Mountain lions are on the prowl and showing up more often in Kansas. The big cats have been spotted roaming near populated areas with greater frequency in just the past few years, including three reports on the same day of a mountain lion sighting in the city limit of Ottawa. Biologist Matt Peek, with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, says sighting of the large cats are still rare in Kansas but they have increased dramatically recently. He says, people often report seeing a mountain lion when, in reality, they saw a bobcat, coyote or some other animal, which makes confirmed sightings more difficult to track.
Peek says his agency has always kept tabs on mountain lion activity in the state and has noticed an increase in recent years. The first confirmed sighting of a mountain lion in modern times occurred in 2007 when one was shot and killed in Barber County. Before that, the last mountain lion documented in Kansas was killed in 1904 in Ellis County. However, if you ask the locals, they will tell you the cats have been living with us much longer than that and are much more frequent then wildlife officials claim.
