Big cats roam through Nebraska (via Paul Cropper)

David Hendee
Sports
Big cats roam through the state
752 words
18 April 2010
Omaha World-Herald
Iowa;Nebraska;Sunrise
07C
English
© 2010 Omaha World-Herald. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.

Nine of the 12 confirmed observations of mountain lions in Nebraska since about Thanksgiving were where wildlife biologists expected to see them -- in the rocky canyons and hills of the Pine Ridge. Where the three others popped up didn't surprise Sam Wilson, the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission's mountain lion expert.

The trio of observations came from Custer, Dawson, Buffalo and Thomas counties in central Nebraska.
Wilson said the December observations of big cat tracks in Custer, Dawson and Buffalo counties possibly were of the same animal. The tracks were discovered on consecutive days and about 18 miles apart, within the distance a cougar can cover in that time period.

"We know we have a mountain lion population in the Pine Ridge, but people can see one anywhere,'' Wilson said. "It's complicated.'' A recent World-Herald story featuring a trail camera photograph by Tyler Hunter of Chadron of two cougar kittens near Rushville reinforced the evidence that Nebraska has a resident population of mountain lions for the first time since the late 1800s.

Wilson said it's important for people to understand that 79 of the state's 99 confirmed observations of cougars since 1991 -- a few others were pending laboratory tests of scat and hair last week -- were from the Pine Ridge and Wildcat Hills areas of western Nebraska. Sightings outside this area are likely young males passing through to points unknown.

Radio collars on mountain lions from South Dakota's Black Hills indicate how far a footloose cougar can roam. One Black Hills cat was killed by a train in Oklahoma. Another was shot in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
"There's some good chance that the mountain lion you see across the road at your farm in eastern Nebraska is a young male,'' Wilson said. "A month later it could be in Missouri or Arkansas or anywhere. They're able to cover that much land.''

Dave Kaslon of Ord set out a motion-sensitive trail camera after discovering possible mountain lion tracks on the gravel road near his central Nebraska house just south of town two weeks ago. Kaslon said his wife, Diane, returned from a walk about 5 p.m. April 3 and mentioned big tracks in the roadside gravel. The couple took a pickup truck to their north gate and then walked 50 yards north toward Ord, which is about a quarter-mile away.
That's where tracks came out of a ditch and continued about a half-mile south into the hills and canyons overlooking the town and the North Loup River.

The couple called Ord police officers, who measured the deep track impressions and made photos.
Cougar tracks are 3 to 4 1/4 inches long and 3 1/4 to 4 3/4 inches wide. They are significantly larger than bobcat tracks and distinctly different than coyote or domestic dog tracks. A cougar's heel pad, relative to the size of the entire track, is large. "It's a little concerning to people, but I think these cats have been around a while,'' Kaslon said.

Last spring, he said, his horses stayed close to the barn for three weeks while the grass was turning green. Kaslon suspects the horses knew a cougar was nearby. He said a neighbor five miles away saw the mountain lion that killed about 40 chickens on a farm last fall. Ord police officers chased about a dozen deer from the courthouse lawn early one morning nearly three weeks ago. Kaslon said he wonders if the deer were spooked into town by a cougar.

The Game and Parks standard for confirming a cougar sighting is straightforward. If there is evidence of a mountain lion, it is confirmed. When there is not tangible evidence, there is no confirmation. Evidence includes hair, tracks, scat, a deer carcass with mountain lion markings, blood tested for DNA, a cat carcass or a photo.
As a wildlife biologist, Wilson said, it's rewarding to see a native species return to Nebraska, but he understands the cats walk a fine line.

"These big predators,'' he said, "they're here only by the grace of people accepting them.''

Contact the writer:
444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com
B&W Photo/1 Seventy-nine of the state's 99 confirmed observations of cougars since 1991 -- a few others were pending lab tests of scat and hair last week -- were from the Pine Ridge and Wildcat Hills areas.
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