for the first time since the city's founding in the 19th Century. But by day's end, the animal lay dead in a back alley on the North Side, shot by police who said they feared it was turning to attack.
No one knew where the 150-pound cat came from, though on Saturday Wilmette police had received four reports of a cougar roaming that suburb, roughly 15 miles from the site of Monday's shooting.
Whatever its origin, the 5-foot-long cougar's unlikely journey ended in the Roscoe Village neighborhood, where residents reported sightings throughout the day to the Chicago Commission on Animal Care and Control. Resident Ben Greene said police cornered the cougar shortly before 6 p.m. in his side yard on the 3400 block of North Hoyne Avenue.
Greene said he heard a volley of gunfire as he was bathing his 10-month-old son. His wife, Kate, ran upstairs screaming with their 3-year-old son, and they all took cover in a back room.
"At first, I'm thinking there's a gun battle in the street," said Greene, who owns a trucking company.
As the shots stopped, Greene heard the police yelling, "We got him! We got him!" He ventured downstairs and moved on his knees to the front door, where he saw police on his lawn. The officers had shot holes in an air conditioning unit on the side of Greene's house while aiming for the tan cougar, which died in the alley near Greene's garage.
Chicago Police Capt. Mike Ryan said the cougar tried to attack the officers when they tried to contain it. Police said they could not tranquilize the animal because police officers typically do not carry tranquilizer guns. Police said no one, including officers, was hurt and they did not know the cougar's gender.
"It was turning on the officers," Ryan said. "There was no way to take it into custody."
Normally reclusive creatures, most cougars retreated to habitats in the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills early in American history. But some researchers believe overcrowding in recent years has driven the animals back east.
Two cougars have been killed in Illinois in the last decade. In 2000, a train struck and killed one in Randolph County in southern Illinois, and in 2004 a bow hunter killed a cougar in Mercer County in western Illinois.
But in the previous century, there had been no confirmed sightings in Illinois of a cougar, which is also known as a puma, mountain lion or panther. The last known appearance of the animal was in 1864 at the southern end of the state.
The Wilmette and Chicago sightings capped a flurry of recent cougar activity in the area, though no one knows if that was all the same animal. Several people reported seeing a cougar at the end of March in North Chicago, about 20 miles north of Wilmette. A Wisconsin trapper came face to face with a cougar in January, about 25 miles from the Illinois border.
That trapper said the cat bounded away 12 feet at a leap.
Starting early Monday, frightened Roscoe Village residents began calling police with reports of a cougar which was bounding over high fences in the neighborhood. Greene said his wife got an e-mail alert about the animal Monday morning through a neighborhood watch list.
Frank Hirschmann, 50, of the 3500 block of North Seeley Avenue saw the animal pass by his home.
"I was sitting on the porch, and all of a sudden he crossed the street, and hurdled a 6-foot fence like nothing," Hirschmann said. He said he then ran into his house and watched police chase the cougar on foot.
Animal control officials were not sure if the cougar was wild or an escaped pet, though they noted that it is illegal to keep the animals as pets. It's unclear how a cougar could have traveled south into Chicago from Wilmette, but the areas are connected by a Metra train route, on which the cougar could have walked, and a waterway.
Ben Greene's neighbor, Romeo Dorazio, had just gotten home from dinner when he heard about 10 gunshots.
"I knew it was really nearby. I walked to the window and saw a cougar," Dorazio said. "It was the freakiest thing I ever saw."
James Reynolds was sitting in his living room when he heard what seemed like "fireworks popping."
The 45-year-old went out in his back yard and saw a cougar attempting to jump from his neighbor's fence to his. He knew it was a cougar because he had seen it on the Discovery Channel, he said.
Officers shouted for him to go inside his house, and he saw them kill the cougar in about 10 shots.
A spokesman for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said Monday that the state's current wildlife code does not protect cougars because they are not considered a normal part of the ecosystem here. The official said the only state regulations that might come into play would be gun ordinances, but because police did the shooting that issue is moot. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the Eastern cougar as endangered. But police could not confirm whether the cougar shot Monday was an Eastern cougar.
Greene said he agreed with the police decision to kill the cougar.
"As far as I witnessed, they did a pretty good job," Greene said. "Hypothetically, if there were kids in the yard and the cougar jumps in, what would the cougar have done?"
Tribune reporter Jeremy Gorner contributed to this report.
