Mountain Lions in Our Backyards?

Just in case you are thinking of camping out in the midwest sometime soon here is something you may need to consider.  Mountain Lions are making a comeback in the flatlands of the midwest. 

According to the July 6^th edition of The Week magazine, the migration of cougars, otherwise known as mountain lions, has occurred due to an influx of cougars in the mountain regions of the west.Young male cougars are roaming eastward to stakeout unclaimed territory.

In Missouri, 14 mountain lion sightings were confirmed by officials last year. That’s more than in the last 16 years combined. Cougars have also been sighted in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Illinois as well recently.

According to the article, people have little to fear from cougars.  Michelle LaRue, of the University of Minnesota, says cougars usually are “stalk and ambush” predators and like to hide from their prey and from people.

LaRue went on to say, if you were in the woods with a cougar and it saw you, odds are it would run off before you even knew it was there.

Locally, there have been cougar sightings in Northeast Missouri and Western Illinois including in the Camp Point area. The Camp Point sightings were months ago.

For my money, if a cougar saw me at the same time I saw it, I’m not sure who would run the fastest.