Post by Greenedog on Dec 19, 2009 13:36:40 GMT -5
From B.A. Morelli • Iowa City Press-Citizen • December 15, 2009
A Cedar Rapids man shot and killed a 125-pound female mountain lion in Marengo on Monday evening, an official from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources said on Tuesday.
If it tests positive, and preliminary indications are that it will, this would be just the fourth mountain lion identified by the DNR in the state of Iowa in the past nine years, the first in the past five years and the first female, said Ron Andrews, a DNR furbearer resource specialist based in Clear Lake.
“It’s rare, to say the least,” Andrews said.
However, Andrews said it would be “inappropriate for people to panic” because there are likely only one or two others in Iowa, if that, and like other animals they typically leave humans alone unless cornered.
Brad Baker, a DNR conservation officer, traveled to Marengo on Tuesday with Raymond Goebel, of Cedar Rapids, the man who shot the mountain lion while deer hunting. Baker investigated the site of the shooting and the animal’s remains. Upon inspection, Baker confirmed that it was a wild mountain lion.
“Every indication is it’s a wild cat,” Baker said. “It has its front claws. It was shot out of a tree. It had inch and a quarter teeth. There were no visible ear tags.”
Goebel, 48, a union Iron Worker Local 89, spotted the mountain lion in a tree at about 4 p.m. Monday while deer hunting on the property of Dean Kinzenbaw about four miles south of Marengo.
Goebel tells it, he was looking for deer when he sat down on a stump and happened to look over his shoulder. He noticed something in a tree about 40 yards off that didn’t look right, and then took a closer look with the scope on his rifle.
He contacted a friend about the legality of hunting mountain lion – which is allowed in Iowa – and got the OK from Kinzenbaw. Turns out, the cat had been spooking Kinzenbaw’s horses for a few years, Goebel said.
“I just sat there and I sat there for a while and I shot it,” Goebel said. “I shot it once and it fell out of the tree.”
DNR officials told Goebel that the cat appears to have been well-fed due to good condition of its claws, although it wasn’t immediately clear what it had been eating, Goebel said.
Samples from the cat will be turned over to the DNR for testing, and Goebel will have the cat fully mounted by a taxidermist.
“It’s unbelievable. Like they said, it is one that will probably never happen again,” Goebel said.
Iowa served as a habitat for mountain lions, lynx and bobcats at the time explorers first came to Iowa. However, they now primarily live in western states, Andrews said. While some would like to support a return of mountain lions to Iowa, including Andrews, there likely wouldn’t be support from the Legislature in this agricultural state, Andrews said.
“In this state, there is little tolerance towards mountain lions coming back to the state of Iowa,” Andrews said.
A Cedar Rapids man shot and killed a 125-pound female mountain lion in Marengo on Monday evening, an official from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources said on Tuesday.
If it tests positive, and preliminary indications are that it will, this would be just the fourth mountain lion identified by the DNR in the state of Iowa in the past nine years, the first in the past five years and the first female, said Ron Andrews, a DNR furbearer resource specialist based in Clear Lake.
“It’s rare, to say the least,” Andrews said.
However, Andrews said it would be “inappropriate for people to panic” because there are likely only one or two others in Iowa, if that, and like other animals they typically leave humans alone unless cornered.
Brad Baker, a DNR conservation officer, traveled to Marengo on Tuesday with Raymond Goebel, of Cedar Rapids, the man who shot the mountain lion while deer hunting. Baker investigated the site of the shooting and the animal’s remains. Upon inspection, Baker confirmed that it was a wild mountain lion.
“Every indication is it’s a wild cat,” Baker said. “It has its front claws. It was shot out of a tree. It had inch and a quarter teeth. There were no visible ear tags.”
Goebel, 48, a union Iron Worker Local 89, spotted the mountain lion in a tree at about 4 p.m. Monday while deer hunting on the property of Dean Kinzenbaw about four miles south of Marengo.
Goebel tells it, he was looking for deer when he sat down on a stump and happened to look over his shoulder. He noticed something in a tree about 40 yards off that didn’t look right, and then took a closer look with the scope on his rifle.
He contacted a friend about the legality of hunting mountain lion – which is allowed in Iowa – and got the OK from Kinzenbaw. Turns out, the cat had been spooking Kinzenbaw’s horses for a few years, Goebel said.
“I just sat there and I sat there for a while and I shot it,” Goebel said. “I shot it once and it fell out of the tree.”
DNR officials told Goebel that the cat appears to have been well-fed due to good condition of its claws, although it wasn’t immediately clear what it had been eating, Goebel said.
Samples from the cat will be turned over to the DNR for testing, and Goebel will have the cat fully mounted by a taxidermist.
“It’s unbelievable. Like they said, it is one that will probably never happen again,” Goebel said.
Iowa served as a habitat for mountain lions, lynx and bobcats at the time explorers first came to Iowa. However, they now primarily live in western states, Andrews said. While some would like to support a return of mountain lions to Iowa, including Andrews, there likely wouldn’t be support from the Legislature in this agricultural state, Andrews said.
“In this state, there is little tolerance towards mountain lions coming back to the state of Iowa,” Andrews said.