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Despite being officially listed as having been extirpated in the 1860s, sighting of mountain lions are surprisingly prolific in Illinois, and it sometimes seems that “everyone and their brother, and their dog” have seen mountain lions in Illinois. Even I, in my youth, may have found the tracks of a cougar. I knew they might have been because, they did not have claws in the track, and coyote or dog track have claws in their pugmarks. As I am sure you all know, cats have retracting claws and so their claws do not show up in their pugmarks.
Now, the expedition that will hopefully be heading to my neck of the woods is after proof of a mountain lion population in Illinois, and also looking to establish the theory, or even prove, that the population is a relic population of big cats that over time and isolation from new blood lines, have developed gene patterns that produce a black coat.
(Editor’s note: Check out the link in the left-hand tool bar to the CFZ investigations in Illinois during 2004)
Since 2001, 2 mountain lions have been shot and killed to date.
The idea is very provocative, but some from the newspapers outdoors column and the DNR, feel that the mountain lions being seen and Killed in Illinois are from the black hills population. It is not impossible that the animals could travel that far. Considering the amount of sightings over the years that been reported, and those which must have gone unreported, that I have come across at campfires in my life, it just do not sit well with me that they are all traveling cats.
I am in direct contact with the newspaper and many outdoorsmen So, I will know as soon as anything new comes to light.
So in my Short time as a CFZ member and in my long but short life as a woodsman, I am recording what first-hand stories have I am across, and I am trying to track down the people who told me stories when I was very young.
More recent accounts that I have just acquired of cougar and even “Black Panther” are as follows. A friend of mine who had a sighting in rural central Illinois told me of a man who was deer hunting with a bow. Ross says this man was up in his tree stand and he got the feeling he was being watched and he turned around to see a “Black Panther” on the ground. The man believed it was between 150 and 200lbs, which checks out, because as a hunter he knows how to judge animal size at distance.
The man quickly got down out of his stand, and tried to walk calmly to his truck, so as not to trigger an attack response. But as he watched his back trail he noticed he was being followed and stalked by the big cat. However it stopped at the edge of the tree line and watched him get his gun from the truck and apparently there was a standoff beside the truck, but the cat lost interest and ran off. Though the cat did not attach the hunter, it did stalk him on his way out of the woods.
I am currently in contact with Ross, trying to track down this man for more information and be sure to verify this story as it has come to me in the third person.
Ross himself is a hunter and a lifelong outdoorsman, and he thinks he had a sighting of a mountain lion. Ross, however, was reluctant to say what he saw because even though he knows what he saw he did not want to say in case it might end up false, and be a dog.
However I think his reluctance adds to his credibility because he did not want to waste anybodies time. But what he tells me is this he had just pulled into a pasture with his girlfriend Lisa, on his way to a hunting their double-seated deer stand in rural Woodford county. He says it was a 30 acre field. And this spot was on the south end of a 400 acre farm with 80 acres of forest on the property. And he was on a logging trail about 300 yards down the trail, there was something that came running out It was big and tan with a long tail, and its shoulders and head bobbed as it bounded down the trail toward the pair on the 4 wheel ATV. It however saw the oncoming vehicle, and made a sharp turn, and headed for the river bottoms away from the field. Now Ross knows it was a mountain lion, but he was trying to make totally sure it was not a yellow lab. But it was simply too big at 300 yards, and moved like a cat.
Also, I would say that as a hunter, Ross knows how to judge animal size at distance. However, Lisa says that there’s no chance it was a yellow lab, because the side view of it clearly showed the tail being very long, and keeping balance with the body. Ross said they found tracks, and after I asked him what they looked like he said they didn’t have claws in the pugmarks, which makes them a felid’s tracks. So they kept on down the trail to the deer stand and never saw a single deer in the timber that season because they all acted spooked.
Still another spooky tail of the Illinois woods, deals with what appears to be a mountain lion cashing of food. Ross says that when he was in middle-school he saw something big and black in a field on their property, and so he went to tell his father. They went with guns, as always, to check it out. And they picked up a drag trail with bits of deer hide in and hair in the field, they followed the trail back toward the river bottoms. Then the trail quit, and they couldn’t figure why.
