Last deer season, 2 of our neighbors down at our hunting property in Hamilton County told stories of seeing cougar around the area. I pretty well disreguarded it as wise tales or people not real sure what they are seeing. Now I have talked to 3 other neighbors who have told me that they have seen what they were very sure was a cougar in the area. I did come across some very large cat prints last spring in a creek crossing. At the time I told myself that it is more than likely a large bobcat or maybe not even at cat. With all of the stories I am hearing, I am begening to wonder...could there really be cougar in our area?

Do any of you have any experiences, stories, or better yet proof of this?

Last year we found big cat tracks on our farm in St.clair county. My cousin had the pictures looked at by the state, and was told they were to big to be a Bob cat. They sent us some paper work on how to id cougers in the wild. I will try to find the pictures.

These posts are from the waterman-hill almanac. It has an area for cougar sightings. Hasn't been updated for a few years and the publisher recently passed away. But there are some interesting sighting here in Illinois and quite a few. The one's from lu_lu are from my Aunt who lives on our family property down in Pope county.

Pope County, Illinois

06/15/03
At 8:05 pm tonight - I saw a cougar in Pope County, Southern Illinois. No ifs, ands, or buts - I saw him/her. My dog barked and barked (and kept her distance). I was about 150 feet from it. It saw me - looked at me, then went on across the road. I saw one on my property about 8 years ago, everyone said I was nuts! I know what I saw tonight! And, I'll say that it has been around here for about a week now - just thinking back over different things that have happened.

Just HAD to tell somebody!! :-)

lu_lu - Name withheld by request

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

07/23/03
I have had three cougar sightings reported to me one of which was lu_lu (Pope County), the other Joe Hicks saw two in a field near Brookport (Massac County) in the spring, and the neighbor to Fred and Nancy Cota saw one on his farm between Camp Cadiz and Karber's Ridge (Hardin County) within the last month...

John O'Dell

Pope County, Illinois

[B]14 December 2004
Jim, you haven't heard from me in over a year. August 2003 was my last cougar sighting. Since that time, I am sure - the cougar is no longer in my area.

I think the cougar was shot and buried.

I'll relate my story - the best I recall it.

One year ago at Christmas time I was in the local Wal-Mart talking to the ladies in the hunting dept. Everyone greets me with "seen any cougars lately"? My reply "not since August". We talked about cougars, they got busy and a man was standing there and he said to me "you won't see it anymore - it's gone." I said "oh, I hadn't heard that." He said "it was after my cattle and I took care of it." He then said "if this ever happens to you, shoot it, bury it and keep your mouth shut."

I was so taken - I shrugged my shoulders and walked away. At first, I thought it was just some reckneck bragging - but as time went by and I thought about what he said - I think he killed it.

I wish I would have talked to him and asked what it was doing to his cattle - killing them? chasing them? what? Also, how did he know that was the same cougar I saw - I didn't say where I lived.

He seemed to have known me - but I don't ever remember seeing him - before or since.

I've gone through more than a year - with everything normal here. Cat & dog are normal - no unusual barking or hiding and all through last winter, no tracks.

So, until the next time, I don't have any cougars!!

I lost track of Virgil Smith - so if you hear from him, let him know my cougar is gone.

-=lu-lu=- [/B


The last time she saw a cougar she reported it to DNR< told her she saw a hound dog....When she informed the she saw two cubs with it they changed their tune. By the way all the sighting were when there was light to see by some during the day. Not the person whho sees the cat jumping across the road at midnight while driving 60 miles an hour. Next thing they are out and want to put a barrel trap on the property. She wouldn't agree afraid they were going to kill it. They provide her with scent bags to hang with spray bottles of some type of scent to use with her trail cams. Never did get a pic though. She said she new something was around because the animals were acting strange the cat had disappeared and when she would see it it was always hiding and the dog was spooked too always barking at "nothing" in the woods. Anyway that whats been seen down in Pope County...

last year my buddy saw on in the bottoms around RT 3 south of Murphy, and i saw a trail cam pic of one from up around Mt Vernon, a guy i know that works at Giant City State park has seen tracks in the snow that his is sure are from a "big cat", he also said fifteen people in the park camp ground saw one walk across a field one evening. Also I have herd of two people seeing the on the road around Crab, tail to nose, center line to side

I want want one on a trail camera ? :D

i want one ta walk past in Oct. ill let a muzzy fly!