[email protected]
[email protected]
Cops kill cougar on North Side
Neighborhood stunned as animal cornered, shot in back alley
By Jeremy Manier and Tina Shah
Tribune reporters
April 15, 2008
A cougar ran loose in Chicago on Monday for the first time since the city's founding in the 19th Century. But by day's end, the animal lay dead in a back alley on the North Side, shot by police who said they feared it was turning to attack.
No one knew where the 150-pound cat came from, though on Saturday Wilmette police had received four reports of a cougar roaming that suburb, roughly 15 miles from the site of Monday's shooting.
Whatever its origin, the 5-foot-long cougar's unlikely journey ended in the Roscoe Village neighborhood, where residents reported sightings throughout the day to the Chicago Commission on Animal Care and Control. Resident Ben Greene said police cornered the cougar shortly before 6 p.m. in his side yard on the 3400 block of North Hoyne Avenue.
Greene said he heard a volley of gunfire as he was bathing his 10-month-old son. His wife, Kate, ran upstairs screaming with their 3-year-old son, and they all took cover in a back room.
"At first, I'm thinking there's a gun battle in the street," said Greene, who owns a trucking company.
As the shots stopped, Greene heard the police yelling, "We got him! We got him!" He ventured downstairs and moved on his knees to the front door, where he saw police on his lawn. The officers had shot holes in an air conditioning unit on the side of Greene's house while aiming for the tan cougar, which died in the alley near Greene's garage.
Chicago Police Capt. Mike Ryan said the cougar tried to attack the officers when they tried to contain it. Police said they could not tranquilize the animal because police officers typically do not carry tranquilizer guns. Police said no one, including officers, was hurt and they did not know the cougar's gender.
"It was turning on the officers," Ryan said. "There was no way to take it into custody."
Normally reclusive creatures, most cougars retreated to habitats in the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills early in American history. But some researchers believe overcrowding in recent years has driven the animals back east.
Two cougars have been killed in Illinois in the last decade. In 2000, a train struck and killed one in Randolph County in southern Illinois, and in 2004 a bow hunter killed a cougar in Mercer County in western Illinois.
But in the previous century, there had been no confirmed sightings in Illinois of a cougar, which is also known as a puma, mountain lion or panther. The last known appearance of the animal was in 1864 at the southern end of the state.
The Wilmette and Chicago sightings capped a flurry of recent cougar activity in the area, though no one knows if that was all the same animal. Several people reported seeing a cougar at the end of March in North Chicago, about 20 miles north of Wilmette. A Wisconsin trapper came face to face with a cougar in January, about 25 miles from the Illinois border.
That trapper said the cat bounded away 12 feet at a leap.
Starting early Monday, frightened Roscoe Village residents began calling police with reports of a cougar which was bounding over high fences in the neighborhood. Greene said his wife got an e-mail alert about the animal Monday morning through a neighborhood watch list.
Frank Hirschmann, 50, of the 3500 block of North Seeley Avenue saw the animal pass by his home.
"I was sitting on the porch, and all of a sudden he crossed the street, and hurdled a 6-foot fence like nothing," Hirschmann said. He said he then ran into his house and watched police chase the cougar on foot.
Animal control officials were not sure if the cougar was wild or an escaped pet, though they noted that it is illegal to keep the animals as pets. It's unclear how a cougar could have traveled south into Chicago from Wilmette, but the areas are connected by a Metra train route, on which the cougar could have walked, and a waterway.
Ben Greene's neighbor, Romeo Dorazio, had just gotten home from dinner when he heard about 10 gunshots.
"I knew it was really nearby. I walked to the window and saw a cougar," Dorazio said. "It was the freakiest thing I ever saw."
James Reynolds was sitting in his living room when he heard what seemed like "fireworks popping."
The 45-year-old went out in his back yard and saw a cougar attempting to jump from his neighbor's fence to his. He knew it was a cougar because he had seen it on the Discovery Channel, he said.
Officers shouted for him to go inside his house, and he saw them kill the cougar in about 10 shots.
A spokesman for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said Monday that the state's current wildlife code does not protect cougars because they are not considered a normal part of the ecosystem here. The official said the only state regulations that might come into play would be gun ordinances, but because police did the shooting that issue is moot. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lists the Eastern cougar as endangered. But police could not confirm whether the cougar shot Monday was an Eastern cougar.
Greene said he agreed with the police decision to kill the cougar.
"As far as I witnessed, they did a pretty good job," Greene said. "Hypothetically, if there were kids in the yard and the cougar jumps in, what would the cougar have done?"
Tribune reporter Jeremy Gorner contributed to this report.
[email protected]
[email protected]
02-13-2010, 07:09 PM
#10
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Darien, IL
Posts: 6,744