cougar in central Iowa

kirby

New member
For the last 6yrs or so. A cougar has been seen on rare occasions by some residents in my county. I've spoken with some of them. A couple of them, believe there are two cougars. As one day, a local farmer/deer hunter seen two cougars that were around 8 miles or so apart during the same short time-frame.

Recently I met & visited with a farmer in the area. He told me, he seen a cougar last Fall, while he was harvesting some beans. Cougar came out of a pine tree patch on some CRP land.

Farmer stated his neighboring farmer seen a cougar in the same focal area around 2-wks later, while he was harvesting a field near that pine tree patch.

I've read where a cougar will travel 50 miles in a day. I suspect some truth to that. I realize the small percentage of myself seeing one out hunting coyote. Needless to say, would be cool & a chance to tag one.
 
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We've had a lot of reported sightings in the last few years here as well.... The Dept of Conservation downplays their presence quite a bit, to the point that one agent told me if I saw one, shoot it and call him...(Missouri restricts killing one unless it is attacking you or in the active process of killing your livestock).... so I'd have to have a good frontal chest shot... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

One of the PM members got a good trail cam pic last Fall of one around Chillicothe, MO and it was verified by the DoC from tracks, etc.. Check out the MO Dept of Conservation website and somewhere in there, they have the documentation standards for species sightings... It's good information to have, just in case..... Kind of like investigating a crime scene..

With all the deer population that has been in the northern part of the state for the last few years and the reported hunting range of a Cougar,,, It wouldn't surprise me that there weren't several along and on either side of waterways..
 
Spoke with a farmer a couple Winter's ago. His bud[a farmer] as well. Had a good sized calf. Have an animal leave claw marks on it's flanks & hind quarters. This was in the SouEastern part of my county. My farmer friend ask my opinion. I told him, could've been a cougar attack.

Migrating animals; Spoke to a hunter, who told me. A farmer friend of his...some 25yrs ago or so. killed one of two wolves that were trying to pull down a calf up in his stockyard. The other wolf scattered never to be seen again by that farmer.

A wolf, a rare sight to see in Iowa.
 
The MDC is investigating a mountain lion attack on a horse in the county just north of me right now. According to news reports, and, from what I gather from a friend on that Sheriff's Department, this is the real deal and will be something like our tenth "confirmed" mountain lion in Missouri by MDC standards of proof.
 
Interesting GC.

What gets me about the sighting in my county. Other than the Iowa River basin. The countryside is most all open rolling cropland hills. The farmer that[recently] told me of his sighting [last harvest]. That landscape[in his area] is all open rolling cropland. With very few "little timber patch's".

Last couple of Winter's, I searched hard, hunting 16-18[est] days a month for most all the season. Never could confirm a lion track /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif. Of course, I searched the Western 1/2 of the county mainly[along the river bottom] /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif. Maybe this Winter.
 
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I can remeber around here if you saw a turkey it was questioned, now days with remote areas getting farther apart that any animal will learn to adapt to any local or situation,i could have sworn i saw a black bear years ago down in Benton county Mo. and people have said for years around Grant City in northern Mo. that they have seen mountain lions.I have seen some strange things in the wild but mostly just humans acting dumb.
 
ASmith,
If you thought you saw a black bear here in Missouri, you probably did. Estimates of our bear population by the MDC range from 300 to 900 for the state. Most of those in the southern half - the rugged Ozarks. I called one while coyote hunting during a prolonged mild spell in late winter a few years ago. Bear no longer surprise knowledgable Show Me Stater's.
 
Your right GC on the bears love to see the numbers go up for maybe a drawing hunt but thats going to take a while but then again it didn't take long for the otters to take hold .
 
They see them around here sometimes ,too. A guy by Ft. Dodge saw a couple young ones while turkey hunting. I would like to give one a 40gr Nosler! 15 miles away in a pasture along the Des Moines river a cow was killed by one. I talked to the vet's assistant that confimed the kill and she said it was tore up pretty bad. I thought it might have been a younger one that didn't know how to do it or not strong enough?
 
