txbhunter1@sbcglobal
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Deer hunter bags mountain lion
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009 7:59 PM
( #1 )
A Cedar Rapids man has done what few hunters in Iowa have been able to do in more than a century.
Raymond Goebel Jr. shot and killed a mountain lion, the fifth confirmed sighting in the past decade, and the first female discovered in the wild in Iowa since reports of the cougar's return to the state slightly more than 10 years ago. In Iowa, confirmed mountain lion sightings are few and far between for many reasons.
Ron Andrews, the state furbearer biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, has gotten a lot of calls about potential mountain lion sightings over the last few years. He said, oftentimes, reported cougar sightings turn out to be mistaken identity: bobcats, yellow-colored dogs, and deer.
More than 1,000 mountain lions have been reported to DNR personnel in the past 10 years; Andrews said he gets two or three such reports each month. Goebel's sighting near Marengo is expected to cause a spike in reports in the local area.
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But, most cougar reports lack substantial evidence, such as a photo or video of the animal, photo of its track, a scat or animal dropping, or some sort of DNA evidence, to back them up. Since 2000, only four mountain lions have now been killed by hunters in Iowa.
“This is the first confirmed sighting in Iowa in more than five years, and the fourth mountain lion killed in Iowa,” Andrews said. “Mountain lions have no protection in Iowa and while the Iowa DNR does not encourage people killing a lion they come across, it is not against the law.”
Goebel was participating in the state's second shotgun deer-hunting season Monday, Dec. 14, with a group of friends near Marengo in eastern Iowa. While sitting, watching for deer on the move, he said something caught his eye over his left shoulder.
“I looked through the scope of my gun and couldn't believe it,” he said. “It was what I thought it was, though.”
A few minutes later, he waved over one of his hunting buddies, who had stood up nearby. Goebel showed him the 125-pound female in a tree roughly 15 yards away, and the hunters discussed the legality of harvesting the cougar, and got permission from the property owner to shoot the cat.
Mountain lions can be taken and possessed by anyone at anytime as long as legal methods and means are used to take the animal. Like black bears, cougars are not listed in the Iowa Code as designated wildlife species, because they were considered extinct when the state's current fish and game legislation was first crafted.
Two previous efforts to have mountain lions and black bears designated as wildlife species have failed in the Iowa General Assembly.
Conservation officer Brad Baker of the IDNR said the condition of the cougar's teeth and claws and the lack of markings from ear tags lead him to believe she was from the wild. Previously, there were reports of a mountain lion in the Tama.
Andrews said he investigated those reports, but said the evidence did not point to a mountain lion. His investigation took place in the summer, when it is more difficult to find evidence. He fields two or three cougar sighting reports a month.
Goebel said he plans to have a full body mount of the mountain lion. The DNR will receive the stomach contents, and tissue and blood samples for DNA analysis.
If you see one
Although state laws do not list mountain lions as designated wildlife, the IDNR remains the logical agency with which report killed mountain lions.
“It is important that the DNR obtain as much information as possible to further manage the possible presence of mountain lions in the state,” state furbearer biologist Andrews said. “It is very valuable to the DNR to collect as much scientific data from any dead mountain lion that turn up in the state.”
Gary Scheel NAHC LM,RMEF LM,NRA Member, Lonestar Bowhunter, TexasHogHunter Pro Staff Member
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