There's been several people up here in the jasper/cumberland county area that has seen one in the fields during harvest time.One of the farmers asked the local cpo about it and he said that he new nothing about cougars anywhere in the state.I also found 2 cat tracks in 2 different places on our hunt club on the south side of freeburg (st. clair co.), I thought they were bobcat tracks until I put my fist down next to it.These 2 tracks were another inch wider than my fist, definitly not a bobcat print, but we've never actually seen the animal, but do see plenty of bobcats.

Get some trail cams out! I wanna seem them!

We have them out on our ground but hav'nt caught it on film yet.We have 800 acres, hard to cover all areas.If we get a picture I'll definitly post.

Critter periodically crosses paths with one in the bottoms off of buttercreek and union school roads...randolph county...kinda between evansville and ellis grove ...ummm sort of..Of Course, DNR swears they do not exist.....he's decided to carry the camera this year during harvest...he seems to see it more often during harvest...

I SAW one in Perry county a few years ago.When I worked for a club outside of West Frankfort the owner had some video of one in a food plot and of a yearling 30' up in a tree.

There is a guy in of around Chester that is doing research on them I see articals in the Southern from time to time asking for siteing info.

i know guards at chester prison saw a black cat on the mountains or whatever you want to call them last year i thought that would be so cool to see

Critter has seen what he calls a "black panther" a couple of times down in the bottoms around Ellis Grove...which would actually be up on the back side of some of the prison ground....well within a panthers range...I sometimes wonder what he's smokin when he's runnin around in the fields....but he sees lots of stuff from the tractor....he called one night to make me listen to the coyotes that had "surrounded" the tractor...LOL

i dont know you guys that well but it sounds like you guys have alot of fun with the animals around you

oh we do Smoky..we do....LOL I sat and shot (with the camera) a family of coons for the past three evening out the city lake...there's a mama and 5 kits that are just hilarious to watch early in the am and the evening...she runs along the south end of the lake, around both sides of that southernmost cove.....the one pretty much straight south from the pump house...none of the pics are very good..not enough light, me with no tripods..and them just running completely amok!

I haven't seen any myself, but two teens swear they saw one from the levee in southern Monroe county just north of the Fort. Who knows if they were tippin' a few or not, but it was two sets of eyes.

I believe the big cats are out there..what I don't understand is why DNR continues to deny it....ideas anyone?

I believe the big cats are out there..what I don't understand is why DNR continues to deny it....ideas anyone?

Its because they made a mistake letting them loose in the first place and they dont want anyone to know. For some unknown reason they thought they would stay in the wildlife refuge at Crab Orchard when they let them loose few years back but we all know that cats have a huge territory and dont like to share it with other cats so they spread out. When you ask a Dnr about it they seem to act like your not suppose to know there are cats and they deny they even exist. Wonder what they would do if while you was talkin to them a cat walked right past you :eek: would they deny it then ;)

They may consider it a mistake, but then this was at one time part of their natural habitat. Just like with the coyotes, don't leave small kids or little pets outside if you live near where they live.

I SAW one in Perry county a few years ago.When I worked for a club outside of West Frankfort the owner had some video of one in a food plot and of a yearling 30' up in a tree.

There is a guy in of around Chester that is doing research on them I see articals in the Southern from time to time asking for siteing info.

I can promise you that if there was a mama cougar around and I saw a yearling 30' up a tree I would not be anywhere near that yearling.

I talked to a good friend of the family the other night, he farms a few hunderd acres between Waterloo and Valmyer, on top of the bluffs and he swears he saw one while harvesting last year.

Aparently they found what they believe is a cougar skull at the Outland Ranch in Hamilton County. I would love to see it.

I can promise you that if there was a mama cougar around and I saw a yearling 30' up a tree I would not be anywhere near that yearling.

I talked to a good friend of the family the other night, he farms a few hunderd acres between Waterloo and Valmyer, on top of the bluffs and he swears he saw one while harvesting last year.

Aparently they found what they believe is a cougar skull at the Outland Ranch in Hamilton County. I would love to see it.

About like seeing a bear cub, best get out of the area.


