Mountain lion killed Marion County
Illinois
Anyone here of a Mountain Lion supposedly killed on Rt 161 near Iuka in Marion County? I had some pics emailed to me....just wonder if they are true. The story with the pics says it was hit by a car and put down by the county dog catcher.
I hunt near there and my hunting buddy swore last year one night he had a big cat stalking him....I couldn't do anything but LAUGH! LMAO
Now I'm wondering if he wasn't onto something.
you know... this is the same lion story i hear EVERY year and it always starts out " did anyone here"
ya, I know, I know
Just in case there is some validity I thought I'd ask. There was a story not long ago with some proof that one took down a horse I think by Albion a few months back.
I dont' really think this is true(due to annual stories), but just in case.....doesn't hurt to ask!
There are some down that way and up here also. One was spotted by a friend of mine and 2 friends of his were with him also then....close to Delwood and Bell Spith Springs south-east of Harrisburg. He also saw one 2 years ago by VEACHES gas station/restaurant off Hwy. 24 east of Metropolis.....don't be skeptical....they are around! Also a 'wolf' was seen in the same general area close to Bell Smith Springs. Maybe 20 years ago a red timber wolf was killed down that way and it and the photo made the Metropolis news paper. I saw a pack of a few back in 1968 and the local farmer I hunted on had trouble with the wolves getting into his sheep. (not coyotes or dogs....wolves)
Another one for you....in and around 1976 ?? my wifes father killed a black bear on their farm.....30 miles from Alton, Illinois and 12 miles west of Jerseyville, Illinois! He got scared and buried it with his bulldozer!....true!
By Braden Willis Carmi Times Fri Sep 12, 2008, 04:24 PM CDT
Carmi, Ill. - A new internet hoax is making its way around White County.
The story, accompanied by seemingly authentic photographs, purports that a motorist named James Snipe hit a cougar on Illinois 161 near Iuka, just inside Marion County across the Wayne County line. The story goes on to relate that the Marion County dogcatcher was contacted to destroy the badly injured animal. After the animal was killed, it was purportedly photographed inside Mr. Snipe's garage. The accompanying photographs depict the animal's carcass inside the garage and a closer look at of one of the animal's paws.
Many area residents are receiving the e-mails and have contacted The Times about doing a story on the supposedly confirmed cougar sighting in southern Illinois.
Perhaps the first clue that this is a hoax would be the last name of the alleged motorist - Snipe. Anyone who was in the Boy Scouts in Carmi in the 1970s and 1980s has probably been snipe hunting - and learned a valuable lesson.
The Times contacted The Centralia Sentinel and learned from a reporter there that word of this purported cougar incident had been circulating there for at least a week and it had proven to be a hoax. The reporter who had worked on the story, however, was not in the building, so The Times gained no details.
The Times contacted the Marion County Sheriff's Office and learned the county does employ a dogcatcher, Bobby Patton. The Times contacted Patton, who said he had received a number of inquiries about this incident and said the incident did not happen. The Times performed a quick Google search for the cougar photos making the local rounds, and the first two photos pulled up by the search engine were the same two photos making the local rounds. The information about the photos varied, but indicated they were probably taken about 1999, perhaps in Arizona. The same photos and a similar story to the local story circulated as recently as March this year in Virginia.
The Wayne County Press has reported on a number of purported sightings but there has never been any hard evidence to back up the claims, save for one photo shot by the reporter writing this story when employed by The Press a few years ago.
A man on the north edge of Fairfield reported finding large cat tracks in the snow in his back yard. Your reporter photographed the tracks and they gained attention from their front-page appearance. The tracks certainly appeared to have been left by a cat and they were quite large, much larger than a man's hand.
Another instance covered in The Press by your reporter was a similar incident to this story. A photo made the local internet rounds. It depicted a cougar stalking a deer, purportedly shot by a motion-sensing camera in a woods near Fairfield. Again, the pictured had been around for a long time and the local hoax was exposed in The Press.
The Times certainly welcomes verifiable evidence of the big cat's existence in the area, but, to date, with the exception of the unverifiable prints in the snow, stories about big cat sightings remain just that - stories.
Two years ago in northern Calhoun county our neighbor who shoots deer on a nuisance permit saw a cougar dragging one of his dead deer across his field. He got photos showed them to the local game warden and the game warden said it was a golden retriever dog. The next day he decided to look for tracks where he last saw the deer draggin dog. He followed the blood trail to a tree then couldn't find anymore blood, but on the tree. He looked up and in the crook of the tree 15 feet in the air was the doe half eaten. He called out the game warden to investigate and the officer then sided with him that maybe he had actually seen a cougar. That would be a pretty strong golden retriever. My younger brother who I don't think is a liar, says he was followed by a cougar for several hundred yards before it lost interest and turned back to the tree it had been in when he first saw it. He walked backwards the entire time and it just followed him. We went back to the tree where he first saw it and the top of it was hollowed out and there was a bunch of scratch marks up and down it. I called a buddy in Colorado and he said the cat probably had pups up there and was just pushing him out of the area and had no intention of attacking him as long as he was getting farther away from her pups. It is hard to believe that with a bunch of trail cameras out most of the year, I don't get one single trail photo of them, but I guess it is possible. Like i said, my brother is no liar and I have never seen someone so scared in all my life. He now will not leave the cabin without his pistol on his side. Be careful out there and don't run if you encounter one. Kill the darn thing, then maybe we will have some proof for the wardens who think we have an abundance of golden retrievers running around dragging deer up trees.
I also got the above garage photos twice with two different stories. One was hit on the road in Mt. Vernon, the other in Coulterville IL, pics were the same on each of them.
