The Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources has confirmed 16 mountain lions in Iowa since 1995 with most of them in the southern half of the state............Only three have been confirmed since 2005 which many biologists feel is due to a stepped up Puma kill order in South Dakota where the easternmost breeding population resides.............A great picture below of the Oct 13 Puma photographed in Winterset, Iowa

Mountain lion spotted

 near Winterset

This photo of a young mountain lion was take Oct. 13

 by a farmer's game camera

 north of Winterset. The photograph was given to the

 Iowa Department of Natural

 Resources, which confirmed the cat is a mountain lion.

the mountain

 lion appears
 to be a 2- to
 3-year-old
male

 that likely trekked into
Iowa from the west

 in search of new territory.

Such

 sightings are expected 
to become rarer

 in  future as South Dakota,
 where many

 of Iowa's mountain lions
 are believed to

 originate, issues more
 hunting permits

 in an effort to curtail its 
mountain lion

 population, he said.

The DNR has confirmed
 16 mountain

 lions in Iowa since 1995.
 Most of them

 were in the southern half
of the state.

 Only three have been
 confirmed since 2005.

Unconfirmed sighting
are common. Since

 2010, the DNR has
received more than 

2,000 reported mountain
 lion sightings.

 Most of those are believed
 to be an 

incorrect identification of
a bobcat or

 another animal, Baskins
said.