They looked up into a busted off hollow tree, and about 6 feet up there was deer carcass cashed in the hollow, and they couldn’t figure out how it got there. That was years and years ago now. But that deer carcass is almost pure proof that it was a big cat kill. I have also heard un-verified stories about dens and cubs.
I also do not want to set you all up for disappointment but I may have a friend with trail camera pictures of a mountain lion. But I will say more when I know more.
Illinois also has a rapidly growing population of bobcats and river otter. The bobcats in Illinois (which according to Mammals of Illinois, By Donald F. Hoffmeister are almost entirely extirpated) started out like the mountain lion reports; just local legend. However the population of bobcats is growing very fast. And wild boar are also starting to show up, as the feral hog population in the southern states expands northward.
I do not know everything, but I am doing my best to report the facts I know and make sure they are credible. So that if and when the CFZ expedition does come to Illinois, I will be able to help guide them as best I can. I am working on verifying and tracking down local eyewitnesses. Also Illinois’ Shawnee Forest might hold the isolated population of bigcats but it is unknown. The DNR is not crazy about these reports, and so they have been less than helpful but as things develop more and I gain credibility and make connections.
Jeff Lampe has been very helpful and I am doing my best. I am sorry that I have had to use newspapers for so many of my sources, but I am just trying to get more information toward my investigation until I can track down the people who told me the stories.
Jeff Lampe thinks that the idea of a breeding population of mountain lions in Illinois is highly unlikely, however he does say that its not impossible that there could be breeding pairs. But as you know by now, I feel that there is a stable and growing population. I also have some very interesting reports of more sightings and possible cattle killing. But I want to make sure I can verify that before I say any more.
I have also been honored by Jon, who has put me working on the Big Cat Study Group with Neil and Max. As I have predator hunting experience I guess I am a consultant if I could give myself that much credit. I am no expert but I am an experienced outdoorsmen. So I hope I can bring something to the New Guard of the Cryptid Revolution and The CFZ.
As I am an American and a bit of a blue-collar young man, well .. fine I’ll say it - I am a redneck. But as I pride myself on being articulate. Anyhow it’s a bit of an inside joke for me to think of how I read of the great hunting expeditions in Africa and India had “White Hunters”...
Well as I am a bit of a redneck at heart and going to be helping if I am lucky with a CFZ expedition , I am the CFZs “Whitetrash Hunter”. Its kind of an inside joke. So thank you for reading and I hope you feel a bit more informed and at the very least entertained.
Now, the expedition that will hopefully be heading to my neck of the woods is after proof of a mountain lion population in Illinois, and also looking to establish the theory, or even prove, that the population is a relic population of big cats that over time and isolation from new blood lines, have developed gene patterns that produce a black coat.
(Editor’s note: Check out the link in the left-hand tool bar to the CFZ investigations in Illinois during 2004)
Since 2001, 2 mountain lions have been shot and killed to date.
The idea is very provocative, but some from the newspapers outdoors column and the DNR, feel that the mountain lions being seen and Killed in Illinois are from the black hills population. It is not impossible that the animals could travel that far. Considering the amount of sightings over the years that been reported, and those which must have gone unreported, that I have come across at campfires in my life, it just do not sit well with me that they are all traveling cats.
I am in direct contact with the newspaper and many outdoorsmen So, I will know as soon as anything new comes to light.
So in my Short time as a CFZ member and in my long but short life as a woodsman, I am recording what first-hand stories have I am across, and I am trying to track down the people who told me stories when I was very young.
More recent accounts that I have just acquired of cougar and even “Black Panther” are as follows. A friend of mine who had a sighting in rural central Illinois told me of a man who was deer hunting with a bow. Ross says this man was up in his tree stand and he got the feeling he was being watched and he turned around to see a “Black Panther” on the ground. The man believed it was between 150 and 200lbs, which checks out, because as a hunter he knows how to judge animal size at distance.
The man quickly got down out of his stand, and tried to walk calmly to his truck, so as not to trigger an attack response. But as he watched his back trail he noticed he was being followed and stalked by the big cat. However it stopped at the edge of the tree line and watched him get his gun from the truck and apparently there was a standoff beside the truck, but the cat lost interest and ran off. Though the cat did not attach the hunter, it did stalk him on his way out of the woods.
I am currently in contact with Ross, trying to track down this man for more information and be sure to verify this story as it has come to me in the third person.
