Five Mountain Lions Seen In Kansas Since ’07

There have been an increasing number of reports of big cats roaming through Kansas in the last 20 years.

The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Park verified photos of a mountain lion taken in Nemaha County earlier this month. And in late October, a photo of a mountain lion in Republican County was also verified.

The Hutchinson News reports that the KDWP biologists investigated the Nemaha County after the Dec. 7 sighting and verified the legitimacy of the photographs.

That sighting was the fifth confirmed Kansas mountain lion sighting in 2007.

The last wild mountain lion documented in Kansas was killed in Ellis County in 1904.

Officials say the increased numbers of mountain lions could be due to expanding populations in South Dakota and other western states.