Wildcats in Kansas

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It was narrow county road, not more than 16 ft wide. Passing the school bus or a dually was never fun. Subjective terminology I suppose, ya it was about 8 ft long. We call bluegill perch, sun fish, and punkinseeds. A bluegill is not a perch, and it's not the same as a sunfish, though similar. We had both in our lake and called em all perch. Creeks are called cricks and you warsh you hands, not wash.

For the purposes of this thread, the wildcat term in the title is referring to mountain lions.
 
No such thing as a melanistic phase puma/mountain lion/cougar. Only melanistic big cats are jaguars [central and south America] and leopards [Africa & Asia].
 
I've seen Bobcats. Know why they are called Bobcats? They have a bobbed tail of no more than 6 inches. And they dont weigh more than about 75 lbs, many much smaller than that. The cat I saw had a tail the length of an entire bobcat, and was total about 2/3s the width of the 2 lane road. It was sprinting with a very smooth slinky motion. It was tan with a very blocky head and strong shoulders. This cat was easily 100 lbs heavier than me. I have seen a 180 pound dog, and it was a dwarf in comparison.

Bobcats can weigh from 20 to 40 lbs. I’m guessing a huge fat one might go 50 lbs.

I don’t know how much you weigh but a huge healthy male Mt Lion will go 180lbs. A giant can just tip 200lbs.
 
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Never said it was a bobcat... wildcat can mean anything around here, that isn't a housecat. It was most certainly a mountain lion (panther, puma, cougar).

I'm also familiar with lynx, having seen one in the Sandia Mountains of NM.

Uhmm... if you saw a Canadian Lynx in the Sandia’s you are the luckiest man alive! There is a very small population of Canadian Lynx in extreme northern NM. If one got all the way down to the Sandias it would be a miraculous event.
 
We have confirmed lions in Missouri. I would assume they cross KS... however I’ve driven that stretch and I could see how a lion would avoid KS at all costs.
 
Uhmm... if you saw a Canadian Lynx in the Sandia’s you are the luckiest man alive! There is a very small population of Canadian Lynx in extreme northern NM. If one got all the way down to the Sandias it would be a miraculous event.

I sure did, pointy ears and all. It was bigger than a bobcat, and less spotted. It was up on an embankment as we drove by down an old dirt fire road. I yelled stop and we backed up and looked at it for a minute. Not an hour later I also happened upon a red ghost flower. I have pics of both on an old phone. We were just northeast of Albuquerque, by the sandia ski resort.

I suppose if I said I saw a black footed ferret and a pileted woodpecker on the wakarusa, I'd get denials too. Or a pack of 10 plus otters on the Grasshopper river north of Perry. Oh well I know what I saw.

As for that Kansas quip from mr missouri... ain't nothin good come from missouri, just murderers and horse thieves (not my quote)! Just kidding, some of my family is from Missouri, including the infamous JWJ.
 
I sure did, pointy ears and all. It was bigger than a bobcat, and less spotted. It was up on an embankment as we drove by down an old dirt fire road. I yelled stop and we backed up and looked at it for a minute. Not an hour later I also happened upon a red ghost flower. I have pics of both on an old phone. We were just northeast of Albuquerque, by the sandia ski resort.

I suppose if I said I saw a black footed ferret and a pileted woodpecker on the wakarusa, I'd get denials too. Or a pack of 10 plus otters on the Grasshopper river north of Perry. Oh well I know what I saw.

As for that Kansas quip from mr missouri... ain't nothin good come from missouri, just murderers and horse thieves (not my quote)! Just kidding, some of my family is from Missouri, including the infamous JWJ.

You’ve seen a Mt Lion in Ks and a Canadian lynx on the Sandias. You truly are a lucky man if that is what you actually saw as those are both extremly rare sights even in heavily populated Lion and Lynx areas. I am not questioning that you saw something, my only question was if you correctly identified what you saw. A big grayish bobcat is very easy to misidentify as a Lynx. As far as your lion sighting, you mis estimated the weight by such a huge amount that it tells me you aren’t knowledgeable about Mt Lions in general. And then there is the claim of a black Mt Lion, which do not exist and if they do it’s never been documented in biological history.

Low light, shadows, lack of familiarity with a species, to brief of a glimpse, expectation bias, all these factors can and do lead to misidentification on a regular basis. I’ve been guilty of it myself from time to time. If I had a dollar for every “grizzly” sighting in NM and CO that actually turned out to be a brown or cinnamon phase black bear I’d be able to pay cash for a fancy cup of coffee. I’ve heard it sworn to on at least a dozen occasions, it’s never true and always a case of somebody who really wants to see grizz in the wild and doesn’t know bears well enough to identify what they are seeing.
 