Ross himself is a hunter and a lifelong outdoorsman, and he thinks he had a sighting of a mountain lion. Ross, however, was reluctant to say what he saw because even though he knows what he saw he did not want to say in case it might end up false, and be a dog.
However I think his reluctance adds to his credibility because he did not want to waste anybodies time. But what he tells me is this he had just pulled into a pasture with his girlfriend Lisa, on his way to a hunting their double-seated deer stand in rural Woodford county. He says it was a 30 acre field. And this spot was on the south end of a 400 acre farm with 80 acres of forest on the property. And he was on a logging trail about 300 yards down the trail, there was something that came running out It was big and tan with a long tail, and its shoulders and head bobbed as it bounded down the trail toward the pair on the 4 wheel ATV. It however saw the oncoming vehicle, and made a sharp turn, and headed for the river bottoms away from the field. Now Ross knows it was a mountain lion, but he was trying to make totally sure it was not a yellow lab. But it was simply too big at 300 yards, and moved like a cat.
Also, I would say that as a hunter, Ross knows how to judge animal size at distance. However, Lisa says that there’s no chance it was a yellow lab, because the side view of it clearly showed the tail being very long, and keeping balance with the body. Ross said they found tracks, and after I asked him what they looked like he said they didn’t have claws in the pugmarks, which makes them a felid’s tracks. So they kept on down the trail to the deer stand and never saw a single deer in the timber that season because they all acted spooked.
Still another spooky tail of the Illinois woods, deals with what appears to be a mountain lion cashing of food. Ross says that when he was in middle-school he saw something big and black in a field on their property, and so he went to tell his father. They went with guns, as always, to check it out. And they picked up a drag trail with bits of deer hide in and hair in the field, they followed the trail back toward the river bottoms. Then the trail quit, and they couldn’t figure why.
They looked up into a busted off hollow tree, and about 6 feet up there was deer carcass cashed in the hollow, and they couldn’t figure out how it got there. That was years and years ago now. But that deer carcass is almost pure proof that it was a big cat kill. I have also heard un-verified stories about dens and cubs.
I also do not want to set you all up for disappointment but I may have a friend with trail camera pictures of a mountain lion. But I will say more when I know more.
Illinois also has a rapidly growing population of bobcats and river otter. The bobcats in Illinois (which according to Mammals of Illinois, By Donald F. Hoffmeister are almost entirely extirpated) started out like the mountain lion reports; just local legend. However the population of bobcats is growing very fast. And wild boar are also starting to show up, as the feral hog population in the southern states expands northward.
I do not know everything, but I am doing my best to report the facts I know and make sure they are credible. So that if and when the CFZ expedition does come to Illinois, I will be able to help guide them as best I can. I am working on verifying and tracking down local eyewitnesses. Also Illinois’ Shawnee Forest might hold the isolated population of bigcats but it is unknown. The DNR is not crazy about these reports, and so they have been less than helpful but as things develop more and I gain credibility and make connections.
Jeff Lampe has been very helpful and I am doing my best. I am sorry that I have had to use newspapers for so many of my sources, but I am just trying to get more information toward my investigation until I can track down the people who told me the stories.
Jeff Lampe thinks that the idea of a breeding population of mountain lions in Illinois is highly unlikely, however he does say that its not impossible that there could be breeding pairs. But as you know by now, I feel that there is a stable and growing population. I also have some very interesting reports of more sightings and possible cattle killing. But I want to make sure I can verify that before I say any more.
I have also been honored by Jon, who has put me working on the Big Cat Study Group with Neil and Max. As I have predator hunting experience I guess I am a consultant if I could give myself that much credit. I am no expert but I am an experienced outdoorsmen. So I hope I can bring something to the New Guard of the Cryptid Revolution and The CFZ.
As I am an American and a bit of a blue-collar young man, well .. fine I’ll say it - I am a redneck. But as I pride myself on being articulate. Anyhow it’s a bit of an inside joke for me to think of how I read of the great hunting expeditions in Africa and India had “White Hunters”...
Well as I am a bit of a redneck at heart and going to be helping if I am lucky with a CFZ expedition , I am the CFZs “Whitetrash Hunter”. Its kind of an inside joke. So thank you for reading and I hope you feel a bit more informed and at the very least entertained.
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