Looks like we already covered, or uncovered, this one.
http://forums.bowsite.com/tf/regional/thread.cfm?threadid=158638&MESSAGES=15&state=IL
cougars are not really known for draging there prey up in trees..A neighbor of mine claimed he had one kill a horse last summer and had it up in a tree. must have been one of those big ones they have been seeing. Met a guy up in schyler county says he found over a dozen carcases in trees last spring while shed huntin. I,m thinking there may be a big foot doing that instead.
Well, Houckie, it might have been one of those miniature horses. :-)
Yep, SJ that's the one...THANKS! I wouldn't have thought twice about it if it wasn't so close to where I hunt.:)
CahouneJoe, not trying to be a smarta$$ and no cut down intended, but dogs, coyotes and wolves have pups... cats take "pride" in having kittens.
When I was in high school back in the early 60's one of my classmates killed a wolf while rabbit hunting. I guess he walked up it in the snow and when it jumped out he shot it.
I just have to chime in on this. I live in Wayne county and one of those pictures of cat tracks a year or so ago was in the mud around my uncles pond. My uncle grew up on a farm and hunted various animals in his younger days. He's not dumb when it comes to animal tracks and he said he could easily put his hand inside of this track. He said it was bigger and unlike any track he had ever seen. One of his neighbors told him the cougar crossed the road in front of him early one morning a few weeks later just down the road from my uncles house.
In Sept. 07 my wife and I were delivering cabinets to Paducah, KY and about 15 miles north of the Ohio river on Hwy 145 we seen a cougar dead along side the road. I looked at my wife and said, "Was that what I think it was?" and she replied "It looked like a cougar to me!" Now, I'm the hunter in the family but she recognized it without me saying a word! I was pulling a large trailer loaded with cabinets and there was no place to pull over so I could stop. I looked for it on the way home, but needless to say it was gone by then. And "NO" is wasn't a bobcat. I've seen a bobcat while bowhunting in Johnson County and this cougar was a whole lot bigger than a bobcat.
People can say I'm crazy, but whatever! I've talked to people I personally know who are honest, down-to-earth people who have either seen a cougar or have seen definite signs of them around Wayne county.
Well, the cops shot one in Chicago last Spring, so I don't know how anyone can say there are never any around in Illinois. Also, if memory serves correctly, there was a confirmed kill over by the Misissippi River 2 or 3 years ago by a hunter. Probably we don't have a breeding population, but that doesn't mean we don't have any mountain lions. As an aside, there are lots of animals the DNR says we don't have, but we do. A few years ago, some guy reported seeing a golden eagle down by the lock and dam in Creve Couer on the Illinois River. The DNR guys essentially made fun of him in the Peoria Journal Star, saying that he didn't know what he saw. That was about 2 days after I saw a golden eagle and a mature bald eagle circling over a deer carcass at my farm, about 40 miles west of the lock and dam. I didn't know what it was, and had to look it up in the bird book when I got home. I'm telling you, the markings on a mature golden eagle are very distinctive, and you can't make a mistake. I told some friends about it, but not the DNR. I didn't want them making fun of me in the newspaper. So, while I'm a skeptic about breeding populations, it is too well confirmed with too many sightings for anyone to doubt that we have some around.
Bill an immature bald eagle doesn't have a white head and if some one saw one flying with a mature one I could understand the mistake.
And if you think cougars stalking deer are scary check this out! LMAO
Farmer, Thanks. I am an idiot. Dogs have pups. Should have said babies.
Ron, I have seen literally hundreds of immature bald eagles here and in Canada, but I have only seen one golden eagle. Very distinctive markings when in flight with the white in the tail and wings. Some of the immature bald eagles I have seen have a mottled appearance, but no white.
There is also a Golden Eagle mounted at the Crab Orchard Ref. Visitor center for a close up look. It was about 5 years ago when I stoped in there, it may be gone now???
I killed this one the parking lot of the old, Hukilau Beer Joint in Taylorsville in 1966. There was a 145 pound beaver with it.
There was a cougar killed in marion county by car. It was several miles from iuka on 161. I had scene it cross our field on our farm about a month earlier. It was hit on the east side of centralia about 10 miles outside of town. It was observed by several who stopped and took a look. Shortly before it was hit a neighbor maybe 1.5 miles away had confirmed tracks and dogs came up missing. Idnr investigated and confirmed the tracks. Have not seen another one since and no complaints or sign from any more neighbors. No joke, no made up story, no pulling your chain. Like I said I know many who witnessed it as well.
A 13 year old thread how's this revealent today?
I know someone that saw mountain lion near the Wayne forest preserve last year, he did not want to tell the DNR.
I was told that if a animal is not listed as a game animal that you can kill it, any truth to that?
Peter, that is my understanding. Haven't been told that by a game warden myself, but I have a good friend that was.
I believe that a law was passed no killing bears , wolves or lions.
Legal Status Cougars were eliminated from Illinois before 1870 due to habitat loss and hunting pressure. In the last several years there have been confirmed sightings of individual cougars moving through the state. There is no evidence that resident breeding populations of cougars exist in Illinois at this time. As populations in South Dakota, Nebraska, and Rocky Mountain states increase, it is possible that cougars will disperse through Illinois in search of new territories.
Cougars have been protected in Illinois since 2015. Cougars may not be hunted, killed, or harassed unless there is an imminent threat to person or property. If you feel that your person or property is being threatened, contact the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) to learn about options available to address potential threats. The IDNR may issue a nuisance animal permit and assist you with control measures.
My mistake. They are now protected unless they are a "threat". Thanks Highlife, I wasn't aware.
