Thursday, March 27, 2008

Lions back in Kansas after a century?

In November a man in Medicine Lodge Kansas resident was cutting wood on his property when he saw the mountain lion nearby. He walked to his truck, grabbed a rifle and shot it.

The last lion in Kansas was killed in 1904. So our flat neighbor the to east is all abuzz about whether lions are back, having wandered in from the mesas of southeast Colorado, or whether this was a pet lion set loose, like others that have been killed in the midwest.

According to the Kansas City Star, the Kansas Department of Wildlife plans to DNA test the lion to see whether it is wild.

3 comments:

Zen said...

"He saw the mountain lion nearby, walked to his truck, grabbed a rifle and shot it."

Yep that sounds like Kansas. :0)

But good on him for owning up to it and cooperating. It's interesting that "Joe" Kansas views the return of the mountain lion like "Joe" Colorado views the return of the wolf ... with fear and trepidation. Yet we in Colorado think little of the mountain lions that are already here. So what did we learn?

People don't like change that doesn't benefit them directly.

Teleken said...

True Zen at least he didn't shoot, shovel and shut-up. I ran into two Lynx biologists last year while ski touring and one said they went to Western Kansas to get a lynx that wanderd all the way out there. If a lynx walked that far a puma could do it easy.

otowi said...

I do wish he'd shot it with a camera instead of a rifle.