Spoke with about a dozen of my farmer's last few days, making sure my hunting permission is still granted. One of them said, he & his wife seen a cougar come up out of a ditch & down the other side following a timbered creek 3 yrs ago, early am. The area he spoke of it roughly 4 miles SouEast of where one was seen last Fall.
On another note, he said he grew up in Hardin County[he's 84yrs old]. When as a young guy he & his neighbors trapped for food & pelts back then. Said, an occasional wolf & pr's of wolves were seen & trapped along the Iowa River bottom. He never caught one, but his neighbors caught several.
I told him, I've seen 3 wolves in central Iowa the last 44yrs. Two of the three, were while out hunting coyote. A rarity for sure.