Speaking of wolves, a few years ago a farmer in central Missouri was returning from deer hunting and saw what he thought was a large coyote or feral dog chasing some of his lambs around behind his barn. He killed the animal and when he walked up to it he found a radio collar on it. Turned out to be a young wolf from Wisconsin that had been part of a research study there. Somehow it wandered down here before it got in trouble. Another deer hunter in southern Missouri killed a whooping big bull elk during deer season once. That one was believed to have wandered up through the Ozarks from the Arkansas elk herd reintroduction. I can also remember a bull moose that stayed in a farmers pasture with his cows for quite awhile in northern Missouri years back. The guess was that it came from Minnesota. Eventually it wandered off after being featured on all the T.V. news cast in Missouri for some time. We don't normally have that kind of stuff here, but who knows what is possible at odd times... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
 
GC..I remember the moose. It was spotted about 6 miles north of where I live. A few of us decided to track it the next day. Very easy to track because of the snow cover and the durn thing crossed the roads where other wildlife crossed. Pretty simple to cut the roads and look at those locations.

Anyways we took the track south for a few miles and the moose entered about 200 acres of timber. Cut the roads around the timber and the moose had not left. Went in on foot and got up on him. The day before he had both horns, but that day only one side was left. The moose let us get by with quite a bit of movement, but when the wind swirled in the timber, we were off to the races. Chased him around in there for most of the afternoon and finally quit. The moose was headed in a south direction and last track I had of that moose was near St.Louis. He hung out around a river bottom there for a few days and suddenly just disappeared. I always figureds someone had quite a pile of good meat for the rest of the winter.LOL

Randy
 
If the poor critter wandered down near North St. Louis it probably got jacked for its "bling." Dangerous area...
 
Heard another report from last Fall about the cougar remarked above. This cougar is coming up from the river bottom, following a timbered creek. Then working it's way to a 40 acre timber. From there it travels another creek feeder, to that little pine tree patch in the CRP. I'm drooling now, LOL! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Most of the moose in Mn. live up on the north west or north east side of the state and about every 5-6 years we get one or two that work there way south and head into iowa.
we also have had a few lions running around the state. One was seen by the DNR up in northern MN. in a refuge. This lion had a radio collar on and it turned out the lion was out of the black hills..
Two others where spotted in the southern part of the state and may have moved down into Iowa or east into Wisc..
 
I've heard they probably came from the Black Hills as well. My post above, lion seen around the same time as when the two farmer's seen one. Not to mention within a 3 mile radius. The report I heard the other day. Was from last Fall. A group was deer hunting that 40 acre timber.

A poster down the fenceline[by the creek], came face to face with the lion as it was pushed from the timber. The guy[poster] had a shotgun with slugs, but let the lion pass /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

This Winter, I see a fresh track going into an open section & not coming out. Cat will have heck to pay /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
CO, told me they are not protected, no season on them. He also told me I wouldn't even need a hunting license to shoot one. If that cat is still roaming that area every two wks or so. Then I stand a decent chance of picking up his track after a snow, or seeing him out on the open hills/valleys.

I know the area, very well. From what I've been told. Sounds as if this cat travels the timbered feeder creeks, that don't have barbed fencelines to climb, jump or craw through/under.

I carry a County Platt book with me while hunting. In case I see a coyote on non-permissioned land.
 
The majority of lions coming into Iowa are from the black hills, younger males that have been booted by much larger toms, once they leave the confines of the hills, they become pretty nomadic and don't stay in an area very often, the home range of these cats is quite large but even where I'm at, 2 hrs from the hills they can move 10+ miles in a night and make getting them tough.

A fresh berried kill might be the ticket alot of times they come back the next night to take a feed after that the majority are down the road miles from there.

I find tracks in the rough country in the winter often but these are dispersal cats and could be 20 miles in a day or two real easy. The more cover the tougher one will have even getting a glimpse of these cats. High prey base of deer in cover will have cats in cat territory, in winter when deer group up this is a calling card for these cats and they are very adept hunters for sure. Might get them to stay a short spell as long as they aren't pressured too much.
 
I haven't heard of anyone taking a shot @ one, nor actively hunting them. So I'd say there is little to no pressure on a cougar in this area. As for prey base. My county has a boatload of deer, no shortage there.

Two season's ago. A farmer/deer hunter. Watched a cougar push a small herd of deer out of a small timber patch in a wide open rolling hilled mile section. Seen the cougar, leap on the flanks of the last deer, then got thrown/bucked off. He couldn't believe what he was watching @ 1st.

He told me the cougar & deer were a bit over 100yrds from him. He had a 12ga with slugs. He held his fire.
 
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