Big cat caught on camera confirmed as mountain lion

CHILLICOTHE, Mo. -- Mountain lions appear to be gaining ground in Missouri.

The Missouri Mountain Lion Response Team this week confirmed the ninth and 10th of the big cats to be verified in the state since 1994.

"It'll make you think about those noises in the woods that everyone assumes are just rabbits," said Joe Neis of Chillicothe, who set up a digital camera that photographed a cougar in Livingston County on Dec. 7.

Neis, 28, was looking for deer when he placed a camera in a tree close to a deer trail in a wooded ravine near Chillicothe, which is about 90 miles northeast of Kansas City. The camera takes photos when a motion sensor is tripped.

He found a mountain lion, also known as a cougar, looking back at him on his computer screen when he downloaded the images.

"It was a shock to see it on the screen," Neis said. "I didn't hardly believe it. I was jumping up and down."

The Mountain Lion Response Team visited the site on Monday and confirmed the photo.

"No doubt about it, it's a mountain lion," said Dave Hamilton, a biologist for the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Most native Missouri mountain lions were wiped out by hunting and habitat loss by the late 1800s. One killed in 1927 was the last confirmed until an Ozark case in 1999.

Kansas has only one recent confirmation. Tests showed that droppings found in Lawrence in 2003 were from a mountain lion.

Hamilton said reports are often received but rarely confirmed. He has investigated seven reports this week.

He said the cat Neis had images of weighed about 120 pounds and is between 18 months and 3 years old.

In another case, a hunter in Shannon County in southeast Missouri wounded a deer Nov. 18. The next day he found the deer partly eaten and covered with leaves and brush.

Wildlife forensic experts concluded that a mountain lion had killed the deer, Hamilton said.

It's likely both cats are young males that have detached from established populations to the west.