Range
Before European settlement, the mountain lion’s range extended unbroken from the tip of South America north into Canada, covering all of what is now the United States. Missouri, with its variety of habitats and abundance of deer, was a comfortable environment in which mountain lions lived and bred.
Extirpated from Missouri in 1927
As Missouri became settled, things started changing for the land, wildlife and mountain lions. Prairies were plowed, forests cut and swamps drained. Believing they posed a threat to their families and livestock, settlers relentlessly pursued and killed predators, including mountain lions. White-tailed deer, the main food source for mountain lions, were hunted until their population dropped to about 400 statewide. In 1927 near the Bootheel, the last documented mountain lion in Missouri was killed.
Mountain lion range
Click for large map of mountain lion sightings from the Cougar Network
Used with permission.
Today the mountain lion’s range is significantly smaller. Naturally occurring populations exist only in western states, with isolated populations occurring in the Black Hills of South Dakota, western Texas and the southern tip of Florida. Although there is no evidence to indicate a breeding population, individual mountain lions have been found recently in Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Illinois and even Missouri.
Ten sightings confirmed between 1994 and 2007
Missouri had its first modern appearance of a mountain lion in 1994 when a small adult female was treed and shot by hunters in Carter County. The carcass was never recovered, but a photo was obtained of the animal on a truck’s tailgate. Because mountain lions are protected in Missouri from indiscriminate shooting, each hunter was fined $2,000.
Since then, the Conservation Department has confirmed nine additional mountain lions in the state. One of these was hit by a car near downtown Kansas City in 2002, and another was hit near Fulton in 2003. Both were young males. This is significant, because young males usually move out of the area where they were born to find new territories. Radio-collared mountain lions have been found to travel up to 700 miles from the site where they were originally captured. This finding indicates that the young males confirmed in Missouri were not born here, but, in fact, moved in from other states.
