Residents report cougar sighting

ADVANCE, Mo. -- Jimmie Rogers and his fiance, Debra Haley, are worried about a prowler in their neighborhood in the countryside southeast of Advance.

But the prowler isn't a criminal -- it's a cougar.

On Wednesday morning, Haley said she saw one of the beasts in the middle of the roadway when she was driving near the couple's rural home in the hills outside the small town.

"It scared me really bad, and I started rolling up the window and took off as fast as I could," Haley said. "I couldn't hardly talk when I got home, my legs were weak."

The big cats aren't an unusual sight for people living in the area, Rogers said. He's lived at the same place since 1941 and has seen them throughout that time, along with black panthers and bears, he said.

However, the existence of cougars in Southeast Missouri has not been recorded and confirmed since the 1920s. Later hunting and habitat changes likely forced out any population of the animals that existed in the area.

Now, said Russell Duckworth, the Stoddard County conservation agent who investigated Haley's sighting, the closest concentrated population of the animals is in Colorado.

But in recent years there have been kills near Jefferson City, Kansas City and in the Central Ozarks. And given the cougar's roaming nature, said Duckworth, some of them could have made it to Southeast Missouri, even though they would more likely be found in the northern and western parts of the region.

Neighbor Roy Whitley confirmed Rogers' sightings, saying his wife had seen a black panther a few years ago and had heard a large cat growling in the woods near their home just the other day.

But this newest cat is cause for extra concern, say the Stoddard County residents.

"We've seen animals through here, but this cat's unusual," Rogers said. "He's getting braver and he's coming close to my home. He's been here three weeks to a month now and been sighted by all my neighbors."

The cat has even come within 60 feet of his house, Rogers said. He said he hasn't reported it in the past because he wasn't worried.

Rogers, who said he's experienced with the big cats, said this newest cougar is an old one that probably weighs 300 pounds. And he's convinced that the Missouri Department of Conservation is not doing all it can to find out about the existence of these cats in the area.

"Conservation is trying to play it down," Rogers said. "They said my future wife saw one of those big yellow labs."

Russell Duckworth, the Stoddard County conservation agent who investigated the sighting, said he couldn't either confirm or deny what Haley saw was actually a cougar. Duckworth said he gets about one or two reports each month dealing with cougar sightings, and that sometimes they are just large dogs or bobcats. But that doesn't mean they aren't cougars, either.

"I couldn't find any tracks or anything that would confirm it was a mountain lion," Duckworth said. "I'm not saying it was not a mountain lion, just that it didn't leave any evidence."

Given the dry conditions when he investigated, Duckworth said it was very possible that even a large cat didn't leave tracks.

Duckworth did say the fears of Rogers and his neighbors could be justified, as cats that have become too comfortable with humans have been known to attack.

Rogers wonders if one will have to attack before the conservation department takes notice.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182