Missouri Confirms the Return of Wild Cougars
A Missouri wildlife official has made the state’s first documented sighting of a wild mountain lion since 1927, officials said Friday.
Despite several reported sightings in recent years, biologists had never been able to prove that mountain lions were living in the wild in Missouri. But Jerry Elliott, an agent with the Missouri Department of Conservation, filmed a large cougar in the Ozark mountains of southeast Missouri this week. The lions were once common in the Ozarks, but their numbers dwindled as humans encroached on their habitat.
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