I haven't said anything about bear in well over a week, Bob. :D

I was at Bottoms Up last weekend and they where talking about one roaming the hills down there too....

by any chance is the llama hunt still going on??? 4th of July they were telling me that apparently there is a stray/escaped llama wandering around down there creating havoc LOL

They may consider it a mistake, but then this was at one time part of their natural habitat. Just like with the coyotes, don't leave small kids or little pets outside if you live near where they live.

other than the coyotes taking small farm animals like calves or baby pigs and the cats of course...I can't say I have ever felt threatened by them, or had any difficulties with them...in the winter they will come up on our deck looking for snacks...so I try to keep stuff out in the fencerow, just to keep them away from the house. Now that we've fenced in the back yard they pretty much stay in the back....but I was never afraid of them nor afraid to leave little ones out because of them...they've always been pretty skittish with me. Hmmm...my mother always said I didn't have enough sense to be afraid....:confused:

Like you said, the kids are probably pretty safe around coyotes. I wouldn't feel the same about cougars though.

A couple years ago some folks in Belleville were complaining wanting the city to do something about the coyotes because some of their cats were disappearing. They probably never checked the tires of cars driving the area. Either way, they should've kept their cats indoors living in town, if they were all that concerned about their well being.

Back when bobcats were few and far between and a siting was rare the DNR was denying that bobcat's existed in Illinois. I knew guys that drove to Chester from Murphy to the prison that hit one and the DNR picked it up saying "it must have swam across the river."

I remember seeing a few on our place every once in a while after the DNR had announced they existed. I have heard talk of cougars but I have not seen one, but I am not saying they aren't. There is just too much ground in this area that they could hide in and not be seen very often.

This was printed in a local paper in 2004. DNR id'd the cougar.

[/URL]

[url]http://www.reviewatlas.com/articles/2004/12/08/news/local/news1.txt (http://www.reviewatlas.com/articles/2004/12/08/news/local/news1.txt)

Like you said, the kids are probably pretty safe around coyotes. I wouldn't feel the same about cougars though.

A couple years ago some folks in Belleville were complaining wanting the city to do something about the coyotes because some of their cats were disappearing. They probably never checked the tires of cars driving the area. Either way, they should've kept their cats indoors living in town, if they were all that concerned about their well being.

I wrote a letter to the editor that got printed about that coyote... Boo Hoo a coyote might be eatin my cat KILL IT... but they never take into account that their outside cat is quite the predator itself, and eating much more in the neighborhood than the coyote would... That story pissed me off. A complete disregard for how nature works.

coyote are gonna eat cats and steal chickens...it's just a given....My old Tom cats usually only last a year or so before they just dissappear..it's part of the cycle...
I agree a cougar would be different and more of threat to humans...
As for Bobcats...well hell we had bobcats in the woods where I grew up...they have the most unsettling calls...screams is more like it...
Smoky - there were always bobcats from Dad's place going North to about Ballhiemers place...(your Dad can explain where I'm talking about) I suspect it's gotten too built up and the ATV club has probably run them further to the north now. I think there's still one roaming around out by the sawmill.

I wrote a letter to the editor that got printed about that coyote... Boo Hoo a coyote might be eatin my cat KILL IT... but they never take into account that their outside cat is quite the predator itself, and eating much more in the neighborhood than the coyote would... That story pissed me off. A complete disregard for how nature works.

Yeah, city folk thinking the world is sanitized and made especially for them. They don't pay attention to St. Clair County's leash law either. Neither do my neighbors when it comes to cats for that matter. Yeah, they're very efficient predators. Our cats live inside. As well as coyotes and other wildlife, they don't have to contend with people driving too fast around the corners or with the other cats.

I saw a coyote going through one of the gates at Scott last year. There used to be some in the woods behind our house, but I haven't heard them in a few years. Several years ago I found a deer leg in the yard where neither of the dogs we had then could get to it. I figure it was dropped by one of the coyotes.

As for cougars, I haven't seen any in Illinois myself but it wouldn't surprise me. There are a lot more rural areas in this state than our Chicago government wants to own up to.

coyote are gonna eat cats and steal chickens...it's just a given....My old Tom cats usually only last a year or so before they just dissappear..it's part of the cycle...
I agree a cougar would be different and more of threat to humans...
As for Bobcats...well hell we had bobcats in the woods where I grew up...they have the most unsettling calls...screams is more like it...
Smoky - there were always bobcats from Dad's place going North to about Ballhiemers place...(your Dad can explain where I'm talking about) I suspect it's gotten too built up and the ATV club has probably run them further to the north now. I think there's still one roaming around out by the sawmill.

well i havnt seen any signs of bobcats or cougars out there, there are still alot of animals out in the fields so i dont think they are scared and when mushroom hunting i dont see any prints in the dirt

I saw bobcat prints last fall in mud creek bottom ,,,but haven't seen any yet this year...hope no one either shot it or hit it...

well i was just talking about behind the city lake around that area i dont go around mud creek cant drive and to far to ride the atv on that highway or else i would

There was a cougar hit by a train a couple or three years ago by the river road just north of Chester. It was taken to SIU and reportedly showed no signs of being a penned animal. I also believe that they found it had been dining on deer. There was an article in the local paper and I think the Southern.