I live in south central Ks. not far from the state line. In 82 me and a buddy shot one that was bothering a friend's cattle. It was about 90 pounds looked like it hadn't eaten in a few days.
 
You’ve seen a Mt Lion in Ks and a Canadian lynx on the Sandias. You truly are a lucky man if that is what you actually saw as those are both extremly rare sights even in heavily populated Lion and Lynx areas. I am not questioning that you saw something, my only question was if you correctly identified what you saw. A big grayish bobcat is very easy to misidentify as a Lynx. As far as your lion sighting, you mis estimated the weight by such a huge amount that it tells me you aren’t knowledgeable about Mt Lions in general. And then there is the claim of a black Mt Lion, which do not exist and if they do it’s never been documented in biological history.

Low light, shadows, lack of familiarity with a species, to brief of a glimpse, expectation bias, all these factors can and do lead to misidentification on a regular basis. I’ve been guilty of it myself from time to time. If I had a dollar for every “grizzly” sighting in NM and CO that actually turned out to be a brown or cinnamon phase black bear I’d be able to pay cash for a fancy cup of coffee. I’ve heard it sworn to on at least a dozen occasions, it’s never true and always a case of somebody who really wants to see grizz in the wild and doesn’t know bears well enough to identify what they are seeing.

You are correct that I know very little about big cats, and I always overestimate size. Memory does tend to exaggerate the size of things. My eyes are not scales or tape measures. I simply guesstimate. I have had multiple 100 pound labradors in my life and that cat I did see was twice the size. Im not going to sit here and look up the avg weights of animals or their "natural" ranges. Humans have completely changed what is natural. Kinda like all the 30 point deer with racks that look like a root ball: not natural.

You still dont seem to understand about ME NOT SEEING the "black" cat, or that I accepted that it wasnt black, but a dark one. That is truly a word of mouth story. Ever play the telephone game? Each time a story is told it changes. You dont have to like or believe my stories. I believe them and that all that matters.

Sure maybe that was a big bobcat that happend to have big black tufts on his ears. I couldn't get out, climb an 8 foot embankment, and wade through a little scrub and pet the darn thing. I was lucky enough just to spot it. I can't go back and pick some fur for DNA testing.

I'm not denying that most all sightings of elusive animals are false or misidentified. I've done it myself. I can't say for certain that I saw a black footed ferret, but they are supposed to be the only mammal of that size with green reflecting eyes. And a sprinting cougar is very hard to judge a size on when its midnight and you've just driven an hour to get home. That tail is unmistakable though. As it was crossing the road it seemed to be 12 foot long, but yeah, that would be a dinosauran sized cat. Tigers aren't even that big I dont think.
 
I was just joking about the KS bashing!! I would like to do some exploring out that way
 
I have had mountain lion tracks cross my tracks in the snow more times than I would guesstimate while hunting in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. And, I have never seen one.

Oh, and I have had grizzly tracks follow my tracks a ways as well. That's a whole other feeling.
 
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.st...f57c50d4-7e93-552a-982c-e72866e348ae.amp.html

Here is a trail cam that MDC verified as a mountain lion in St. Louis County. Chesterfield is an affluent suburban area in stl with some woods and ag fields but home to 50k people and surrounded by the city.


I think they follow the Missouri River. However if it was in chesterfield it had to cross the river at some point or is from southern mo.
 
Cougars can be travellers. Texas Parks & Wildlife released a radio-collared cougar in the Black Gap WMA on the east side of Big Bend National Park. Two or three nights later a rancher killed it in his sheep pen north of Marathon--some 50 or 60 miles from the point of release.

A friend of mine flew on radio-track missions for various wildlife entities. One cougar he tracked ranged from the Glass Mountains north of Marathon to the southern end of the Del Carmen Mountains in Mexico. A range of over 150 miles.
 
Sadly, the reality is a lot less exciting than the lore passed around by KS residents. Some guys act like there's some huge conspiracy and State secret cover-up denying the fact mt. lions are occasionally found within Kansas borders... For some reason it's hard for Kansans to understand plain English, or biology... A few mt. lions have made KS their home, whether long term or temporarily, but there's no steady population reproducing here. The fact we find people at a hotel doesn't mean they live there full time, raising their family for generations... Unlike Bigfoot, there ARE occasionally mountain lions in Kansas, but unfortunately, guys really like pretending Deep Sunflower is covering up some mythical population of 300lb, 7ft long cats...

Varminterror---Sadly, you have no idea what is discussed in the higher up echelons of the Kansas Wildlife and Parks. And I have found that people's suspicions of a government agency are never unwarranted. In 1992, I saw a mountain lion in north central KS, watched it for 5 minutes trying to sneak across a newly planted wheat field. When I became a biologist for the agency, I told a supervisory biologist about it. He told me "Don't you ever tell anyone that story." He went on to become the wildlife director and I left the agency for better opportunities. So all I can say to you is that if a Kansan said in plain english they saw a mountain lion, they probably did. If you understand anything about predator/prey models, habitat, available food resources, the river and stream corridors we have, available cover, then you'll understand the biology side of why there are more mountain lions than just the 'few' you think there are.
 
