With the kill rate of Pumas amped up in South Dakota, it has taken two years for a Puma to make it to Kansas, the tenth such verified sighting of our "Big Cat" over the past 7 years in the Jayhawk state....................Breeding Pumas were last identified in Kansas at the turn of the 20th century with the last sighting(prior to 2007) in 1904 in Ellis County.

http://cjonline.com/sports/outdoors/2014-10-25/mountain-lion-caught-camera-kansas-kdwpt-says#.VEyJMki7jMw.email

Mountain lion caught on camera in Kansas, KDWPT says

Posted: October 25, 2014 - 4:32pm

COURTESY OF KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF WILDLIFE, PARKS AND TOURISM

A photograph taken by a trail camera in Labette County shows a mountain lion walking away from the camera on a private property. The photograph had a date stamp of 9/24/2014 and a time stamp of 5:56 a.m. At the landowner's request, the exact location of where the trail camera photo was taken will be kept confidential as it is private property and the landowner is currently hunting there.

• e

From staff reports

PRATT — A deer hunter from Labette County got a surprise recently when he checked his trail camera he had set up for deer. He found a single image of a mountain lion walking away, down the trail, the characteristic long tail prominently displayed. Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism staff visited the site last week and verified the photo’s authenticity. This is the 10th mountain lion verified by KDWPT since 2007, but the first in almost two years.

The first confirmed mountain lion in 2007 was killed by an individual in Barber County. Since then, most of the sightings have been confirmed with photographs taken by remote, motion-triggered cameras commonly used by deer hunters to keep track of deer movement near their stands.

“It’s not uncommon for young males to travel great distances looking for home ranges,” said Matt Peek, KDWPT furbearer biologist. “So far, these animals appear to be passing through, rather than staying and establishing home ranges in Kansas.”

Kansas Puma sightings-timeline

• On Dec. 7, 2010, images of a mountain lion were captured on a trail camera in Nemaha County. The animal was near a deer-bait pile.

• In October 2010, another trail camera caught a mountain lion in Republic County visiting a mineral site that also had a bait pile for deer.
• In March 2010, a Colorado mountain lion that had a tracking device entered Kansas. The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks was able to follow the animal’s progress as it moved through western Kansas. The mountain lion is now in New Mexico.
• In October 2009, a mountain lion was photographed several times in Trego County near a corn pile.
• In November 2007, a mountain lion was killed in Barber County. DNA samples from the animal were sent to a federal research lab in Montana to see if the animal was wild or one that had lived in captivity and escaped. Results indicated that it was most likely a wild animal; however, researchers couldn’t link it to a specific population of animals.