Posted on 10/07/2012 7:22:10 AM PDT by Free Vulcan
Police shot and killed a mountain lion this morning in Des Moines.
Kevin Baskins, with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says it’s extremely unusual for such an animal to end up in a residential neighborhood.
“Certainly, we see the occasional mountain lion wander through the state of Iowa, but to the best of our knowledge, we really have not seen one in urban setting like Des Moines,” Baskins said.
”The only explanation we can think of is that mountain lions will follow river corridors and the river is in fairly close proximity to where this cat got shot.”
The mountain lion was spotted by a man in the backyard of his home, located on Des Moines’ northeast side, at 9:30 a.m. Around two hours earlier, police had received reports of a mountain lion near an elementary school.
Baskins said officers had little choice but to shoot the animal, given it’s size and the fact that it was in a residential area near two schools. But, he notes mountain lions aren’t considered a great threat to humans.
“Mountain lions generally tend to avoid people as much as possible,” Baskins said. “In Iowa, we’ve yet to have a documented case of a mountain lion attack on a human.”
The young male cat shot in Des Moines measured six feet, three inches from nose to tail and weighed over 70 pounds. “A full grown male mountain lion can weigh 140 to 160 pounds, so this one may have had his full height, but probably still had some room to grow,” Baskins said.
Mountain lions are no stranger to rural areas of Iowa as they’re pushed out of the Black Hills or mountainous regions to the west. A mountain lion can move several hundred miles in just a few days.
The lion shot in Des Moines is now being examined by the DNR. “One of the things we look at when we get an animal like this is the stomach contents to see what kind of diet it had just prior to being killed,” Baskins said. “I know in the past, it’s been mostly rabbits, mice and squirrels.”
A year or so ago in Wisconsin, residents of some separate western Wisconsin localities reported seeing what looked like to them a mountain lion. The state DNR fiercely denied the reports saying those people had to be mistaken. Later photographic evidence turned up showing it was indeed a mountain lion. Then the DNR did some blustering about how it was just a rare lion wandering far from home. To which the proper reply was: and so what? It was in fact a ml, and the state DNR was wrong. Why they went to such headed efforts to deny the possibility is mystifying. More mls have been reported since then.
that’s heated efforts.... not headed efforts
Ask yourself, can you (legally) hunt something that doesn’t “officially” exist? Once they allow that extirpated species have returned then they have to set bag limits, seasons, licensing, etc, and that’s after the fern-feelers have filed a bazillion lawsuits. It’s just a lot of trouble. Yeah, it’s their job.
Family members who farm in the Loess Hills have spotted the big cats a number of times.
I live about halfway between there and Des Moines. And there is no reason they wouldn’t be around here either. Cedar Creek is just east of town, and we’re only a few miles from the Raccoon River as well. Fine corridors for them.
Two winters back we lost one of our best pups. She was a beaut. I let her out the back door and within a minute she was just GONE without a trace. I blamed in on either a coyote or an owl, but it could have just as easily been a mountain lion.
It’s pretty easy to tell a human-raised mountain lion from a wild one. This was a year-and-a-half old male, just the type known for range-expansion.
Not even the Gaia-worshiping DNR claims this was a pet, who are usually older and flabby with bad teeth.
It’s from the breeders that the DNR brought into the state but won’t admit because they didn’t have legislative authority to do so.
This was an urban park not far from an elementary school.
Mountain lions do actually kill jumans.
A lady jogging on trails south of Auburn, Calif got taken & mauled/killed about 12 years ago. She also had made the mistake of jogging with HEADPHONES on.
Did the moose bite anyone's sister?
Mark
You had to know THAT was coming...
This is why you should keep your cats inside!
How can there be mountain lions in Iowa when there are no mountains there? The state is as flat as a pancake.
If things continue like this, I know in the future it could very well be mostly surprised liberal faces. Because big cats go for easy prey and libs are slow, flabby, not able to fight, oblivious, and at dawn and dusk love to stroll through beautiful natural settings populated by lots of adorable pretty kitties.
I think you have us confused with Illinois.
That’s because they DNR often secretly lets the animals loose. Missouri has for sure.
Well, you have to admit she is dressed provocatively. /s
It was an “unexpected” mountain lion. I wonder if they were keeping this on the job rolls.
LOL
That is obviously not a mountain lion, that is a great plains lion.As long as it's not a Canadian cougar.
As I recall, there was a fund set up to help the woman's children, and the bunny huggers also set up a fund to care for the cubs. And the bunny huggers fund collected a LOT more money.
Mark
A common belief, but wrong. Most of the state is rolling hills.
The original range of the ‘mountain lion’ covered all of the USA. Like elk and some other critters we think of as mountain-dwellers, they were actually almost everywhere and driven into mountainous refuge.
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