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Reported sightings of the elusive mountain lion have risen in Kansas, sparking a debate about their presence in the state
Possibly, no three words incite lively conversation as fast as “Kansas mountain lion.” The mention of these beasts brings stories (and denials) of government stocking programs, mauled livestock and recent sightings, including within our larger cities.
Jeff Alterman is an avid outdoorsman who moved back to north-central Kansas after living four years in southeastern Montana. He has spent thousands of days afield and seen no sign of a mountain lion in Kansas. Yet to hear Kansans talk, he says, big cats are as common as rabbits.
“In Kansas, I talked with more people in a month who said they’d seen mountain lions than I did people who said they’d seen one in the four years I lived in Montana,” Alterman says. “I knew a rancher in his 70s in Montana who said he’d seen a lot of tracks, but he’d never seen a live mountain lion. They’re extremely elusive. Kansas has a few mountain lions, but nothing near what many think.”
In 1904, a mountain lion was shot near Hays. This was the last confirmed Kansas mountain lion from the 1900s. Despite thousands of such claims through the following decades, the next confirmed Kansas mountain lion wasn’t documented until 2007—more than 100 years later—when a Medicine Lodge rancher shot one near his cattle. Since then, verifications (which include good photography, dead animals and clear tracks) have steadily increased.
“We’re up to a little over 100 confirmations, as of now,” says Matt Peek, furbearer biologist for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. “We appear to be getting a few more individuals in the state, and, in some cases, they may be staying longer than they had in the past.”
Territorial adult mountain lions often send misplaced juvenile lions, usually males, to look for new territory. Peek credited established mountain lion populations, including in the Rocky Mountains and the Black Hills, for possible mountain lion population growth in Kansas.
Many documented sightings come from remote trail cameras, which hunters place afield to monitor deer, Peek says. There are probably hundreds of such cameras per county.
At least four trail cameras may have photographed the same mountain lion in Chase County one night last fall. Considering the extensive distances male mountain lions can wander, it’s highly likely the same animal was captured on different cameras. For example, a mountain lion killed on a Connecticut highway had DNA that indicated it was from the Black Hills.
It’s believed many of the lions documented in Kansas soon leave and that most are probably males. There’s no evidence mountain lions have reproduced or brought cubs into Kansas, Peek says.
Despite investigating hundreds of reported cases, biologists from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks and the Kansas State Research and Extension have found no proof of mountain lions attacking Kansas livestock. And because bobcats and house cats are often mistaken for mountain lions, only a small percentage of reported sightings in Kansas are actual mountain lions.
Peek is aware of the rumor that the state secretly released mountain lions to control the Kansas deer population and then denied it to avoid liability, but he quickly dispels it as baseless. The department doesn’t deny mountain lions exist in Kansas, but before 2007, they had no evidence.
Peek hesitates to believe stories of black panthers roaming Kansas. “That would be a really long shot,” he says. “There’s never been a single black mountain lion documented in history.”
But that doesn’t stop the rumor mill.
“I heard about those a lot of times,” Alterman says. “It’s hard to convince people they don’t even exist.”