What gripes me is that I've hunted Kansas for 60 years and have yet to see a mountain lion. They are here, but I've never been fortunate enough. Have seen quite a few bobcats (aka. wildcats). Have a friend who saw an adult lion and 2 cubs in the public hunting area around Clinton Lake just outside of Lawrence, KS. That's an area I've hunted numerous times. Said he quit telling the story because no one believed him. He's an honest guy so make of it what you will.
 
I dunno about the melanin argument. But reliable folks in south Brewster County have reported seeing a cougar that was a sort of walking Hershey Bar--and one such sighting was in mid-afternoon.

The closest I've come was a sighting of (with only slight exaggeration) a 120-pound Siamese cat: Chocolate tail tip, paws and mask. This was still broad daylight, not in a spotlight. I've only seen two other lions, besides the hide draped over my couch.
 
WILDCATS are well documented in Kansas. They are most commonly found in Manhattan, Kansas and are spotted on a regular basis around the country, usually in the Midwest. They are aggressive species and have a particular appetite for JAYHAWKERS.

BOBCATS are another very common species in Kansas that hunted and trapped.

MOUNTAIN LIONS are more common than the KDWP will admitted. A friend that is a master tapper documented one with photos, measurements and plaster casts on it's tracks back in the 1990's. He foolishly turned all of his evidence over to the KDWP who denied they were M.T. tracks and "lost" his evidence.

About 10 -15 years ago he called me and warned me to keep a close eye on my livestock and pets. He had got a call from a nearby farmer about some tracks he found about a mile from my place. This time, after documenting the tracks, he notified the KDWP but wisely kept the evidence. It was just a few years later that they finally admitted to the presence of Mountain Lions in Kansas.

The tracks were along the Whitewater River here in South Central Kansas. I live about 1/2 mile from the river. In my area it is heavily wooded on both sides of the bank. We have a large population of deer so there is a good food source for the cats. With lots of shelter belts there are good cover for the cats. We ride our horses a lot around the river and they have at times suddenly started very nervous and looking towards the trees and river bank.

In fact a neighbor that lives closer to the river than me asked me about a month or so about 'yotes. He has concerns about his dogs and livestock and suspects predators. He apparently has not lost any livestock yet but his dogs and horses have been getting real upset at night at something. He was not happy to learn of the Mountain Lion tracks that have been documented close to us.We have never seen any Big Cats but I always carry a handgun when riding.

Dead Mountain Lions (roadkill) are being found in N.E. Oklahoma. The theory is they are working their way through Kansas following the rivers.

I have seen a Mountain Lion in N.W. Nebraska when hunting buffalo on Ted Turners ranch. It was at dusk and we driving slowly on dirt road on his ranch when we saw the cat walk calmly across the road in front of our truck. It was still light enough for us to see it's size and shape so we are sure it was a Mountain Lion. Our hunting guide the next day confirmed there are Mountain Lions on the ranch.
 
Clench your fist. Set it down in the paw print. If there's an inch of print outside your fist, I guarantee you that it's cougar, not bobcat.

I don''t know of any other critter with as proportionally as long a tail as a cougar. Dogs/wolves don't.
 
I saw one VERY black cougar about 25 years ago in southern New York, right near the Pa border. I watched in a cut hay field with a 30 power spotting scope jambed between the window and the frame to steady the scope. It was PLAINLY a black phase cougar, about 7 ft. long with the tail. I then drove down to a saw mill and told the guys to get in the van, I had to show them something. To theyre amazement, there it was about 60 yards away laying there eating a rabbit it just caught. I called the Pa game commission to tell them what I saw and they as much told me I was seeing things. Another person last year has his chickens being eaten and put a trail camera up and the next night, presto, there it was on camera climbing up over the fence to get at the chickens! One of the pictures was in the paper the next week and the very next week the game commission made her put a correction in the paper that it was just their neighbors cat in the picture. That was the biggest, most muscular pussy cat ive ever seen!!! My friend had an observation that I think may hold some water.. If they admit they are here, since they are endangered, the feds get involved and post every supposedly denning sight for a huge area. Bald Eagle nests come to mind??
 
Haven't heard of any cats near where I'm at, not surprising given the state I live in.

We do have black bears regular though, so much so that locals have been posting pics on FB. Last one was just a couple miles from our house.

I do have family that live in the mountains of VA that used to live in Montana and they say they used to see big cats around their house regularly.
 
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