That was over there by Pierre Menard home wasn't it?

Pretty darn close. There has been several people at the prison that claim they saw a a big one and a small one together when they were out at the range. I cant understand how there can be so many people with guns and no cougars on the wall.

against the law in illinois to shoot one... till they make a season for it you cant take a cougar legally

Exactly...DNR first told Critter there absolutely were none..so when Critter told them he'd bring them the body if he got the chance..then it all changed and they were all over him about not shooting it....said they *could* bring in barrel traps etc. Critter told them not to waste his tax money since it didn't exist anyway...
I really hope he can get a shot of it this fall...he almost always sees it several times during fall harvest. I may even let him take one of the good cameras and the big lens...well maybe...

Exactly...DNR first told Critter there absolutely were none..so when Critter told them he'd bring them the body if he got the chance..then it all changed and they were all over him about not shooting it....said they *could* bring in barrel traps etc. Critter told them not to waste his tax money since it didn't exist anyway...

Now that's funny Gretchen. Sounds like Critter's got a sense of humor too.

Now I thought it was the other way around, that if there wasn't a season for it and it wasn't protected it was fair game. Does this mean I cant shoot the Big Muddy Monster or burn ants with a magnifying glass?

Guarentee that if I see one of those in the woods with me it is getting stuck with an arrow.:eek:

I seem to remember a hunter shooting an elk in Illinois last year. They determined that because it wasn't a protected species in Illinois that he wasn't breaking any laws by shooting it, even though there wasn't an assigned season for elk.

I remember that but I think it turned out to be a Red Stag. Wasn't that near New Athens or Lentzburg?

Check out this Nature Almanac website that details Cougar sightings and kills in Illinois in recent history.

http://www.naturealmanac.com/cougars/notes.html

If you click on photos of the Mercer County cougar, you can see more.

Also, an excpert from THE NEWS-GAZETTE (Published Online January 6, 2003) details the Randolph County kill.


Confirmed sightings of cougars have taken place in northern Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri. A young juvenile male was hit in October by a car near Kansas City. The cougar, also known as the mountain lion, puma and panther, is slowly expanding its range to the East, from which it was extirpated more than a century ago. It is being drawn by ever-growing herds of white-tailed deer.

The body of a dead cougar was also recently found in Randolph County, located in southwestern Illinois south of St. Louis. The cougar had been hit by a train.

"It had its claws and there was no indication that it had been kept on a concrete pad" or other evidence that the animal had been a pet, said Bob Bluett, the state wildlife biologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources in Springfield. "There was another possible sighting in Pike County (in western Illinois across the Mississippi River from Hannibal, Mo.). The body shape looked good, but the photographs of the animal were pretty bad, so it's difficult to say for certain."

A good friend of mine in Wolf Lake told me he saw one cross the levee almost due east of Shawnee School.
A few years ago my dad said he saw what looked like one but he said it was gone too quick to look through his riflescope at it. My guess is dad would not have just "looked" through his scope at it but that's beside the point. Dad was south and east of SnadriDge across the river from Turkey Bayou/Oakwood Bottoms area.

All these folks seeing them and they don't exist? Hmmm?

3 weeks ago a horse was attacked in fairfield, south of flora.The whole hindquarter was eaten off and according to the news reports the cougar was seen attacking the horse.

3 weeks ago a horse was attacked in fairfield, south of flora.The whole hindquarter was eaten off and according to the news reports the cougar was seen attacking the horse.


I heard something about that and it was more then just one horse I think.
Fairfield is about an hour from me.

I posted the paw prints..but frankly I am just not sure...I am sure however that the steele household is soon to be investing in a trail cam..I have marching orders from my dearly beloved to find one and find one NOW so guys..where's the best place to look for one?

two years ago we found a quarter of a deer in randolph county southwest of RCSP. we called the GW and they took the carcus for review but we never heard back from them.

Once again, thread is useless without pics. Sorry!

I wouldn't call the thread "useless" but yes pictures would verify that they really are here.

Dude,....its called sarcasm.....,chill out

two years ago we found a quarter of a deer in randolph county southwest of RCSP. we called the GW and they took the carcus for review but we never heard back from them.

Seriously, though. That was more likely me or coyotes than a cougar.