Missouri Cougar

From the expanding edges of the cougar's officially acknowledged range, comes the report of a confirmed game trail camera that photographed one of these felines in Missouri. From the report:

"Joe Neis isn’t a photographer, but he managed to capture the best photo to date of a wild mountain lion in Missouri.
"An avid deer hunter, Neis bought a motion- and heat-detecting camera about two years ago to scout for deer and find their trails near his home in Chillicothe. After checking on his camera in the tree where he had set it up, he made a surprising discovery.
"It was a digital photograph of the 10th mountain lion confirmed in Missouri since 1994." ...
"Neis’ image, recorded on Dec. 7, was the second confirmed evidence of a mountain lion in the state this year, the other coming a month earlier in Shannon County. There was no picture of that animal, but conservation agency investigators determined that a deer carcass on private property had been partially devoured by a big cat." ...
"The last confirmed sighting of a mountain lion - also known as a cougar - in Missouri previously was in 2003."

[Full news posted to StrangeArk archive.]